"20,000 Leagues" book and movie are both classics

I scratched two minor items off my “Things I’ve Always Wanted to Do” list earlier this week when I finished reading Jules Verne’s classic science fiction novel, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and watched the classic 1954 Disney motion picture version of the book.

Verne, who is often called the “Father of Science Fiction,” wrote “20,000 Leagues” in the 1870, years before submarines were commonplace and when relatively little was known about life beneath the sea.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it centers on three men - a professor of marine biology, his assistant and a master harpooner - who fall from a U.S. Naval ship and are rescued by the crew of the submarine, Nautilus. The submarine’s captain, Captain Nemo, who is arguably the most memorable character in the book, holds the three men prisoner because he’s afraid that, if released, they’ll tell the world about his powerful and high-tech submarine.

They proceed on an undersea voyage around the world, covering a distance of roughly 20,000 leagues (or about 50,000 miles). During their trip, they encounter cannibals, shipwrecks, ancient ruins, fabulous treasure, giant octopi and undersea cemeteries.

Having now read the novel, I appreciate why it’s considered a classic. The tale is well told and a number of interesting conflicts draw the reader into the story. The professor, Pierre Aronnax, who is the novel’s main character, is torn between his desire to escape and his desire to remain on board the Nautilus where he has an unprecedented opportunity to learn more about life beneath the waves.

The master harpooner, Ned Land, on the other hand, is a strapping, robust and active person, who quickly grows tired of being cooped up on the Nautilus by Nemo, who refuses time and again Land’s requests for release onto civilized shores. At times, Land schemes over how to escape, how best to take over the sub and even how to murder Nemo.

The 1954 adaptation of the novel by Disney is probably the best known film adaptation of the book, and as you would imagine there are some differences between the plots of the movie and the book. That is not to say that the movie isn’t highly entertaining.

Directed by Richard Fleischer, the movie stared Kirk Douglas as Land, James Mason as Nemo and Paul Lukas as Arronax. It has the distinction of being the first science-fiction film produced by Disney. It also reaped over $11 million at the box office against a budget of $4.3 million.

For those of you who enjoyed this movie, you’ll be interested to learn that director David Fincher announced in 2010 that he plans to direct an updated version of the movie for Disney. Fincher is probably best known for directing such popular films as “Seven,” “The Game,” “Fight Club,” “Panic Room,” “Zodiac,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Social Network.” If the updated “20,000 Leagues” movie is as good as those films, then we’re in for a treat. There is no word yet, however, on when the new “20,000 Leagues” movie will be released.

In the end, I enjoyed the book and the movie, and I highly recommend them to anyone who, like me only a week or so ago, had never experienced either of them.

How many of you out there have read this book or seen this movie? What did you think about them? Let us know in the comments section below.