"Albert Schweitzer" is a 110-minute live action film from 2009, so it's already over 5 years old. The director and one of the writer trio here is Gavin Millar, a TV BAFTA winning Scottish filmmaker. The title character is played by Jeroen Krabbé, but the most known cast member is probably Oscar nominee Barbara Hershey. It is a co-production between Germany and South Africa and the main language here is German. Probably almost everybody has heard the name Albert Schweitzer, but he is one of the guys where you know he's a good guy, but you don't really known very much in detail what it was exactly that made him one of the good guys except that it was charitable work. The good thing is that, in this film here, you will find out about it. The bad thing is that I don't think that justice was really done to the person. It is not really the fault of Krabbé or Hershey, but I just felt that the film was never really as interesting or even touching as it could have been if it had worked out. I am fairly certain that a better script could have made this a really exciting and significant film. Schweitzer would have deserved and I guess this weak script is also the reason why this film, actually the most known one about the character, is still extremely unknown. The world's biggest film site and it has less than 250 ratings and zero reviews. Enough said. It's especially sad to see three writers work on the project here and yet this is all they came up with. The cast includes a handful familiar faces too for German cinema buffs, such as Hain, Meyer, Ulrich or Rohde playing Albert Einstein. But these names also ting to me that this is a group of actors who is more known for their charisma than for great range. But this is just one of a whole lot of minor flaws that add up however and turn this into a film that is not memorable by any means. It also drags quite a bit and should have been shorter, more focused and more essential. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Review of Albert Schweitzer
