Feb 17 2007 57 mins 1
clickhere Visit the Radio America Store web site.Buy your 50 mp3 for &5.00 Affordable Web Hosting $5.99 A month The African Queen is a story of survival and how two mismatched people pull together. These people, Charlie and Rose, learn to accommodate each other and function together to achieve a goal: Get a boat down a treacherous jungle river. They are civilians who are caught in enemy territory at the beginning of World War I. Rose is a crisp, prim, and proper minister’s sister. Charlie is a irreverent, unsophisticated somewhat crude mechanic. On the surface level The African Queen is a love story of sorts and a tale of revenge. Rose wants to blow up a German gunboat down river because the Germans destroyed the mission and her brother died after being overwhelmed by the strain of the loss and the conditions of the jungle. Charlie just wants to get out of harms way but reluctantly goes along with her even though he thinks what she wants to do is "crazy" and believes it’s impossible to get a boat down the river. In the course of this venture they become closer and develop affection for each other as they respond to hardship and danger. In watching The African Queen it is important to realize that blowing up the gunboat is a story gimmick. This gives Charlie and Rose a challenging goal and a reason to do something dangerous. It also heightens the tension between Rose and Charlie, creating a situation that helps us to realize something important about the character and qualities of these two and how they learn to tolerate and get along with each other. What makes The African Queen such an important and popular movie is its fundamental story: Two people, who are basically strangers, learn to function together and care for each other as they contend with very unpleasant realities during a difficult, unwanted ordeal.
