Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 1996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011

Scoring "Journey"

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:50:53 +0100 (BST)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

The Media’s Guide to Underground Travel

If there is one thing I have learned over the last few years having access to any number of news channels, it is that the same event can be reported in any number of ways. For instance, one news channel may say that a country has designs on a new alternative fuel source and wishes to use that source to provide it’s own electricity supply whereas another news channel based in another country may say, “Yes, but a by product of that source could be used against civilians”. It appears to be the same with fiction as well as fact.

“Journey to the Centre of the Earth” seems on the face of it to be fairly straight forward when wanting to adapt it for the big screen. A German geologist finds a message telling of a route to the centre of the earth with he and a group of people explore before getting shot out of a volcano. All fairly straight forward and yet of the four film productions I have seen (over the course of 50 years) that simple idea has been twisted and wrapped around the little finger of any number of film producers as to make the poor person who wants to watch the story as written very confused. So in order to assist, I have scored each of the productions based on the three key elements, the discovery of the message, the entrance point and the exit point of their journeys, and I have found some very wide differences.

First of all, the orginal (and in the opinions of many a Vernian, the best). Professor Otto Lidenbrock (a geology professor at Hamburg University) finds a message hidden in a book he has bought in 1863. Deciphering the message, he travels to Iceland and seeks out the Snaefells volcano and sees the shadow of the Scartaris mountain point the way on July 1 st , after several weeks travelling he exits via the Stromboli volcano in Italy on August 31 st . (Base Score: 100%)

Now we come to the versions and first up is the 1959 Disney version starring James Mason and oh dear, we are not off to a good start. Not only is it set in 1880 (17 years out), but starts off in Edinburgh (568 miles away) and it’s not a message in a book he discovers, but a message on a surveyor’s plumbum (having almost destroyed Edinburgh University’s main lecture hall). Still at least they follow the story from then on in, finding Scartaris’s shadow on July 1 st and being shot out of Stromboli (although they do it ten days faster than Lidenbrock on August 21 st ). So how do we score this, well, 17 years later is almost 10% out then the 568 mile head start they have over the Lidenbrock’s needs to be taken into account (44% less distance) and the fact that their message is on a plumbum should also be penalised. So that’s 10% time penalty, 44% distance penality, 5% penalty for the message but I will give them a 16% speed bonus gives them 87% overall, which is not a bad score.

Next comes the 1976 version starring Kenneth More and we are onto a bit of a winner here as it seems to tick all the right boxes, well almost, you see this version starts in 1898 (a full 35 years out) so that’s a 20% time penalty straight out of the gate but the rest I simply cannot fault. They enter via Snaefells (although they do not seem to rely on Scartaris, so that’s another 5% penalty) on July 1 st and exit via Stromboli on the same day as in the book. So therefore this version scores 84% just a little behind the Disney movie and therefore not that bad.

Next comes one of my own personal favourites. Willy Fog. Now as I have mentioned on several occasions it was Mr. Fog, or “Willers” as I am sure he would permit me to call him, who first got me interested in the works of Jules Verne. Admittedly it was not until 2002 I realised who Jules Verne was but having seen Mr. Fog travel around the world in eighty days back in 1985, I was fairly confident that whatever he was up to now would be a sure fire success. Now because Mr. Fog is based in London, I should immediately deduct 36% for distance, but I cannot and the reason why is that Lidenbrock travels from Hamburg to London first in order to inform Mr. Fog of his discovery of a message in a book before travelling back to Hamburg with Mr. Fog. The only penalty I can therefore take is a time penalty as this all happens in 1873 (6%). They also find Scartaris’s shadow crossing Snaefells on July 1 st and also exit via Stromboli, but just like James Mason in 1959, they have their skates on as well and for good reason. Mr. Sullivan (who really should have known better as he was thrown off the board of the Bank of England in “Around the World with Willy Fog” for the misappropriation of funds) has now decided to become a bookmaker and wagers Mr. Fog to produce documentary evidence that a route of the centre of the Earth exists before August 23 rd at midday (eight days faster than Lidenbrock) which of course he does so that’s a 14% speed bonus for him. In case you are wondering how he wins that wager as he is in Italy and Mr. Sullivan is in London, Mr. Fog manages to get the opera singing mayor of Stromboli to be the legal custodian of Arne’s diary at 11.55am (which as we know because Italy is an hour ahead of London means that the evidence was submitted at 10.55am), thus he wins another £20,000 and really gets to rub Sullivan’s nose in it (although his attention has now shifted to allegations of a sea monster attacking shipping on the main Atlantic shipping routes). So having rubbed Sullivan up the wrong way again, how does Mr. Fog score, well the answer is 93% which puts Willy Fog in the lead (a position I suspect he would enjoy anyway).

And last but not least, the most modern version and oh, dear, I don’t know where to start on this one. Not only it is set in the modern era (80% time penalty), it’s set anywhere on the American eastern seaboard from the Florida Keys to Maine (double the distance from Hamburg to Snafells) and there isn’t even a message at all (at least not in the conventional sense just scrabblings from the brother in a copy of the book), but on the plus side they do go to Snaefells on July 1 st (sans Scataris again though) and incredibly manage to complete the whole thing in just 48 hours popping out in Italy (sadly Veusuius near Naples and not Stromboli). Therefore (and I know that a lot of members will be upset by this) I have no other option but to score it as 50% (but would say in it’s defence that is you like to wile away ninety or so minutes in sheer Vernian escapism then I cannot recommend anything better!)

So, how do the final scores look then. Well, compared to the orginal Willy Fog 2 comes top with 93% accuracy, followed by James Mason’s attempt from 1959 with 87% accuracy, then Kenneth More from 1976 with a very credible 84% and then finally Brendan Fraser’s attempt in 2008 with 50% (and if I am being honest that’s being a little generous).

But at least we can be pleased by one thing and that is over the course of 50 years, there have been four major productions of a Jules Verne work that whilst not top of the pile in terms of name recognition is certainly up there on the list of novels to be read. Next time, I shall score the various versions of “Around the World in Eighty Days” but as I am only really aware of two versions (the Oscar winning version with David Niven and Willy Fog) would be more than happy if members can suggest other versions so long as they fulfil two key elements, namely 1) They must feature all the main characters (Fogg, Passepartout, Auoda and Fix) and 2) must be more than 90 minutes long and may be either film or television series.
Received on Fri 16 Sep 2011 - 14:51:03 IDT

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2011/09/16 15:00:02 $$