20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It wasn't until the early to mid-1990s that I actually sat down to watch this movie. I'd seen the movie before I read the book but I wasn't bothered by the differences. In fact, they were welcome. There were many comedic moments, and Kirk Douglas was very good in his role as the Canadian whaler Ned Land. This was the only one of his films I had actually seen too.The design of the submarine was very well done and the sets were almost realistic as if you're really there. The underwater scenes also made the movie worthwhile. How many good films do underwater scenes? Waterworld doesn't really count. But this was the best. Oh, and Peter Lorre does well as the professor's student and sidekick. The others elude me, but they're good too. Disney, this is one of your best live films.

A legendary adventure film from 1954, notable for its sense of pure enterprise, adventurism and amazing designs. Kirk Douglas's Nietzschean performance as the sailor Ned Land is imbued with an absurd sense of flair and power. In appearance he sports curly blond hair, fiery green/blue eyes and wears a red-and-white striped t-shirt. The fight scene with the giant squid is one of the great bravura set-pieces in cinema history when Douglas harpoons the monster with an almost Alexandrian prowess. This scene conjures so many multidimensional classical things and psychological depths - the kraken, Cyclops (Douglas confronted Polyphemus as Odysseus in Ulisse (1954)), the Loch Ness Monster. Douglas would revisit a Jules Verne based adventure film in 1970-1971 with the ambitious The Light at the Edge of the World also starring Yul Brynner, Renato Salvatore, Fernando Rey, Samantha Eggar and directed by Oxford-educated Englishman, Kevin Billington in Spain. Huddersfield-born (this reviewer lives in the industrial Yorkshire town), Cambridge-educated James Mason is convincing in the anti-colonial stakes as the anguished Captain Nemo. In appearance bearded and swarthy - he looks like a mid-Victorian Russian Orthodox priest clad in a dark-blue maritime uniform. Time Out refers to the - 'Nautilus submarine with its beautiful lush Victorian interior....' In conclusion 20.000 Leagues under the Sea is one of my favourite adventure films on a par with The Darwin Adventure (1971-1972), The Voyage of Charles Darwin (1978) and Nostromo (1996).

This is a great story and a great adventure for all ages and it could and should have ended differently and better, but, that's all fantasy.Things have to get worse before they ever get better, hence, Captain Nemo and The Nautilus.Jules Verne was WAY ahead of his time when he wrote, and, then published this masterpiece of "Utopian-idea-through-means-of-Distopia" novel in 1870. Yet, way back then, he knew exactly what governments, any government in the world, would do with such power as Captain Nemo's notes described; and, what his supra-genius creation, The Nautilus, could do...in the wrong hands.Even if Professor Pierre Aronnax was sent by Captain Nemo as an emissary and he successfully contacted some 'seemingly-agreeable' government for "Peace On Earth"...they'd have invited him in as a friend and tortured him to death for information, as they did with Nemo's wife, to get everything and give nothing.In many ways, this novel (and, movie) can be related to and compared with many others since - "The Killer Elite"(1975); "The Eiger Sanction"(1975); "Sneakers"(1992); "War Games"(1983); "The Osterman Weekend"(1983); "The Sicilian"(1987); not to mention "The Count Of Monte Cristo;" "The Departed;" "Payback;" "Prince of the City;" etc., and, many more...all about misplaced trust, deceit, treachery, lying, and, traders!In many ways, Captain Nemo and Professor Aronnax were very much alike - educated; loved peace and harmony; were at one with nature and the earth; etc. However, Captain Nemo experienced a tragedy that Professor Aronnox couldn't possibly imagine nor understand unless he'd seen and felt it himself from a personal point of view. This is why two people who share all the same values and interests can be so incredibly different. Under other circumstances, whether good or bad, these two could have been great friends; but, this isn't the case here.Then, just to make all of this advancement and intelligence in the story seem crazy to the average and typical viewer and reader, we have Ned Land, the bull-headed simpleton who cares nothing for learning; right and wrong; nor, the world in which he lives. He cares only for material wealth, drunkeness, and, living in the moment. Idiotic viewers and readers cheer him on while condemning advanced thinking and possible resolution to war; starving; enslavement; etc!?!? WHY? Mr. Land is the monkey who threw the wrench into the great program; the bumbling knuckle-dragging clown whose big muscles did the thinking for his little brain; the fool who began with nothing and ended with nothing when he could have made a 'real' difference in a great way.As I wrote - This is a wonderful book and movie, but, like with others, the protagonist, Captain Nemo, had to be made to seem 'crazy' to make for an acceptable ending and an acceptable explanation for why the world will never be harmonious. Case in point - "Magnum Force" and "Death Wish." People who were disposing of those whom society would do better without had to be made to look 'crazy' to please readers and viewers who're thin-skinned and unrealistic dummies who don't know how the world works and always expect a senselessly short-lived happy ending. The concept of Captain Nemo's hatred of war and enslavement may have made a good difference in the world. It's such a shame when people actually cheer when Nautilus sank. Much like how people cheered when the European nations gave up their colonies and left the native peoples in those colonies to butcher one another as a result!?!? As Bertolt Brecht wrote - "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." This applies to most every single event in history when man thought that the 'next' government and/or the 'next' leader will be better - Stalinist Russia after Czar Nicolas II; Adolph Hitler after Germany's WW1 defeat; Pol Pot's takeover of Cambodia; Idi Amin; Alfredo Stroessner; Saddam Hussein; etc...etc!Do your own thinking or lack there of!Either way, I love this movie and book - easily 10 Stars! :)

All of us young people in the fifties flocked to this film. Ned land, the harpooner versus Captain Nemo, the narcissistic hater of civilization and ocean traffic. This was film of wonder. Imagine being in that amazing submarine. Cruising the ocean depths, exploring and battling giant squid. And being self sufficient. The food they ate was culled from the bottoms of the ocean. In addition to fish and sea creatures, the plants were processed to create delicious repasts. The only problem was that the good Captain was a megalomaniac. Of course, being the common man, Land has only one thing in mind-- escape. His friends, particularly the professor, have the human need to know. All that aside, to a young person, Disney gave us one of the greatest adventures we had ever seen.