MovieChat Forums > At the Earth's Core (1976) Discussion > I just watched this for the first time

I just watched this for the first time

posted 9 years ago by GreatWhiteApeofBarsoom
2 replies | jump to latest

Warning: spoilers about film and book in this post.

It had a quaint charm reminiscent of other low-budget sci fi/fantasy/horror movies of the time. The special effects are even amusing in how unconvincing they are. For a film of this level, the acting isn't that bad.

Unfortunately I feel the producers missed an opportunity to give the film the escapist feel of the Burroughs novel. Burroughs ends his novel much better. The film makes the love story anticlimactic whereas in the book the romance is pivotal. Yes, David is separated from Dian (Dia) (thanks to Hooja's machinations), but he prepares to return and in fact does so at novel's close. Ja (Ra in the movie) survives and in fact helps David make the gilaks (Pellucidarian humans) no longer subject to domination by the Mahars and Sagoths.

This makes the film's narrative ultimately pointless. Yes, David frees the Pellucidarians from oppression, but he and Dian are not together. Humans in Pellucidar are still a fairly weak species. David and Abner return to the outer crust having only partly improved the lives of the humans of Pellucidar.

This is a severe step down from the book's narrative. (The scaled-down cliché of general destruction in the lost world--a trope repeated on a larger scale in The People That Time Forgot--doesn't help things.)

Overall, I felt the decent and at least somewhat enjoyed it. The downbeat ending, I felt, was really an unnecessary climaxto the film though.

Requiescat in pace, Krystle Papile. I'll always miss you.

[–] glenmusher 8 years ago

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I agree with the point about the ending, serious step down from the book, I think Innes would have rather have stayed behind with Dia (n) than abandon her, at least the literary version.

I thought some of the production design was pretty good for a low budget production, liked the pink skies and surreal jungles, was not over keen on them changing the concept of Pellucidar from the unscientific, but still awesome hollow earth with the central sun and all that, this version more closely resembles Jules Verne's Saknussem Sea or Lin Carter's Zanthodon than it does Pellucidar.

All in all, as far as ERB adaptations go, this was not too bad.( in fairness, I did see the movie when it came out and long before I read the books, so I'm cutting it a bit of slack.)

Everything will be OK in the end, if it aint OK,it aint the end.

[–] Blueghost 7 years ago

Eh, I liked it then, and still like it now for what it is. It's primitive SFX and somewhat prosaic presentation is part of the charm.

But moreover the reason I like these films, and other scifi and fantasy, is because they take you someplace different. You're not bogged down by real world problems of whatever it is (owing money, infidelity, drug problems and so forth), but still has a challenge for the characters' mettle.