Villian?

The only unlikable guy was the daughters a$$hole boyfriend, but there was no actual villain, except perhaps mankind's inherent evil. Jules Verne was always big on the "anti"-hero; that brilliant, tortured soul with a troubled past who is trying to make the world a better place, even if it means blowing most of it to hell.

Robur and Captain Nemo could have been twins!




















Know the Death of Religion, Know the Death of Hate and Fear

To a fan of Anime and Watchmen, it's almost funny to see these people so shocked at what Robur's willing to do for his Utopia. He never attacks civilians, so I can't call it any more immoral then any other War.

Lelouch and Ozymandias make Robur look look like a panzy.

I would consider Captain Robur a villain, albeit a sympathetic one. Even when functioning on the misconception that he is performing a necessary evil, there are still holes in his morality. In addition to attacking soldiers without provocation, his life-endangering rope punishment of Strock was a tyrannical abuse of power. He had no call to shoot down the balloon, to make prisoners of its four crew members, or to punish Strock and Phillip after making a deal that he wouldn't. If the hadn't survived being shot down, he would have killed them in cold blood for accidentally discovering his ship.

The character morality in the film is its best feature. Whereas so many modern works gratuitously attempt to force a sense of gray morality, this film feels very natural in the way that it presents its characters. Here, morality is not so much a solid gray as it is checkered. Each of the male characters have good traits and bad.

Strock wishes to save the world and is a self-sacrificing individual. However, he's also a dishonest individual who will go along with something he doesn't believe in and then operate on a basis of betrayal. Fairly late in the film, he verbally states "honor be damned."

Phillip, in contrast to Strock, believes that man should be open about what he believes in and stand up for it whatever the cost. However, he eventually betrays Strock and leaves him for dead over personal pettiness between them. And while Prudence is depicted in a generally sympathetic light, the film doesn't exactly let him off the hook for war profiteering - such as selling weapons to the British government so that they might prevent Ireland from achieving independence.

Call the film good or call the film bad. If you stop and pay attention to it, it's one that will make you think. The character's views, their actions, their shortcomings and hypocrisies are all very well handled. And when the men who sought to challenge the world sink to the sea, it's difficult not to feel empathy for them.
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"In literature, it's called plagiarism. In the movies, it's homage" ~ Roger Ebert

Robur makes an interesting responsible villain. Vincent Price admirably portrays him as a man who wages war on the things that carry out war.