The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.2 (9 Disc Box Set) [1992] [DVD]

The second volume in the adventures of "Young Indiana Jones" and it follows Indy (Sean Patrick Flannery) through World War One, surviving the trenches in France and becoming a spy, going on missions to Africa, Barcelona and Russia.

With the flux of documentaries that accompany each episode, the DVD collection is almost like a mini-historical library with breakdowns of the significant events and people Indy meets in his travels.

I think Lucasfilm must have plundered Spotlight or the British casting agencies as a number of popular British actors (James Nesbitt, Colin Baker, John McInnery) pop up throughout all the shows.

The depiction of warfare is realistic but not nearly as grim as Spielberg, Lucas oft-time collaborator, showed in "Saving Private Ryan" and Indy (who can survive anything and is, thanks to his education, something of a genius) is not seriously affected by what is going on around him. This hinders the drama a little bit.

Nevertheless this is recommended to Indiana Jones fans.

The first volume was good; the second volume is even better. In general, the 'war years' covers July 1916 to October 1917 and sees Indy go from footslogger in the trenches to a captain in military intelligence. From the outset it is very important to keep in mind that the original intention of Indiana Jones was to recreate a story/comic book hero; the 'silly' sounding chapter titles have all been devised with that in mind, and with that in mind I feel many criticisms are unwarranted.

Rather than critique all eight 'movies', I shall focus on what I think is the best one: 'Oganga'. What appeals about this episode (East and Central Africa December 1916/January 1917) is that it covers a lot of ground. It commences with trench warfare, (and like the 'Trenches of Hell' - first episode) with a limited budget does a fair job of showing the horrors of the war. What both these episodes share is the idea of creating a human background: yes, there is a high body count (Indiana himself polishes off quite a few), but there are a number of supporting actors that do only support but whose partial verbal characterized presence helps to create a more natural feel; there are some very nice touches and great attention to detail rather than the usual awkward unrealistic silent treatment of the supporting cast. This is something that is missing from so many so-called Hollywood blockbusters, but here, with a budget of $1.5 million. Disobedience of orders leads to a successful engagement, and Indiana is suitably smug (again, one of the strengths of the series is that he does have feet of clay and is capricious and weak as the next man; he displays the rashness of youth, conceit of rank). The second part involves a hazardous mission from one side of Africa to the other, in which Albert Schweitzer pops up, with some nicely scored Bach to boot. The perilous river journey has shades of Conrad but as nods rather than outright imitation.

Overall, the second volume is great - the extras are much better than those of the first volume. The only slight irritation is the bucking of the original chronology; Austria March 1917 is paired with Petrograd July 1917 while Barcelona May 1917 is set with Prague August 1917. This has been done I think to keep a `serious' pair together while the latter pair is comic in tone: the weighty end of Petrograd would have been ruined with the farcical Prague following it.

I can't wait to start on with volume three now, but have the feeling that volume two will remain the best one by far.

It says a lot about a television programme when the documentaries on the dvd are far more interesting than the programme. That said, "The War Years" is probably the best section of the Young Indy adventures. We follow Indy through his enlistment in the Belgian army, through the trenches and on to many other improbable adventures through World War I.

Bad points: This series always fell a little flat for me. I would have like a bit more archaeology and felt they could have brought more of this into the series, rather than the endless meeting of historically famous characters which became rather tedious after a while. The programmes were educational maybe, but I would have preferred a little bit more adventure.

Good points: The production values are amazing. A lot of money was clearly spent and it shows. Sets and special effects are very good and it seems that actual locations were used wherever possible. The global acting talent on display is awesome but Sean Patrick Flannery isn't overshadowed. He makes a great young Indy with just the right balance of naivety and cockiness and looks enough like Harrison Ford to convince that he is a younger version.

Another selling point for this dvd is the huge amount of extra documentaries about the real-life events that Indy experiences. As I said before, they are both compelling and educational. Amongst other things I found out what a War of Attrition actually was (such an unbelievably vile idea I still can't comprehend it).

I'd highly recommend this dvd to anyone with an interest in the WWI period, although diehard Indy fans (like me!) may find it a little drab. Ordinarily I'd give it three stars, but it gets an extra one for the documentaries.