Where Time Began
(a.k.a. The Fabulous
Journey To The Center Of The Earth)
(1977)
Director: Juan Piquer Simon
Cast: Kenneth More, Pep Munne, Ivonne Sentis
There's a lot
in my life that I find quite satisfying, and it makes me feel glad to
be living in this day and age. Obviously, one of those satisfying
things is motion pictures. I can not only access by various means
thousands of motion pictures whenever I want, I can also write about
them and have my writings of these motion pictures read by thousands of
people all over the world. Also, computers and the Internet have made
research and various other aspects of life a heck of a lot easier for
mankind. And I don't have to face various diseases that ravaged people
in the past, such as smallpox or the bubonic plague. But there's a part
of me that's a little unhappy to be living in these modern times. As I
have mentioned several times before on this web site, there's a part of
me that desires to explore new places and discover new things.
Sometimes I wish I lived several hundred years ago, when the world was
still being explored and people were discovering new plant and animal
life. The feeling of being the first person to lay eyes on new lands
and new life would, to me, be the ultimate thrill. Sadly, however, the
traditional ways of satisfying that craving for discovery have all but
been eliminated. It seems that every little bit of all of the
continents has been seen by various people. And scientists have done a
pretty good job of cataloguing the various plant and animal life that
lives on land. Oh, there are probably a few more plants and animals
that have yet not been discovered, but more likely than not they are
extremely insignificant, like tiny insects - hardly anything to get the
blood pumping pretty hard.
So exploring the surface of the planet seems to not be a
viable option for me to quench my thirst for discovery. Finding a
previously unexplored island where prehistoric life still exists, which
was depicted in movies like King Kong and The Last Dinosaur,
is simply not a possibility. What other options are available? Well,
although mankind has barely scratched the surface when it comes to
outer space, our present level of technology limits us to what we can
discover, and this exploring is reserved to only a select few. There is
also exploring the world under the surface of the ocean, but the idea
of being crammed into the small space of some kind of submarine while
thousands of pounds of pressure are squeezing the submarine kind of
fills my body with an alternate form of sea sickness. But recently, I
figured out a third possible unexplored world that might possibly
satisfy my craving for exploration. And that would be to explore what
is under ground. Mankind has literally barely scratched the surface
when it comes to underground exploration. True, most of what is under
the surface of the Earth is solid dirt and rock. But I am sure that if
you dig deep enough, you would be able to find caves that currently no
person has ever explored. And it is entirely possible that in those
caves, you would find some sort of life living there. Even plant life -
I once read that a significant percentage of the plant life we already
know exists on Earth does not need sunlight. And if there is plant life
deep down there, there is also the possibility that there may be some
form of animal life as well, animal life that has never been seen
before.
All of this sounds intriguing and has endless
possibilities. So it should come as no surprise that the motion picture
industry over the years has made movies that depict people exploring
underground and discovering new kinds of life. Some of these have been
horror movies, such at the 2005 movies The Descent and The Cave.
Whether they are horrific in nature or more serious, most of these
underground exploration movies owe a debt to Jules Verne's novel Journey To The Center Of The Earth.
The novel itself has been "officially" adapted to motion picture form
several times, but these adaptations have been for the most part
in-name only. In the past, I reviewed one such
so-called direct adaptation,
which managed to be utterly insane, so bad that I felt that any other
adaptation of the Verne novel had to come across good by comparison. So
even though my pre-viewing research of Where
Time Began
revealed that it was a low budget European production, I felt it had to
be better than the Cannon Films' movie. For one thing, the movie sticks
a lot closer to the Verne novel than Golan and Globus did. Where Time Began
begins with Professor Otto Lidenbrock (Kenneth More, Dark Of
The Sun)
getting his hands on the writings of the legendary Arne Saknussemm, and
after decoding the cryptic writings discovers that Saknessemm
apparently made his way to the center of the earth. Like in the Verne
novel, the professor is determined to follow Saknussemm's footsteps, so
he travels to Iceland with his niece Glauben (Ivonne Sentis, China 9,
Liberty 37) and Glauben's fiancé Axel (Pep Munne).
Lidenbrock
also hires shepherd Hans (Frank Brana, Pieces)
to help, making a party of four. The four explorers descend into the
bowels of the earth though an inactive volcano, and it doesn't take
that long for them to discover strange and fascinating life deep
down... though they also discover that their discoveries could prove
deadly to them if they are not careful or lucky.
I know that for a lot of people reading this review, the
first thing that they probably want me to go into with Where Time Beganis
with the eye candy of the movie, with stuff like the sets, props,
and special effects. They will want to know if they are passable, or if
they are cheap and incompetent enough to be laughable or not. Believe
me, there is a place in my heart for cinematic eye candy, but I want to
first talk about the characters. A good adventure depends on good
characters as much as eye candy, because a human element is needed to
make the adventure engaging. However, the characters in this particular
adventure are not particularly well developed. The character that comes
off best is Professor Lidenbrock. He does not come across as too
bumbling or eccentric, approaching situations with reasonable
seriousness for the most part. However, he is missing a more human side
to his character, not really showing that much compassion or care for
his niece or the other characters he interacts with. Glauben, the
professor's niece, does show some likeable spunk that at the same time
feels believable for this
late 19th century set story, and her fiancé Axel, while not the
smartest man in the world, shows some brains and bravery on occasion.
Unfortunately, when they are paired up, the tone of the movie often
becomes too cutesy-pie, and other times they temporarily lose their
intelligence and wander into danger. As for the character of Hans, his
early scenes show some promise, coming across as a mostly silent but
thoughtful and brave character. But not long after his introduction,
the movie pretty much abandons any idea of using this intriguing
character, giving him almost no additional dialogue or anything
significant to do.
There is a fifth character that eventually enters the
movie, a mysterious man named Olsen (Jack Taylor, The Ninth Gate)
that the four explorers stumble upon while exploring the bowels of the
Earth. He does not identify what he's doing there at first, and we in
the audience then expect there will be a big (and clear) explanation
eventually. While I guess there is an eventual explanation, it is far
from satisfying, and it raises a lot more questions than answers. That
is not the only example of poor writing found in Where Time Began.
The movie has more than its share of unanswered questions. In the first
part of the movie, there is no clear transition between finding a key
ancient manuscript and when it is discussed among several professors.
But the movie also has more than its share of plot points that are
unbelievable and/or laughable, from 19th century Iceland having a
gigantic multi-levelled museum, to characters that talk or shout loudly
to people nearby who for some reason can't seem to hear them. Well, as
for that last part, it may be because the movie's dubbed audio is so
poorly recorded that it sometimes can't be made out. Director Juan
Piquer Simon (Pieces)
does use a few devices to try and gloss over the rough spots of the
script, such as occasional voice over narration. Also, he does direct
the whole package in a way that goes from scene to scene pretty
quickly, so the audience doesn't dwell on a particular plot stupidity
for too long. However, this directorial style does backfire on
occasion, particularly the ending of the movie. After the adventurers
have completed their adventure, you might expect that they would get a
satisfying payoff, and we in the audience would share this payoff with
them. However, we only get about a minute or two of post-adventure
footage, which is simply not long enough for Simon to give his
characters sufficient reward for their long and hard work.
There are additional weaknesses to be found in Simon's
direction. Quite often in the movie where there is a moment where there
should be excitement or awe, he directs the moment in a way that comes
across in a matter-of-fact manner. The initial descent down the
inactive volcano that leads into the Earth's interior is way too
casual. And later, when the explorers make a raft to explore an
underground lake, there's no sense of danger or thrills as this raft
floats flatly on water that is obviously just a few feet away from the
shore. There is some amusement seeing how this "underground lake" is
accomplished by Simon, who was obviously working with a tight special
effects budget. In fairness to him, he does manage to generate some
decent eye candy despite the limited funds. He managed to shoot much of
the movie in an actual and eye-catching cavern. And some of the special
effects, such as giant turtles and giant mushrooms, actually don't look
too bad. Even the shabbier special effects, like where 1970s Godzilla
quality giant puppet water monsters get into a battle (while the wall
of the soundstage behind them can be clearly seen), have a certain
quaint charm that you don't get nowadays in CGI generated monsters in
more modern special effects films. While Where Time Began
sometimes has an agreeable old-fashioned charm, its problem is that the
rest of the package for the most part is lacking enough spark. It
should have either a lot of excitement, or a lot of goofiness to grab
viewers. Maybe even both of those things. It seems aimed at younger
children who haven't seen more energetic cinematic tales, instead of
being a tale that one way or another would entertain people of all ages
and cinematic diets.
(Posted October 11, 2022)
Check
for availability on Amazon (DVD)
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-
Check
for availability on Amazon for Jules Verne's original novel
See also: Adventures In
Dinosaur City, Journey To The Center...,
Theodore Rex
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