The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Oganga, The Giver and Taker of Life (1999)

Written as both an informative history lesson, and a formative history lesson of H.J. Jr. as are all of the other episodes. Very few of us, even the most adventurous, experience a 24/7/365 life of excitement and danger. Some parts of our lives contribute to our thoughtful outlook on life. Hardship of a sort other than battle, builds mettle. Lucas has done well to weave both a history lesson, and a background history for one of his most admired characters.

What's wonderful about this is the convincing dissolving of race barriers between black and white in Africa. It's appropriate to a story whose arc peaks with Albert Schweitzer.In the wake of a film like Selma, this episode may seem a bit tame and dated. For its time, 1999, it was as positive as any film on race relations I can think of. The other IMDb reviews here are useful--but only by fans, not by writers. Darabont and Tattersall's achievements shine most here. Sean Flanery remains consistently believable as young Indy.

The first 7 minutes features a battle during WW1, the Belgians and French against the Germans. The Germans seem to have the upper hand, with their machine gun, and the troops are ordered to retreat. But young Indy notices that the machine gunners are reloading and he disobeys the retreat order, captures the machine gun post, and the Germans are defeated. His own field commanding officer wants to discipline him, but instead Indy gets a promotion to Captain.All this sets up the rest of the movie, which is an expedition across 2000 miles of Africa, to the west coast to get guns stranded there on a ship. They find hardships and illness, and lose many men. But it does take him to the hospital of a German doctor, who happens to be Albert Schweitzer. Besides healing Indy and the surviving men, the good Doctor gives Indy wisdom, the idea that all life is sacred and people must never kill without examining the impacts.All this is based on the real life of Dr. Schweitzer, who eventually won a Nobel prize for his work in Africa and his philosophies. Sean Patrick Flanery is young Indiana Jones and Ronny Coutteure is his friend Remy Baudouin . Friedrich von Thun is the good doctor Albert Schweitzer.In addition to presenting an interesting Young Indy episode, the DVD has a 28-minute "extra" on the life of Schweitzer, how he was moved to choose his life's work in Africa.

Unlike previous instalments in the series, this one is not a distillation of two previously separate stories but is one whole complete story in and of itself. Here Indiana Jones (again played with consistent earnestness by Sean Patrick Flannery) is sent down the Congo river to retrieve a supply of weapons that may come in handy in the Allies war effort. Unfortunately, the intense heat and jungle disease take a terrible toll on Indy and his troops, before he receives help from an unexpected source...Whilst lacking the intrigue and action of it's immediate predecessors, this is still a brilliant story. The devastating effects of Indy's expedition are well-captured on screen, and the series throws in some thought-provoking dialogue on the real nature of the war. It really comes alive with the introduction of Albert Schweitzer (Friedrich von Thun), a legendary medical genius who saves Indy's life and then persuades him to revise his notions of good and evil...Thought-provoking and very well-written.