Seeing Albert Schweitzer listed on Amazon Firestick as a Christian film I was expecting a totally different kind of film. But actually I'm glad it is. Some person of a fundamentalist bent might watch this film thinking that Schweitzer was one of them. If they learn something and start to question their own beliefs so much the better.
Jeroen Krabbe stars as Schweitzer with Barbara Hershey as his supportive wife. The film concerns the period of Schweitzer's life between 1949 and 1955 as he joins a movement to ban the atomic bomb and not to develop the hydrogen bomb. A lot of people were involved. Schweitzer, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and scientists Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Certain right wing elements did their best to destroy Schweitzer's reputation in many ways. He's in the USA to raise funds for his medical mission in the future African nation of Gabon. It's put to him bluntly, but subtly back off the ban the bomb activity and all kinds of money can come your way. Schweitzer does not bend.
Schweitzer was a true renaissance man. Not only a medical practicioner, but a classical musician, and a philosopher. He would have really gotten along with Thomas Jefferson.
He also has trouble with the new Africa leadership who see him as a paternalistic white. That's the most interesting part of the tale in many ways.
Schweitzer was a most beloved figure in my youth. His philosophy was summed up by him in three words, Reverence For Life. Something he never deviated from. I recommend people see this film and learn about what the best in civilization can produce.
Jeroen Krabbe stars as Schweitzer with Barbara Hershey as his supportive wife. The film concerns the period of Schweitzer's life between 1949 and 1955 as he joins a movement to ban the atomic bomb and not to develop the hydrogen bomb. A lot of people were involved. Schweitzer, philosopher Bertrand Russell, and scientists Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Certain right wing elements did their best to destroy Schweitzer's reputation in many ways. He's in the USA to raise funds for his medical mission in the future African nation of Gabon. It's put to him bluntly, but subtly back off the ban the bomb activity and all kinds of money can come your way. Schweitzer does not bend.
Schweitzer was a true renaissance man. Not only a medical practicioner, but a classical musician, and a philosopher. He would have really gotten along with Thomas Jefferson.
He also has trouble with the new Africa leadership who see him as a paternalistic white. That's the most interesting part of the tale in many ways.
Schweitzer was a most beloved figure in my youth. His philosophy was summed up by him in three words, Reverence For Life. Something he never deviated from. I recommend people see this film and learn about what the best in civilization can produce.