Starring: Peter Fonda, Ricky Schroder, Victoria Pratt
Studio: ION TV/Genius Entertainment 81062 [Street date; 7/8/08]
Video: Enhanced for 16:9, color
Audio: English DD 5.1
Extras: Interview with Peter Fonda, Behind-the-Scenes with Ricky Schroder and Victoria Pratt
Length: 89 minutes
Rating: ****
It’s surprising to see how many different versions of Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth are available on DVD. In l999 the ION network ran a miniseries of the Verne story. Here it has been compressed into an 89-minute telefilm in a new production on mainly the same script. (In 2007 a different big production in 3D was also launched.)
The settings are San Francisco, Alaska, and inside the earth – all in the late 19th century. An anthropologist and his budding reporter nephew go on an exciting expedition with a wealthy heiress to try to find her husband who had disappeared four years earlier on an expedition to find a route to the center of the earth. Along the way in Alaska they pick up a Russian who had known about the previous expedition and whose friend had been on it and also disappeared.
The perilous journey moves along well with some excitement and reasonable acting. However, at the point they see bright daylight and emerge into a sylvan scene with a large lake and mountains, the script departs entirely from Verne’s original. First, they haven’t traveled nearly far enough to be anywhere even in the vicinity of the center of the earth. Second, there are two bright suns seen in the sky over the lake, yet right after that shot one of the characters observes that there is no sun visible – the light must come from somewhere else. Third, the inside of the earth appears just like the outside of the earth – other versions of the story had more exotic effects for this part.
The party finds the lady’s husband (Fonda) acting the part of god/ruler of a small tribe of primitives who seem like Native Americans. He has kept them under his thumb with demonstrations of power such as dynamite sticks that he has. But one group resists him and lives apart. The arrival of the visitors undermines his power and he finally decides to leave with the expedition party, as they are pursued by those warriors.
Fonda seems old and tired in his role – that is, more than the role seems to call for (though he’s very good in the interview). The production does have some good CGI prehistoric creatures which the group encounters on their way and overall doesn’t seem as hokey as some past Journeys to the Center. But it appears that budget constraints might have dictated the simplification of the last part of the film to the intrigues with the natives, with no more creatures or special effects. Otherwise Verne’s original story should have been continued.
– John Sunier
