The Mysterious Island (1973) User Reviews

Extraordinary adventures and sensational landscapes beautifully filmed in the Canary Islands

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 7 January 2008]

This new rendition about Jules Verne novel is developed during the American Civil war (1861-1865) , Union POWs (Jess Hahn, Philippe Nicaud , Gerard Tichy and a boy , Rafael Bardem Jr) escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a lonely South Pacific island . They must use their ingenious and wisdom to survive risks and dangers , as weird ray-guns and to devise a way to return at home . They also find another island , a shipwrecked man (Gabriele Tinti) who joins the motley group , besides , appearing Captain Nemo (Omar Sharif) and his submarine . Meanwhile , a band of pirates (Rick Battaglia , Mariano Vidal Molina , Victor Israel , among others) attack the island.

This is the following to ¨20000 leagues under the sea¨, containing fantastic adventures , suspense , thrills , shootouts and wonderful outdoors . The cinematic version -two hours approximately- is plenty of flaws , however the overlong miniseries in 6 episodes, being more adequate . The film is marvelously set on location in Lanzarote , natural park of Timanfaya , Canary Islands , Alicante and Cameroon . Captain Nemo is middling played by Omar Sharif , he was very angry because being hired for a cinema production when the picture turned into a TV mini-series . Average special effects with a cheesy submarine made by means of scale model , though interiors are well realized . The film packs a sensitive , touching musical score by Gianni Ferrio , an usual musician of Spaghetti Western (Sledge, Desperados) . Colorful cinematography by cameraman Enzo Sarafian, though being necessary a rapid adjust but the copy is worn-out . The movie was professionally co-directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and Henry Colpi . Bardem is one of the best Spanish directors with various excellent pictures ( Main street , Vendetta , and Comedians) . Henry Colpi was a prestigious editor and occasionally director and here was assistant direction . Other versions about this known story are the following ones : The best version in 1961 directed by Cy Endfield with monsters created by Ray Harryhausen and with Herbert Lom as Nemo and TV version , 2005 , by Russell Mulcahy with Patrick Stewart as Nemo .

Magical TV series edited into a flat movie

[vostf · 6/10 · 1 September 2001]

I discovered the original mini-series on TV (six 52-min episodes) and this is a treat of an adventure that you would catch on holidays then remember from your youth and for which you're bound to keep a peculiar feeling.

Unfortunately the movie version is not on a par with the mini-series. Well it was dishonest in the first place to think a movie can be edited from various TV episodes. The charm of the series was in its episodic unfolding, which results in a pretty shallow storytelling on the big screen. More so as the regular ellipses required to reduce runtime to feature length (less than half the original footage) are hard to swallow and rip out the little magic still on display in some sequences.

So I'd definitely advise you to find the original TV version which is much close to Jules Vernes mixture of adventure and sci-fi with characters brought to life (which is exactly what you would find lacking if you go back to the books as an adult, or if you watch the movie version where there's no time for you to settle with the castaways). Especially Omar Sharif is a deeply moving Captain Nemo. Fancy thinking he just played it to repay his debts (he is an inveterate gambler). Once again this prominent part is drowned in the action of the movie version whereas it's the climax of the series where the adaptation takes time to build up tension rather than rush to the final sequence.

On the whole a very good TV series and a good example of the difference between two types of storytelling. And type mismatch.

Probably the best adaptation of Verne's novel

[machf · 15 February 2004]

I watched this one as a mini-series (one part each weekday) back in ~1976; when it was transmitted again in the weekend back-to-back as a single block, it was the first thing I ever watched on color TV at my aunt's house. It's a very good adaptation of Verne's book, far better than others I've seen. Omar Sharif played a convincing Captain Nemo, and, AFAICR, the rest of the cast provided good acting too. I've been wanting to watch it again ever since, and thanks to the IMdB I was finally able to find out the production details - I didn't even know it had been a Spanish production! Unfortunately, it seems it isn't available for sale on video or DVD... a real pity. I can only hope it will be released during this decade.

A very hard to find film!

[Zar · 8/10 · 14 December 2000]

This film is extremely rare. I watched it on Danish tv when I was kid - something like 26 years ago! - and have been hunting it ever since. Finally I tracked down a German rental tape, but apparently no English language video exists?? THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF CAPTAIN NEMO stays fairly close to the source (in the book Jupiter is an orangutan, not a chimpanzee, ok, that's a very minor detail). However the film adds som weird sci-fi touches. Back then I was very fascinated by the remote rayguns with which Captain Nemo (Omar Sharif!) protects his realm, while today they admittedly look suspiciously like car lights on sticks. But the film is still great fun.

Not quite lost

[Zar · 8/10 · 7 July 2004]

Happily the series is not lost after all. Theatrical versions were released to DVD in France and Italy some time ago.

Now, finally, a Spanish movie magazine has released the complete six-episodes series to limited edition DVD! Bad news for some of us is that only a Spanish language track is included, with no subtitles. (If that is unacceptable to you, well, you'll have track down one of the old VHS releases then - and that'd be of the theatrical version only. No complete release in English is known to exist.) But at least it's available, so get it while you can. I've heard that the initial batch sold out almost instantly, to the complete surprise of the magazine staff.

Anyway, let's hope someone will release an English language version. If necessary, do a brand new dub! (Omar Sharif is still around, after all.)

P.S. Watching the complete series again I marvel at how faithful to Jules Verne the producers were. Well, they did crank up the scifi elements a bit, but then again Verne is considered the grandfather of Science Fiction, isn't he?

New 627 minute DVD Version Available!!

[Steve_Nyland · 10/10 · 19 December 2005]

There is indeed a brand new Region 2 DVD release from German company Cult Cinema International that shows the complete four and a half hour German version without any interruptions and done from a brand new fullframe transfer, with English subtitles. A genuine treat for enthusiasts of movies with imagination, easily the most faithful adaptation of Verne to the movies, and at 627 minutes without one boring spot proves once again that no good movie is too long and no bad movie can be over soon enough. Peter Jackson should maybe grab one of these DVDs before inflicting another three hour snooze a rama on the public; I'll trade this entire film for the sixty minutes or so from his KING KONG worth seeing any day of the week. The dog is awesome.

10/10

Involved European sci-fi adventure miniseries

[Leofwine_draca · 8/10 · 28 August 2016]

Here's the infamous European miniseries of the classic Verne tale, which was produced in no less than three countries - France, Spain, and last of all Italy. THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF CAPTAIN NEMO has acquired the status of a "lost classic" these days due to the unavailability of it, with international video prints few and far between. The film has something magical about it and seemingly entranced a nation of children who caught it when it was first shown on television back in the mid '70s. Unfortunately, the entire miniseries is missing presumed lost, so all we are currently left with is a feature length version.

This production sticks fairly closely to the original tale by Jules Verne, while adding in a few choice elements of its own, namely the science fiction angle. The film is leisurely paced and focuses far more on atmosphere and suspense rather than all-out thrills and action, although it is not without the latter. The location filming is excellent, with authentic-looking scenery for the actors to explore, and the barren landscape really adds a level of mystery and suspense to the entire movie. It's certainly very watchable and gripping in a "what happens next?" type sense, and being a character-focused story also gives the viewer a sense of "being there" as events take place.

The acting is pretty good from the mainly Spanish cast, with the only big name really being Omar Sharif, who takes the minor role of Captain Nemo who appears towards the end of the movie. Sharif keeps a straight face throughout and is deadly serious in the role, and in my opinion is perfectly cast as the man I would imagine Nemo to be (forget Herbert Lom). Euro-fans will no doubt spot a number of familiar faces and names appearing in the cast, a list which includes the like of Gabriele Tinti, Rik Battaglia, and Gerard Tichy. In regards to the characters, the film seems to be rooted in realism and there are no over-the-top scenes of people losing it and turning on their companions. Instead it opts for an approach similar to that of Tom Hanks in CASTAWAY, with the shipwrecked victims being ordinary folk forced to adapt as best they can to island life and learning to fend for themselves.

One of the big questions I guess is how does it compare with the '61 MYSTERIOUS ISLAND with effects by Ray Harryhausen. The biggest difference is in the budget. In the previous feature, the film was packed with weird and wonderful giant creatures and excellent special effects. Here, the budget appears to be a lot smaller, so there are no monsters or fantastic creatures whatsoever. Instead, the movie goes for a sci-fi approach, and in the case of the special effects, the imagination overcomes the problems of the low budget with ease. Chiefly of interest are some remote weapons which glitter and flash from a mountaintop and zap any intruders with invisible lightning bolts. Ignore the fact that these are cheaply-made constructions on sticks and you may well feel the odd chill or two at the sight of these weird devices. Certainly the sight of them protruding from the top of the mountain evokes fear of the unknown.

A lot of imagination also goes into the film's set design, with some pretty (but briefly seen) exterior shots of the underground Nautilus and some interestingly-designed interior corridors which definitely go for the futuristic sci-fi approach. The costumes of Nemo's crew are also very weird, with elaborate (almost aboriginal-looking) masks and brightly coloured suits. Being a production aimed at kids there is no real violence, although the scene in which Jupiter (the chimp) gets gunned down is enough to annoy any animal lover.

As well as these factors, THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF CAPTAIN NEMO offers us an extremely cheesy model balloon; a wild-eyed brute man who runs around like in a bad jungle movie; cute animals in the form of the chimp and a dog; an annoyingly cute Spanish kid; a shoot-out with a brutal gang of pirates which is expertly-handled and pretty tense; a cool ship explosion; a cheesy electrocution of one of the major bad guys; some murky underwater action; and an exciting climatic volcano eruption. For me, the production is worth watching for the atmosphere and atmospheric scenery alone, but it's also an interesting and involving adventure yarn to boot. I recommend it.