Attack of the Hawkmen: Young Indy goes aloft in unfriendly WWI skies

After the cancellation by ABC of his ambitious and expensive television series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, executive producer George Lucas tried several methods to save the show and give viewers - especially pre-teen kids and young adults - its trademark mix of education and entertainment.

For instance, after ABC axed Young Indy from its lineup (citing the show's lavish budgets as its primary reason), Lucasfilm Limited produced four made-for-TV movies which aired on cable's Family Channel over a two-year period (1994-1996). 

Another life-saving measure was the hiring of film editor T.M. Christopher, who not only had worked with Lucas as an editor on the Classic Star Wars Trilogy, but also with Milos Forman in cutting 1984's Amadeus.

Christopher (who also was involved in the 1997 updating of the original Star Wars films into their still controversial Special Edition versions)  was assigned to  re-edit 44 episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and fashioning 22 "movies" out of them by marrying chronologically-close stories together into a (hopefully) seamless narrative. These were then sold on VHS as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones and released in conjunction with a box set of the first three Indiana Jones theatrical movies. (Because the TV show and the original Harrison Ford films were part of the same narrative arc, the Young Indy "movies" were labeled Chapters 1-22, while Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were labeled Chapters 23-25; the VHS box set of the theatrical films also included The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye because it is essentially a prequel of sorts to Temple of Doom.)

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - Attack of the Hawkmen
 
Also known as: Chapter 12:  Attack of the Hawkmen (Austria 1917)
 
Written by Matthew Jacobs, Rosemary Anne Sisson and Ben Burtt, based on a story by George Lucas
 
Directed by Ben Burtt
 
Formats available:
 
VHS as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Attack of the Hawkmen
 
DVD as Chapter 12: Attack of the Hawkmen, Disc Five of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Volume Three: The War Years
 
France, 1917:  The world war which was sparked by the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo is now in its third bloody year and with no end in sight.  Germany and her Central Powers allies are beating the ill-trained and poorly led Russian armies in the east even as the Romanov dynasty is being overthrown by popularly supported revolts.

Meanwhile, the situation on the Western Front is still a bloody stalemate as France and Britain continue to send the flower of their youth to the deadly trenches of Flanders, the Somme and Verdun.  Millions of soldiers on both sides fight, suffer and die in battles which often result in no significant exchanges of territory but exact a deadly toll in lives and materiel lost.
 
It is to the war-torn landscapes of France and Belgium that young Indiana Jomes (Sean Patrick Flanery) and his Belgian friend Remy Baudouin (Ronny Coutteure) are returning after a long and arduous tour of duty in Africa.
 
Now, after many months of serving together as junior officers in the Belgian Army (where Indy is known as "Captain Henri Defense"), the two friends are reassigned to new intelligence-related postings which will take them on divergent paths - Remy is transferred to serve as an undercover agent in German-occupied Belgium, and Indy is posted to a fighter squadron based in Ravane (France) as an aerial recon photographer.
 
World War I - as the bloody 1914-1918 conflict eventually was named - is known not just for its massive death toll and its geopolitical repercussions which still haunt us in the early 21st Century, but because of its many military "firsts."

Not only did the war bring on large-scale use of machine guns, submarines, and trench warfare - all of which had been introduced in primitive fashion during the American Civil War and other conflicts around the world - but it also saw the introduction of tanks, poison gas, flamethrowers and, of course, large scale use of military aviation.

In 1995's Family Channel presentation, Attack of the Hawkmen, Indiana Jones is assigned to the famous Lafayette Escadrille, a French Air Force fighter squadron staffed mainly by American volunteers who seek honor, glory and adventure while fighting for the Allied cause at a time when the United States is still officially neutral.

The Lafayette Escadrille has been in action for a year when Indy is given a "temporary" posting as the unit's recon photographer even though the future archaeologist doesn't like flying and is not a pilot.  Commanded by Raoul Lufberry (Daniel Kash), the squadron consists of very young - and socially well-connected - Americans whose exuberance and eccentricities - the unit has a lion cub named Whiskey as a mascot - makes them stand out in the new fraternity of aerial warriors.
 
Indy is not exactly thrilled with his new assignment as a back-seat photographer on a reconnaissance plane, and his enthusiasm is reduced to basement levels when he is told just how dangerous his "temporary" gig really is.
 
Indiana Jones: What's so funny? 
Len: Well, you see, the longest any reconnaissance guy ever lasted with us is eight days.
Indiana Jones: Why is that? 
Len: Well, you fly in low and slow, and you got a camera in your hand when what you need is a gun.
Hobie: Hey dog breath, give him a break. 
Len: The kid ought to know, right?
 
It's not too long into "Henri Defense's" tour with the Escadrille that Indy sees exactly what Len meant when he explained the shortened life expectancy of reconnaissance airmen, because while on a mission over German-held territory, Indy and his pilot are shot down by a crack squadron commanded by Manfred von Richthofen (Marc Warren).

Because aerial warfare was still in its "knights of the air" stage and pilots on opposite sides still treated each other like gentlemanly rivals, Indy is invited to sit at Baron von Richthofen's luncheon table before being sent to a POW camp in Germany.

In this somewhat surreal setting, Indy is not only introduced to Manfred's younger brother Lothar (Manuel Harlan), but he also sits at the same table with a young fighter pilot named Hermann Goering (Karel Dobry), the future leader of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe.

Of course, such chivalrous bonhomie can't last forever, and Indy is taken under guard to a convoy which will take him to a German prisoner of war camp.  Now it looks like only a miracle can save the young intelligence officer from a long and dreary stint behind barbed wire.....

For my take on Attack of the Hawkmen, please visit the complete review here.