环游世界八十天

This is a legitimate Oscar BEST PICTURE winner no one bothers to talk about nowadays, a globe-trotting travelogue in its most ostentatious fashion, Michael Anderson’s epic adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel has little substance to offer other than playing up to the hackneyed stiff-upper-lipped Britishness, perfunctorily garnished with a limp romance between the Victorian English gentleman Phileas Fogg (Niven) and an Indian princess Aouda (a brown-faced MacLaine), a fair damsel-in-distressed who is worth rescuing all the more because of her educational background.

Opening with footage of George Méliès’ A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) to pay homage to the author Jules Verne and mankind’s indefatigable will of exploring the unknown and unreachable, AROUND… inherits the same spirit as Fogg makes a hefty wager with his fellow members of the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the globe within 80 days, and making the most of the “money talks” credo, Fogg and his new manservant Passepartout (a penny-farthing-riding Cantinflas) embarks on their journey with a bag full of cash, that can buy off any sort of conveyances available to expedite their trips, whether it is a gas balloon, an elephant or seaworthy craft.

While Fogg never troubles himself with gallivanting in these various localities they transit, whist alone is enough to keep him contentedly occupied, much of the legwork is devolved to Passepartout, who is constantly distracted by fine ladies passing by, but also valiant enough to solve many a hitch cropping up on the way, including a prolonged bullfighting sequence in Spain (for plain showing-off reason though); his misadventure in Hong Kong at the hand of police inspector Fix (Newton), who is so dead sure that Fogg is a major bank robber and goes all his way to arrest him; a circus stint in Japan and lastly, almost being immolated by the Sioux people in the wild wild west, Cantinflas is totally having a ball with all the hustle and bustle and physical stunts, whereas Niven mostly concerns with his ethnocentric fastidiousness, saddled with a nonplussed MacLaine is barely given any lines to utter.

Corralling a swarm of cameos from name stars, AROUND… is a standard bearer to reassure those billing-concerning performers that there is safety in numbers to give audience a star-spotting game to play, and it has a 6-minute long closing credits sequence ingeniously designed by Saul Bass as the last hurrah and prompts audience to recollect a re-run of all the escapades inside one’s own head. Yours Truly’s high points include Sir. John Gielgud’s impeccable tirade, Buster Keaton’s endearing homage of his masterpiece THE GENERAL (1926) and Marlene Dietrich imperturbably adorned in particolored glamor.

Marrying original location images (sublime sunsets) with the epic soundstage illusions (all coordinated brilliantly with Victor Young’s bombastic score), AROUND… is a Hollywood extravaganza in its most literal sense and a helluva vanity project to sail through onto safe, even prosperous waters (it is the antithesis of a CLEOPATRA-esque catastrophe), sandwiched between AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1952) and GIGI (1958). ‘50s sees quite often when the Academy opts for tinsels-and-exotica-riddled frivolity over the more homebound epics with a weighty emotional and societal charge, like George Stevens’ GIANT (1956) in this instance, the joke is totally on them, which again dins into us that Hollywood’s taste is scarcely the veritable benchmark of cinematic extraordinariness.

referential entries: Michael Anderson’s LOGAN’S RUN (1976, 7.1/10); Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954, 7.0/10).

这部电影里，英国绅士们过着打牌，玩斯诺克，喝茶的优越生活，不管在在刮着大风的船上，还是热带雨林中都要喝茶。英国绅士还拯救了一位在英国受过教育却要被当地教殉葬的印度女人。

与之对应的，是20世纪50年代英国人眼中的多元文化秀，包括西班牙斗牛，印度活人葬，日本艺妓舞，美国选举，印第安部落。

电影中的美国，是一个乱糟糟的国家，基建落后，火车动不动就因为西部野牛和破损的桥而停下来，火车遭遇了印第安人的袭击以至于仆人最抓走了被火烧（还好被救了出来），真是一个落后危险的国家。就连民主选举制度，也被这个充满了傲慢的英国老绅士不认同，他对仆人说：这个国家太野蛮了，没有枪不能保护好自己。

可以说，该电影充满着对其他国家的揶揄和对日不落帝国的怀念，而1956年的美国电影已经出现了《人猿星球》《2001太空漫游》这类科幻巨制。于是，在结尾处，在印度救下的女人期望加入俱乐部时，被人们拒绝，福特说“这意味着大英帝国的终结”，意味深长。

另外，片尾的动画和音乐也很精彩。

1872年菲利亚·福格先生在伦敦改良俱乐部和会友们打赌，要在八十天内环游地球一周。在当时的情况下，这确实是一件很难办到的事，因为旅客一定要把时间掌握得非常准确，也就是说一下火车就要上轮船，一下轮船就要上火车，如果有半点延误，就会使整个旅行计划脱节而全功尽弃。但是福克先生与他的仆人路路通从伦敦出发，经过欧、非、亚、美四个洲，以坚定的意志克服了无数自然和人为的障碍，消除了侦探费克斯对他的误解，还娶了一位印度妻子艾娥达，终于在八十天内环游地球一周回到伦敦，甚至还提前一天完成任务。在这本书里，作者通过动人的故事情节介绍了各地的奇风异俗和丰富的地理知识。