20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1954 Directed by Richard Fleischer
Synopsis
The mightiest motion picture of them all!
A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.
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Creaks and groans under its own weight in a way that only a big studio blockbuster can - much more so in fact than Around the World in 80 Days, even though this is almost an hour shorter. But the visual effects and set-design are still dazzling, and James Mason does justice to Captain Nemo, giving what has to be one of the great antiheroes in fiction a Shakespearean gravitas (also, he kisses a sea lion).
Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre are also great, and watching them as two halves of an onscreen duo is like seeing the jock and the creepy weirdo from your high school as best friends.
That fucking sea lion.
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This film is an awful lot darker than I remember it being as a kid. James Mason's performance is the one to watch here, although you've got to give extreme kudos for Douglas' rendition of A Whale of a Tale.
This is steampunk fifty years before it broke onto the scene. The sets are fabulous, the Nautilus is a beautiful piece of design and the whole look of the film is stunning.
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Okay, so I'll say it straight away. I have a phobia of giant squids, and actually, anything under the sea. Apart from small fish - they're fine.
I've been in the Nautilus replica at Disneyland Paris several times, the most recent of which was merely a few weeks ago, and I still ran out with my eyes shut at the robotic squid. I don't even paddle in the sea on holiday.
So out of morbid curiosity and with a sinking feeling (pardon the pun) I finally watched the film I've been putting off for years. Face your fears and all that.
It took a pair of sweaty palms and a strong urge to turn it off, but I managed to…
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Creaks and groans under its own weight in a way that only a big studio blockbuster can - much more so in fact than Around the World in 80 Days, even though this is almost an hour shorter. But the visual effects and set-design are still dazzling, and James Mason does justice to Captain Nemo, giving what has to be one of the great antiheroes in fiction a Shakespearean gravitas (also, he kisses a sea lion).
Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre are also great, and watching them as two halves of an onscreen duo is like seeing the jock and the creepy weirdo from your high school as best friends.
That fucking sea lion.
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More nostalgia as I kept up my streak of Disney movies that captured my heart as a very young boy. This one has aged a little better and it was interesting to see a young, fit Kirk Douglas – a true action movie star. The special effects are not top notch by today’s standards but hold up okay (expcetop for the giant squid). This is amazing considering this movie was made in the early 1950’s and is older than I am. The story itself still holds up. This is the classic Jules Verne tale about the voyages of the Nautilus and Captain Nemo. James Mason plays Nemo with his typical English reserve and creates a multi-leveled character that you’re not…
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It's tough for me to compare this to the book, since I only read a bowdlerized abridged edition. But it bears a lot of stamps of what's often been easily dismissed as Disneyfication - a cute seal sidekick, an annoying and often-repeated song, a big emphasis on heroic Ned instead of stuffy Professor A, a minimum of Nemo's dickishness. The seal's the weird part for me - they were happy to put in a cute seal, but a woman was too much to ask for?
More to the point - there isn't a scene where they sail under the ice of the antarctic and lay claim to the south pole. Aw, man! Still, the sub-on-squid fight is great (one wonders…
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I enjoyed this movie more than I ever thought that I would. this film has everything that a person can hope for a in a film with the exception of it's lack of women being in the film. It doesn't look that dated and I cannot wait to see David Fincher's remake whenever he gets around to it.
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brilliant Disney Adventure epic with a fantastic giant squid attack and a menacing performance from James Mason as Cap't Nemo. Wonderful Richard Fleisher direction too and a catchy sea shanty from Kirk douglas ad to the brilliance of disney first full length live action movie.
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Cracking adaptation, even if it dumps all the science in favour of some big-balled steampunk sci-fi.
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Watched outdoors at Cinema La Placita.
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This film is an awful lot darker than I remember it being as a kid. James Mason's performance is the one to watch here, although you've got to give extreme kudos for Douglas' rendition of A Whale of a Tale.
This is steampunk fifty years before it broke onto the scene. The sets are fabulous, the Nautilus is a beautiful piece of design and the whole look of the film is stunning.