While 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is synonymous with adventure much of
the film contains little action. The story is really about two scientists and
their search for knowledge. Their discoveries bring them to the meeting place
of imagination and knowledge, to places where man has never been before.
However, their heroism isn’t natural, and Captain Nemo’s ominous character
tints this quest of inquisition with danger. Gold is not the object of their
search, but knowledge and better life is, and keeping these priorities straight
is imperative. The film propagates a
scientific mind and reflects a childlike curiosity through the actions of the
heroes, through formal elements such as pace and narration, and through the
ideals of the scientists, while instructing children on the responsibility and
danger of knowledge.
All of the characters are unique in
that they have an extreme lack of hesitation and love of experimentation,
reflecting ideals of scientific method. Whatever new situation they are
presented with, they jump in wholeheartedly. For example, when Arronax and
Conseil find the “monster” after they’re floating through the sea, they
immediately jump on and begin exploring. Arronax shows this eagerness for
experimentation when trying Captain Nemo’s strange seafood, and Conseil and Ned
have no hesitations about wandering through the bottom of the ocean to collect
food and samples. This is not an impulsivity but a desire for experience and a
drive to test hypotheses.
The film celebrates a scientific mindset in
its use of process and duration to illustrate the value of a scientific mindset
and the lasting impressions of newness on a child’s mind. When Aronnax and
Conseil first arrive on board the Nautilus,
the film immediately slows down as they search every nook and cranny. The
production design and editing during this sequence of the film spares no
expense in delighting over the discovery of every small thing. Long shots
depict Nemo and Aronnax looking out the window and watching this new world of
the ocean. This slowed pacing and emphasis on process continues when Conseil
and Ned join the crew in harvesting food from the ocean. The long sequence
lingers through this portrait of life under the ocean, and captures wonderful
moments of sea life and landscape. This fascination with every aspect of new
life reflects the idea of childlike curiosity as described by the concept of
Tabula Rasa as described by John Locke:
“Follow a child from its birth, and observe the
alterations that time makes, and you shall find, as the mind by the senses
comes more and more to be furnished with ideas, it comes to be more and more
awake; thinks more, the more it has matter to think on. And so we may observe
how the mind, by degrees, improves in these; and advances to the exercise of
those other faculties of enlarging, compounding, and abstracting its ideas, and
of reasoning about them, and reflecting upon all these…”
As Aronnaxand grows to understand
Nemo and his ideals, his thirst for knowledge only grows. Nemo’s ideals, though
twisted based on his confused life experience and tint of madness, all focus on
the bettering and sacredness of life. The Nautilus
and the life it contains is one of discovery and peace, and Nemo’s greatest
fear is that the world will take his discoveries and use them for ill. For Nemo
and Arronax, intelligence is they key to a better life, and war kills
inquisition. In the end, when Nemo blows up his island and his discoveries, he sadly
states that his discoveries will return “when the world is ready for a new and
better life.”
20,000
Leagues Under the Sea idealizes inquisition and a thirst for knowledge, but
is also a cautionary tale. The eager pursuit of experimentation and the slower
pace during moments of discovery reflect a child’s curiosity, while Nemo’s
ideals instruct that knowledge is power and must be used for good.
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