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 This is a very old film based on an even older book by Jules Verne of the same title. It's also a surprising 3 hours long. It's a story of Phileas Fogg attempts to travel the world, aided by his butler, Jean Passepartout, while being pursued by Inspector Fix, who thinks he's a criminal on the run. Midway through, they rescue an Indian princess, Aouda, who joins them for the rest of the trip.  The film opens up with a short explanation of Jules Verne and his novel, as well as how much transportation has improved by their time. It also includes a bunch of talk about nuclear weapons because it's the '50's. They also also include an bonus entire other film here: A Trip to the Moon, which is based on another Jules Verne novel, From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes. The film itself is pretty good. The actors all do a good job I think, and the costumes and sets are good. The music is meh - it's mostly public domain classical music. They especially love Rule, Britannia!, which serves as Phileas' theme. They definitely get their money's worth on the landscape shots. There are a lot of parts of the movies that could have definitely done with some speeding up, like the very long shots of various country-sides, but I guess for contemporary movie-goers, it was pretty welcome. Some places get a lot of time (dare I say too much time) spent on them, while others are quickly rushed through. While I think overall the movie is great, by 2 hours, I was definitely appreciating the intermission they included. They also included an "exit music" section at the end. The film is somewhat dated in several areas. I've gone back and forth about how the film portrays the various people and cultures, but I think it's honestly not that all that bad (for the most part), despite how old it is (with the book its based on being even older). The film isn't really trying to be accurate. Indeed, a lot of the comedy is derived from poking fun at the British and the Americans by making them excessive characters of themselves. And a lot of countries go by with pretty minimal interaction with the locals. The Native Americans are portrayed pretty poorly, and just serve as nothing more than obstacles. And a lot of casting decisions clearly passed up minority actors/actresses (perhaps most obviously - Aouda), which is a shame. Your mileage may vary how much these things detract from the film for you. But the writing and dialogue for the very few female characters in the story is absolutely abysmal. Aouda inexplicably falls in love with Phileas shortly after Jean rescues her. They have absolutely no chemistry, and it's all just really poorly written and kind of shoehorned in. I also very recently learned that in the 50's there was a massive social panic over switchblade knives, and they were often featured in films of the time as a shorthand to introduce a character as violent and a dirty fighter or whatever. And sure enough, one makes an appearance in this film, despite likely being an anachronism. I thought that was funny. Frank Sinatra makes an appearance too, which is neat. Also, at one point, Phileas decides to have a pistol duel with an American on a train because he insults his card game and tells him he should play poker, and everyone just decides to let it happen, which is hilarious. Edit: I almost completely forgot - Major spoilers about the ending: Aouda destroys the British empire at the very, very end of the film, so at least 4/5 stars just for that. All-in-all, I think it's a good way to experience the book if you'd rather watch the movie version. It seems to be pretty accurate to the source and well-made. If you have a long flight to somewhere, I'd say give it a watch! 🎩⏱️🍵 4/5 stars ★★★★☆ Shadow0 fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Dec 21, 2022 |
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Dec 20, 2022 20:42
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| # ? May 3, 2024 21:08 |
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