georgeareed

Directed by the "Master of Disaster", Irwin Allen? Check. Set largely in a Submarine? Check. Ensemble cast (including Peter Lorre and Barbara Eden)? Check. Schmaltzy title song (sung in this case, by Frankie Avalon)? Check. All the F/X a low-to-middling budget in 1961 could bring to bear (including consoles with blinking lights and beeping noises, rubber sharks, and lots of obvious miniatures)? Check Yes, buddy.

In fact, all the touchstones are here: the microcosm of humanity (the stalwart leader, the young idealist, the madman), the plucky and the fearful all reacting and responding to the impending dooms.

So, how did "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" fail so signally when there was so much to commend it? The narrative, the script, the pacing, the stakes, are all weak. There are too many impending dooms, for this movie anyway-- even my five year old commented on this. The imminent global disaster doesn't feel authentic-- not through the exposition, nor through the characters actions, words, or emotions. The series of disasters on the submarine, unevenly spaced as they are, don't create much tension, and don't reveal much in the characters. This movie squandered its capital of disaster, submarines, ensemble cast, and 60's /70's production values. Too bad.

Terry Gilliam has created a memorable if uneven canon of films based largely on the meta-theme of imagination. That is to say, he has made a career of telling stories about telling stories. Most fan favorite lists would include Brazil, Time Bandits, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, 12 Monkeys, the indefinitely shelved The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Brothers Grimm and most recently, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas. There are a few common threads running through all these films including The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassas and its typological predecessor, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.

In choosing his source material, Gilliam favors those stories that cut a rather wide swath through time and space. Witness the exploits of the good Baron, conquering everything from the Ottomans to the king of the moon. Time Bandits do just that--pilfer throughout history. Brazil traverses...I don't actually know.

Gilliam uses his camera to capture dystopian worlds, worlds that typically bear a passing resemblance to ours, but with the bleakness turned to eleven. The darkness is usually leavened by a cartoonish level of abstraction especially evident in the costumes and set pieces (here the erstwhile illustrator of the Pythons is in evidence. The aesthetics and the promise (or premise) of a good story draw us in.

But, as is often the case with a Terry Gilliam meditation, the whole thing feels overwrought and under developed. Munchausen is a collection of great movie quotes, set pieces, and performances. But it is an overlong slog through the grim landscape of an aging man's narcissism and manias.

One I still revisit every few years though.

As a young boy watching the end credits roll, I so badly wanted the Adventure to continue. It did not. Not in movies anyway. But the book series most certainly has continued. As it turns out, this movie was based on a long-running series of books-- The Destroyer series by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir.

So, if you are looking for a hard-boiled, martial arts-rich, action-crammed, mystical espionage thriller novel from 1971, on which the 1985 movie, "Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins" starring Fred Ward of "Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins" fame, was loosely based, you should look no further than "Created, The Destroyer", book one of the Destroyer Series.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for a hard-boiled, martial arts-rich, action-crammed, mystical espionage thriller movie from 1985, gently based on "Created, The Destroyer", book one of the Destroyer Series by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, you should, at that point, look no further than "Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins".

Both book and movie are quaint time capsules of their respective bygone eras, the former filled with "hoods", organized crime syndicates, and fresh memories of Vietnam, the latter with "thugs", sinister politicians, and Cold War mercenaries. And both feature "orientals". The chief of which, is Chuin, Remo's aged Korean trainer, the standout character of the book(s?) and the movie. He is a caricature to be sure, laden as he is with the folksy eastern mysticism, and a distaste for all things western, but with the improbable exception of our soap operas-- so he is at least a charming caricature.

There is some talk of a reboot of the movie, provisionally titled, "The Destroyer". Meanwhile, if you already revisited this bit of mid-eighties childhood kitsch and are looking for more, may I remind you of 'Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swan'. If "Back to the Future III" didn't quite do it for you, you have another option. This entry in Fred Ward's oeuvre notably also involves the word, "adventure" in the title. And a colon.