The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Volume One-Disc Four and Five
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 11.05.2007
Indy learns about love from Freud and Puccini.
Originally titled the “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” the series ran from 1992 to 1996 on ABC and USA Network. The series was meant as ‘edutainment’ for children and teens teaching them geography and history through the adventures of Indiana Jones as a child and young adult. Episodes were usually two parters in order to be spliced together as television movies. The series was very expensive to produce as it shot on location throughout the world. To cut costs 16 mm film was used over 35mm. Episodes were split between Indiana at age 10, played by Corey Carrier, and age 17, played by Sean Patrick Flannery. George Hall played a 93-year-old Jones in bookend sequences for most episodes. Harrison Ford did resume the role of Jones for one episode in the show’s second season. Other regular cast members included Ronny Couttuere as Remy, Lloyd Owen as Henry Jones Sr., Margaret Tyzack as Miss Seymour and Ruth De Sosa as Anna.
DISC FOUR
The Perils of Cupid
While attending riding school in Vienna Indy falls for Princess Sophie (Amalie Alstrup), the daughter of Franz Ferdinand (Lennart Hjulstrom). Indy gets in trouble when they run off alone and go skating. He’s forbidden to see Sophie anymore. Miss Seymour explains the concept of love to Indy through poetry. Indy tries to give Sophie a present, but guards at the palace won’t let him. At a dinner party he meets Carl Jung (Ernst-Hugo Jaregard), Adler (Bjorn Granath) and Sigmund Freud (Max Von Sydow) who try to explain love to him as well. Indy then storms the palace and asks to see Sophie. Ferdinand empathizes with his feelings, but won’t allow Indy to see her. Indy sneaks back into the palace and gives her his gift of a snow globe and she gives him a locket with her picture.
This is a very sweet episode with Carrier giving a good performance as a child trying to understand love without any real background to do so. However, the big debate of what is love is a mix of psychobabble and balderdash. You can talk about it until you’re blue in the face, but love is an impossible concept to fully grasp and explain. This episode was wrapped around a central conceit that is more difficult to get over than modern art and environmentalism.
The Jones’ then travel to Florence where they attend an opera by Puccini (Georges Corraface). Puccini has the hots for Anna. He offers to take the family to Piza while Henry is lecturing in Rome. Puccini’s advances on Anna become more pronounced and she finds she cannot deny her feelings for him. They have an ill gotten few days with each other while Miss Seymour tries to hold things together with Indy. Indy spies Anna and Puccini meeting through a telescope. Puccini encourages Anna to run away with him. She goes to the train station, but to meet Henry and not Puccini.
A great episode by going against the usual formula and focusing more on another character for once, this time in Anna. This episode also better explores the themes of desire, temptation and unrequited love much better than the one above by showing and not telling. The use of Indy’s lessons on the laws of physics makes for some nice parallel commentary on proceedings. Corraface gives a pitch perfect performance as Puccini that never casts him as a villain. His emotions are honest and he follows them truthfully.
DISC FIVE
Giacomo Puccini-Music of the Heart: His first opera La Boheme and his most lasting Madame Buterfuly are discussed in detail. Puccini is discussed as an artist who brought the lofty form of opera to the masses by dealing with modern, real world themes and storylines. Women were dominant characters in his works, many of whom overcame weaknesses to become strong figures. Puccini’s operas gained worldwide exposure thanks to the invention of the phonograph and popular recordings by Enrique Caruso of his works. The documentary bounces between analyzing Puccini’s works and straight biography and therefore doesn’t really delve enough into either.
It’s Opera!: Opera 101. We get a glimpse at an opera school where newbies learn the ropes, not just of singing and acting but of the history and themes of the genre. Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” is examined as the first modern opera. Our opera students perform the piece. The featurette tries to humanize opera and make it relatable to the layman, but I still don’t feel I have a better understanding of it than I did before. It was a good approach though.
The Archduke’s Last Journey-End of an Era: Since you probably don’t know much about the man, this is an interesting biography of Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand lucked into being the heir of the Austria-Hungary empire thanks to many deaths. However, his uncle the emperor didn’t much care for Ferdinand marrying a commoner. Ferdinand and his wife were murdered on a trip to Sarajevo. Their deaths were the spark that led to World War I and the demise of Austria-Hungary and the Hapsburg ruling family. Photos and newsreel footage from the day of Ferdinand’s murder really make the documentary.
Powder Keg-Europe 1900-1914: A political science and history lecture, pretty much. The death of Franz Ferdinand is covered again here, but events are presented a bit differently. The featurette picks up once war is declared and the nations of Europe begin mobilizing and drawing up battle plans. Since the piece isn’t covering the war itself it has a hard time finding a proper ending.
Sigmund Freud-Exploring the Unconscious: Film footage and photos of Freud in later life really illustrate that Von Sydow nailed him in the above episode. Freud invented psychoanalysis by making patients talk about their lives while he listened. He introduced the notion of the unconscious and dream analysis. Freud was a proponent of cocaine as a local anesthetic and calming drug, but its addictive properties derailed his championing of it in the medical community. Freud also didn’t meet with critical acceptance of his views on sex and its place in human life and mental trouble. This is a thorough biography that traces the man’s life and work in a nicely woven narrative.
Carl Jung and the Journey to Self Discovery: Jung is another guy you probably don’t know a lot about, so this is interesting too. Jung was a student of Freud’s and looked up to him as a father figure. However, Jung disagreed with Freud on some major points, such as his belief that the sex drive is all controlling. Jung believed in several elements, such as the need for acceptance and power, to also be driving forces. Once ostracized from Freud’s circle Jung analyzed himself. During this period he developed the concept of the collective unconscious. Throughout history certain archetypes have been developed among many different cultures very similarly. This concept is discussed in detail. Jung promoted individuality against these established norms. He coined the terms introvert and extrovert while inventing typeology for the basic personality types. Many of Jung’s theories were adopted by the Nazi party in promoting the Aryan race as just not different, but better from other races. Jung was seen in collusion with the Nazis and this point is debated. Jung’s work lives on today in the Meyers-Briggs test and the new age era started by hippies in the sixties.
Psychology-Charting the Human Mind: Psyche 101. The featurette starts with explaining the role psychology plays today in marketing, advertising, political campaigns and the like before going back to trace the history of the science. It’s pretty dull until we get up to post World War I with discussions on the erroneous assumption of eugenics and the work of BF Skinner on positive reinforcement and Stanley Milgram on authority figures affecting those to do things they know is wrong.
The 411: A so-so first episode in this section is just the prelude to the best episode so far thanks to good writing and acting. Puccini just isn’t the famous person of the week as he is key to the plot of the episode and character development for Anna. The documentaries are showing their formulaic structure now, but the ones on Ferdinand, Jung and Freud are very informational. In our next installment Junior goes off with dad to Russia and meets Leo Tolstoy.
