“Look around you, soldier. Life is everywhere. It creeps, it flies, it writes symphonies, it builds cathedrals, but most of all, it wills to live and go on living. The thinking man gives every life the reverence that he gives his own.” – Albert Schweitzer (Friedrich von Thun) to Indiana Jones as they discuss war versus life
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two: The War Years DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
America’s favorite daredevil archeologist is about to return to the big screen, this time seeking the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Yes, we could only be talking about one man: the famous, dashing, Henri Defense. Hmm? Oh, you probably know him by his real name, Indiana Jones. In The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two: The War Years, however, teenaged Indy (Sean Patrick Flanery) masquerades as Defense so that he can join the Belgian army with his buddy Remy (Ronny Coutteure) and fight in the first world war.
As with Volume One, these are not actually the episodes as originally broadcast on ABC. Instead, individual episodes have been paired up and re-edited into what are referred to as “feature-length episodes.” This set is more cohesive than the first, because none of the episodes involve Indy as a towheaded youngster running off from his parents and getting into trouble. Instead, the stories told here are action-packed and engaging, focusing on the gutsy Indiana Jones from the big screen we’ve all come to know and love over the years.
And most of the episodes are just as exciting as their cinematic antecedents. Indy fights in the bloody battle of Somme, is forced to escape from German P.O.W. camps, and becomes a courier in Verdun where generals are more than happy to send men to slaughter against Germany’s new mega-weapons. His next assignment is in Africa and involves blowing up a massive missile launcher that the Germans move into position on a rail line. His backup on this mission? A dotty group of old rejects that the army won’t trust with “real” assignments. He also marches across the Congo, encountering smallpox and Albert Schweitzer in the process.
Seeing Schweitzer treat everyone, regardless of race or political ideals, forces Indy to reevaluate his position on war. Rather than return to the front, he forges some paperwork so that he and Remy can return to Paris and work for Belgian intelligence. Remy is given a cushy assignment running a café behind enemy lines and serving as a contact for spies. Indy, on the other hand, is put into aerial recon, taking pictures of enemy lines. He’s only assigned to the task for fourteen days, but so far no one has lived past day eight. Despite the best efforts of the Red Baron, Indy completes his assignment relatively unscathed.
Indy also becomes a translator in Russia on the eve of the Revolution, and goes undercover in Pakistan.
One of the “feature-length episodes” eschews action for humor. The first half of “Espionage Escapades” finds Indy working undercover in Spain with a group of daffy, inept secret agents. His cover: being a ballet dancer with the Ballets Russes. The scene in which Indy wildly swivels his hips during a performance to send a Morse code message to his cohorts using his bejeweled codpiece is hilarious. The second half of the episode is equally amusing. Indy finds himself in Prague, where his task is seemingly simple—he just has to hole up in an apartment for three days to wait for a phone call. His contact, however, has arranged for a room that doesn’t have a telephone. Indy spends the rest of the episode on a Kafka-esque quest through various Prague bureaucracies in an attempt to have the phone reconnected.
Only one of the connected episodes fails miserably. The second half of “Demons of Deception” has Indy falling in love with Mata Hari, the infamous dancer/double agent. It is one thing to have young Indy, Zelig-like, bump into every single important figure of the early twentieth century, but quite another to have an entire episode devoted to such a ridiculous premise. Amazingly enough, this episode was written by Carrie Fisher (with none of her usual wit and verve) and directed by Nicholas Roeg (reemploying some of the artistic flair that flavored Don’t Look Now).
More successful episodes were written by Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) and directed by Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove).
Several of these “feature-length episodes” seem to be made up of actual two-part episodes, making the “feature” more cohesive. Others, though, seem randomly connected, and lack the forward thrust of actual feature films.
Think of it this way: In third grade, you probably learned that most stories, novels, and TV shows can be divided into five major parts: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In cases where two unrelated episodes are edited together, these five parts are repeated twice, completely throwing off the pacing. The story reaches a resolution at the midway point of the “feature,” and then a new story starts. Apparently, George Lucas, or whoever was responsible for the decision to edit these episodes together, missed that day in English class. Indiana Jones, professor of archeology, should know better
The eight "feature-length episodes" that make up The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume Two: The War Years are divided onto nine discs. One of the discs consists entirely of interactive bonus feautures. The discs are housed in a foldout case which is designed to look like Indy's journal. The nine discs attach to five panels, four of which holds two discs apiece (one on top of the other in a figure eight pattern). This makes it slightly inconvenient for viewers, causing them to remove one DVD in order to get to another. Indy's "journal" also features episode titles and listings of the extras included on each disc. There are no plot synopses, so you're on your own trying to guess what's what. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve which features a sepia-toned Indiana Jones theme.
The menus are easy to use. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes include chapter stops.
