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DVD 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Special Edition)
The swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor (Paul Lukas) seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide (Peter Lorre), and a harpoon master (Kirk Douglas) survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo (James Mason). Along with the rollicking adventure, it's fun to see the future technology that Verne dreamed up in his novel, including diving equipment and sea farming. The film's physical prowess is anchored by the Nautilus, an impressive full-scale gothic submarine complete with red carpet and pipe organ. In the era of big sets, 20,000 Leagues set a precedent for films shot on the water and deservedly won Oscars for art direction and special effects. Lost in the inventiveness of the film and great set pieces including a giant squid attack are two great performances. Mason is the perfect Nemo, taut and private, clothed in dark fabric that counters the Technicolor dreamboat that is the beaming red-and-white-stripe-shirted Kirk Douglas as the heroic Ned Land. The film works as peerless family adventure nearly half a century later. --Doug Thomas
Review(s): DVD 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Special Edition)
as philosophically and scientifically relevant today as when released
Who in days long past could have known that the outrageous stories told by wild-eyed fishermen about sperm whales being taken down by giant squids in fierce battles were true?
Or that H.G. Wells, whose fiction invoked these stories would be proven so accurate in its portrayal of the fierce giant squid over 100 years later?
Until this decade, the giant squid was never found intact, and until this year (2005), was never captured in its deep-sea habitat of 2500-7500 feet underwater. Scientists not only generally doubted its existence, but even more doubted it to be the powerful fighter portrayed by fisherman's tales and HG Wells.
Well, the whole world now knows the scientists were wrong. As a scientist, this serves as a powerful reminder that truth is sometimes as strange as fiction, and scientific inquiry is slow to reach a valid conclusion.
The squid part is not the most vindicating part of the movie, however. I see tremendous parallels between the plight of Captain Nemo and that of post-Cold War, post-9/11 America. Like Captain Nemo's incredible submarine, America possesses incredible power over most nations. But what to do with this power? We Americans, from the President and Congress, down to its lowest citizens wrestle with the notion that it may be justifiable to use force against a potential enemy to us or our allies in order to prevent a future attack against the innocent - not unlike Captain Nemo. His torment over the conundrum of killing in order to prevent more killing was plain, but his behavior was more bipolar than clear-minded.
While our country's collective response to 9/11 has been more muted and more tightly directed than Nemo, the issue at its core is the same: may a man kill another because he *might* kill him or an innocent person? The Catholic church (and many nations & multi-national organizations with far less honorable goals) injected itself into the debate over going to war with Iraq by stating that the same criteria that have always applied in interpersonal conflict -- and these criteria have indeed been the solid foundation of our legal approach to self-defense in this country -- is one of imminence of the threat. The mere buildup of arms, even "WMD", is not sufficient criteria. Even the past use of arms, including that of WMD, was, according to the Vatican, insufficient justification for going to war. Now that the current data on WMD shows that the main justification for the war was invalid, the whole philosophy of pre-emption has been cast into suspicion and overall doubt as to its feasibility.
While Captain Nemo had insufficient moral justification for his acts, his life provides a valuable lesson for the young people who are growing up in the post-9/11 world to be unafraid to deal with the real internal soul-searching that will be required to come to just and sound policy decisions regarding the use of pre-emptive or coercive actions against potential or possible enemies of the US.
Pop Some Popcorn and Enjoy!
The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he and his crew survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo. It's fun to see the future technology that Verne dreamed up in his novel, including diving equipment and sea farming. Even though this movie was made in 1954, it is a great family adventure ~ pop some popcorn and enjoy!
Not a child oriented movie
I guess this was a movie by Disney to adapt stories to draw in "adult" fans. I made the mistake of thinking that is was a "Disney" original that it would be for small children, but no. It is very dark. Good actors and good effects for the time.
Related DVD's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Special Edition)
James Mason plays Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, a scientist hoping to find the world's core in this 1959 adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. He leads his unusual party on an expedition to the center of the earth, by way of a volcano in Iceland. On the way, they encounter enormous mushrooms and giant prehistoric monsters. Produced by Michael Todd with then-spectacular special effects, the story was modernized to 1950s sensibilities. Mason gives this class, while Arlene Dahl and Diane Baker are the romantic interests. And Pat Boone is more palatable than you might expect as a secondary lead. You can watch this with your children and not be bored, and they will surely love it. --Rochelle O'GormanMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Pat Boone - James Mason Director(s): Henry Levin DVD Release Date: Released the 04 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Strap on your pantaloons and prepare to travel with Jim Hawkins and Blind Pew to one of the most famous fictional islands in history. Walt Disney's 1950 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's swashbuckling masterpiece has held up extremely well, with action and characterizations that feel freshly minted (although it's unlikely that the Mouse of today would sanction the high level of booze flowing throughout the picture). Great fun, with nary a wasted frame and, in the character of Robert Newton's much-imitated Long John, one of cinema's most boisterously crowd-pleasing villains ever. (Proving that you can't keep a good--er, bad man down, Newton would return with director Byron Haskins for the enjoyable sequel, Long John Silver.) Watching this classic is like having a flashback to... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bobby Driscoll - Robert Newton - Basil Sydney Director(s): Byron Haskin DVD Release Date: Released the 29 April 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The Disney touch is all over this grand, colorful version of the Johann Wyss adventure of a European family set off for the new world of New Guinea. The film opens on a ship jostled and torn by a raging storm while a family struggles to make it through alive. Tossed into a reef near a deserted tropical island, father John Mills takes charge and the family soon turns their island prison into a veritable paradise. Their multilevel tree house, built in record time, is complete with running water and a working pipe organ scavenged from the ship, while their grand yard is abloom in English roses. As a tale of hardship and pioneer pluck, the tale is pure fantasy, but as entertainment it's energetic and appealing. The island is impossibly populated by ostriches, zebras, lions, and elephants, a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Ken Annakin - Jack Hannah DVD Release Date: Released the 07 May 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea gets a dose of On the Beach in Irwin Allen's visually impressive but scientifically silly Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. While the Seaview, the world's most advanced experimental submarine, maneuvers under the North Pole, the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, giving the concept "global warming" an entirely new dimension. As the Earth broils in temperatures approaching 170 degrees F, Walter Pidgeon's maniacally driven Admiral Nelson hijacks the Seaview and plays tag with the world's combined naval forces on a race to the South Pacific, where he plans to extinguish the interstellar fire with a well-placed nuclear missile. But first he has to fight a mutinous... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Irwin Allen DVD Release Date: Released the 05 September 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jules Verne's classic adventure is perfectly matched with Ray Harryhausen's timeless movie magic in Mysterious Island. Based on Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, this rousing Civil War-era fantasy begins when a band of Union war prisoners (and one Confederate straggler) escape in a hot-air balloon, which crash-lands on the titular island of mystery. Verne's novel doesn't include any gigantic creatures, but Harryhausen's version--under the capable direction of genre specialist Cy Endfield--features giant oysters, bees, a prehistoric Phororhacos (a giant chickenlike bird!), an undersea cephalopod, a giant crab, and enough danger to keep its resourceful ensemble on constant alert. Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom, ably filling James Mason's shoes) is a third-act hero,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Craig - Joan Greenwood Director(s): Cy Endfield DVD Release Date: Released the 29 October 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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