When Everything Seems Hopeless
Remember the African Queen.
The African Queen, one of the best American films ever made, featuring two of Hollywood’s most enduring actors, has been called a patriotic adventure/romance.
It is all that. But when I think of The African Queen, which I have watched with great delight many times over the years, I think of one brief but powerful scene more than any other.
To recap the plot briefly: at the start of World War I in German East Africa, rough-and-ready boat captain Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) finds himself unhappily committed to taking prim missionary Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) to safety on his ramshackle boat the African Queen.
The mismatched pair struggle to get along, but in the end, they come to care for each other and decide to perform a heroic act to free an important waterway vital for the British advance against the Germans.
They encounter many dangers along the way including swarming insects, crocodiles, tumultuous whitewater, and treacherous uncharted waterfalls. Finally, after many days, they find themselves trapped in a reed choked, leech-infested swamp with little air to breathe and no way to get out.
