African Queen

The African Queen was a perfect example of the Adventure/Romance genre. Charlie drives his boat "African Queen" up and down the river when he's not working at the mine while Rosie and her brother are doing mission work in an African village along the river. It's obvious that Charlie and Rosie are extremely different, but their behavior is further juxtaposed when her brother dies, the German troops tear down the village and Rosie's only choice of living is joining Charlie on the boat. (end of ACT I) Rather than wallow in sorrow for her losses, she convinces Charlie of taking a dangerous stretch of the river to read the Nazi patrol boats and "torpedo" them. Charlie good naturally goes along with the idea but progressively they fight more and more often because Rosie is stubborn and Charlie gives in too easily. After a near death experience with the Nazi's along the river, Charlie and Rosie kiss and suddenly show their true feelings for each other. (end of ACT II A and climax) After a long, grueling and complicated journey down the river, they finally get to the German boat. They create their "torpedo" but before they can reach the Nazi's, their small boat sinks in a storm. (end of ACT II B) Charlie and Rosie are pulled aboard and are sentenced to hanging immediately. Just after they are quickly married by the captain of the ship, the Nazi ship hits the semi-sunken "African Queen" and the torpedo begins to sink the larger ship. Before anything too serious can happen, Charlie and Rosie are swimming towards a safer country that's just across the lake. (end of ACT III) It's obvious that the two characters "won" at the end of their action/romance adventure because they complete their goal of bombing the boat and they found love in each other.

This movie isn't much of a romance in the sense that there's forbidden love, or a distance issue (maybe because almost the entire movie takes place on a 30 ft boat!) but there is obviously a love interest between Rosie and Charlie who do love each other in very strange sort of ways. After the crisis of the heart occurs and they could have been shot by the Nazi's, they suddenly realize in a passionate frenzy (literally overnight) that they love each other. This aspect of the film is the internal struggle. Rosie is a ignorant and uptight kind of woman while Charlie is a fly by the seat of his pants kind of drunk. The external struggle is evident as soon as Rosie insists that they steer the boat down the most dangerous river and ram their tiny boat right into the huge boat for the sake of the worlds peace. In reality, what is one little boat in Africa going to make a difference? But I supposed the fact that Kenya was on the other side was an additional factor. The action-adventure is more so evident than the romance because of the fact that they are on a boat that doesn't always work and seems to be falling apart. They're surrounded by lions, elephants, hippos, alligators and disgusting leeches (why is it that whenever they were in the water, I was expecting Anaconda to come slithering up?) The idea of two very fragile humans against all the elements working against them adds a thrill of you never really know what will be happening next. The adventure loosens Rosie up and she even lets her hair down, and in a sense it straightened Charlie out, and he's seen less frequently with alcohol or cigarette in hand. Finally, I would have to say that they really did make this movie with many comedic elements. The entire class was laughing throughout the movie, which is remarkable that things from 1951 could still relate to 2011. "Darling, what is your first name?" after they have sex is something that is taboo to talk about even today!

Unlike UP, I think that the African Queen focuses more on the adventure rather than the romance while UP focused more on the internal struggle of Carl and his need for "buddy love". This is easiest displayed for me when they begin Queen with a shot of an remote African village obviously very different than that audiences were accustomed to, much more adventurous than everyday life. UP begins with Carl's entire boring, seemingly unchanging home life, from childhood to elderly age. Similarly though, both stories need the adventure to find the romance or buddy love.

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