AFRICAN QUEEN, THE

(February 1952, U.S.)

Watching THE AFRICAN QUEEN today reminds me of a very valuable lesson in modern moviegoing. You know what that is? If you're lucky enough to find a film with viable actors in it, playing actual people, shot on location in an actual part of the world without the use of back lots and CGI, then you've struck cinema gold!

The film takes place on the rivers of Africa and director John Huston shot it on location in Africa. Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn were two major movie starts who could actually ACT. The story is a simple one of an adventure down the river and the rapids aboard a decrepid boat in order to sink an enemy German patrol ship during World War I.

There is one major point of this film that attracts my attention above all else, and that's the transformation of Hepburn's character, Rosie. When we first meet her, she is (in no uncertain terms) a very proper and uptight Christian woman (just two clicks shy of being a bitch, quite frankly). One of the best examples of this attitude is her shocked face when Bogart produces a bottle of gin and drinks it in front of her. With each step that their adventure takes, though, she is becoming a different woman. Her hair comes down, her clothes and her face get dirty, her prissy uptightness is slowly replaced with her raw instict for survival, the rush of adrenaline she feels when she navigates the boat and the river, and the deep, dark feeling of vengeance she carries to strike back at the Germans for the death of her brother. Oh, yeah, and she's also fallen in love with Bogart's character, Charlie.

The other point I'd like to discuss is a particular sequence in the film that has always stayed with me. Charlie and Rosie have reached what they conclude is the end of their journey together, as they find their boat stuck in the dry mud of the river, unable to go on. Believing they are about to die, Rosie says what she concludes is her final prayer and falls beside her true love on the boat. The camera pans upward and we see that (unbeknownst to them) they are no more than 100 yards from the lake where the German enemy boat is patrolling. You can't help but be filled with an unreasonable urge to scream, "Wake up, you two! You're almost there! Don't give up!"

This is how and when a film can reach you; when you feel that an emotion (any emotion) has touched you. THE AFRICAN QUEEN has that moment, and it's enoguh to make it a true classic for me.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Rosie: "Would you hang us together, please?"
Charlie: Oh, wait a minute. Hey, Captain."
Captain: "Yes?"
Charlie: "Will you grant us a last request?"
Captain: "What is it?"
Charlie: "Marry us."
Captain: "What?"
Charlie: "We wanna get married. Ship captains can do that, can't they?"
Captain: "Yeah."
Charlie: "Why Charlie, what a lovely idea."
Captain: "What kind of craziness is this?"
Charlie: "Oh, come on, Captain. It'll only take a minute. It'll mean such a lot to the lady."
Captain: "Very well, if you wish it, absolutely."
(marriage vows)
Captain: "By the authority vested in me by Kaiser Wilhelm the Second, I pronounce you man and wife-proceed with the execution!"