Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
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Journey to the Center of the Earth Movie Review
Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 1959 fantasy adventure film directed by Henry Levin and starring James Mason, Pat Boone and Arlene Dahl. It’s such a terrific adaptation.
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“Madam, since the beginning of time,
all women have heard footsteps up there“
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Having read the Jules Verne eponymous novel and hearing that this one is the best adaptation of it, I’d expected great things going into this film. At first, I had some reservations, but when I got accustomed to some of the plot changes, I’d come to really appreciate what the filmmakers did here as it’s truly an impressive, timeless adaptation of a fantastic story.
The science here is somewhat reduced obviously as no movie could properly deal with these scientific themes, and there is an argument that maybe no movie shouldn’t deal with them. Whatever is the case, the dialogue is still excellent and the humor is significantly better than in the book itself. Yes, it’s too lighthearted at times, but mostly I loved the small comedic touches here and there, in particular the exchange between the professor and their female companion was very funny and a great biting satire on sexism.
Yes, that is one of the examples of the terrific modernization of the literary work that was released in the nineteenth century. It was necessary to modernize it for the 20th century audiences, and how they went about doing it still feels modern even in this next century. For one, they introduced a female companion to the crew and Arlene Dahl is fantastic and one of the best parts of the movie. I loved her interactions with the professor and there is a strong message here that women can be just as valuable to the adventurers’ team as the men.
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The film also made sure to include an animal sidekick in the form of Gertrude the eider duck. In the novel, these ducks are hunted, but in the film Hans the Icelandic guide has this duck as a pet, and this addition also modernized this story in such a lovely way. I loved Gertrude, but what happened to her in the last act was on the one hand unexpectedly dark, but on the other hand, this plot point clashed against an otherwise very lightweight tone of the picture.
The scenes with Jenny are fine, but mostly just a build-up for the much more interesting underground sequences. Alec is pretty good here, though gone was the clash of personalities between the professor and the young man, which made the movie inferior in that regard. But still the professor is a terrific character, very funny in his sexism, and as determined and inspirational as he should be portrayed. James Mason is absolutely brilliant as he always is and he brought the necessary charisma and verve needed for the role.
Journey to the Center of the Earth also benefits from mind-blowing special effects for its time. All of the creatures look incredible as they obviously employed some clever ways to film them, for instance using iguanas as miniatures in one great sequence. The sound and score are phenomenal, accompanying the intense mood perfectly. The sets, costumes and attention to detail are enormous, making for one truly elaborate, sumptuous genre picture.
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The runtime is long, but it is mostly not felt because it’s widely entertaining despite a somewhat slower beginning. The villain addition was utterly unnecessary, but at least they developed him well and he seemed like a genuinely solid obstacle for the team.
