Albert Schweitzer: Ein Leben für Afrika

Seeing Albert Schweitzer listed on Amazon Firestick as a Christian film I was expecting a totally different kind of film. But actually I'm glad it is. Some person of a fundamentalist bent might watch this film thinking that Schweitzer was one of them. If they learn something and start to question their own beliefs so much the better.

Jeroen Krabbe stars as Schweitzer with Barbara Hershey as his supportive wife. The film concerns the period of Schweitzer's life between 1949 and 1955 as he joins a movement to ban the atomic bomb and not to develop the hydrogen bomb. A lot of people were involved. Schweitzer, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and scientists Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Certain right wing elements did their best to destroy Schweitzer's reputation in many ways. He's in the USA to raise funds for his medical mission in the future African nation of Gabon. It's put to him bluntly, but subtly back off the ban the bomb activity and all kinds of money can come your way. Schweitzer does not bend.

Schweitzer was a true renaissance man. Not only a medical practicioner, but a classical musician, and a philosopher. He would have really gotten along with Thomas Jefferson.

He also has trouble with the new Africa leadership who see him as a paternalistic white. That's the most interesting part of the tale in many ways.

Schweitzer was a most beloved figure in my youth. His philosophy was summed up by him in three words, Reverence For Life. Something he never deviated from. I recommend people see this film and learn about what the best in civilization can produce.

It's set in 1949-1952 in New York, Germany, and Gabon. It's a biopic of several years in the life of an older Albert Schweitzer when he became involved anti-H-bomb movement along with contemporaries like Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer.

Albert Schweitzer (Jeroen Krabbé) and his wife, Helene (Barbara Hershey), travel to New York to raise money for his hospital at Lambaréné, Gabon. He is welcomed by a hero, but some begin to criticize his close friendship with Albert Einstein (Armin Rohde), who had publicly criticized the development of the H-bomb. The Schweitzers are accompanied in their fundraising by a fictional French photographer, Thérèsa Bourdin (Judith Godrèche), an admirer. In addition, a fictional promoter named Phil Figgis (Samuel West) attaches himself to the group, claiming he can help raise money for the hospital, though we soon learn he has other motives.

Through flashbacks, we learn a bit about the early vision of Schweitzer's work in Gabon, but more time is spent on the growing issues that Schweitzer faces. Some dissent within his staff about the quality of care provided by the hospital and concern about the impact on the hospital arising from Schweitzer's increasing political commentary on the bomb.

Albert Schweitzer's difficult relationship with his wife, Helene, and daughter, Rhena (Jeanette Hain), and his paternalism towards his staff and patients is not avoided. The efforts of the "provisional government" in the French territory of Gabon to close the hospital are also shown in the activities of a fictional Louis Ngouta (Patrice Naiambana). More positively, Schweitzer's "reverence for life" philosophy is also on display.

This is a remarkably good movie that deserved more significant exposure. It's a German-South African production mainly in English, but with some French dialogue. Krabbé and Hershey do well, but I think the script is the most substantial part of the movie. It does not contain a lot of "action," but the various plot threads are weaved successfully.

This is the 16th in my list of movies in which pacifists are primary characters.