Customer Reviews

Krakatoa East of Java

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For some reason I've always enjoyed Krakatoa having originally seen it in Cinerama.

This DVD is frankly a disaster; many years ago Benny Hill did a sketch of a movie set on a boat that kept jumping. This is what the print on this DVD does all the time. Whereas Benny Hill was funny, this is not.

The picture is weird to say the least; it is billed as Widescreen on the box but even when playing it in Widescreen on a Widescreen TV the picture is too squashed.

The sound is not AC3 stereo although I thought it was clear.

The film has been cut terribly and runs far short of the time billed on the DVD case.

Don't bother with this awful print; let's hope the movie gets restored properly.

This movie is a guilty pleasure, best enjoyed in its original uncut, big screen Cinerama format.The story is corny, but the special effects make up for any deficencies. The Simitar DVD release is taken from a cut TV print running 102 min. The original theatrical roadshow Cinerama release ran aprox 136 min including intermission. The Simitar DVD is widescreen and muted stereo, but it is worn and terribly cut. Wait for a new transfer of the complete film from better source materials. Don't waste your money on Simitar junk.

Okay, so it's not a work of art. But "Krakatoa" is very much a guilty pleasure. Max Schell and Sal Mineo pretty much phone in their performances. Diane Baker is trying so hard she seems like she's in a different movie. But where else are you going to see Brian Keith trying to rape a Polynesian pearl diver? The effects are clearly the star, with the tsunami tidal wave being fairly impressive, even by today's standards. It's a shame that we cannot get a better transfer of the complete 136 minute film. There are way too many obvious splices in this transfer to be acceptable. Also, this was released originally with a flaw that prevented it from being viewed unsqueezed. The flaw is corrected on the new pressing, but it has the same catalog number as the old pressing! The only way to tell them apart is that the new pressing has a white circle in the center, and the old one is clear.

With lines like "Don't explode, Chris!" and that famously geographically mistaken title, it's clear that no-one on the set was taking Krakatoa, East of Java too seriously. Rather than a historically accurate account of the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history (for that you need to see the BBC's Krakatoa: The Last Day), it's pure hokum that knows it's hokum and shows you where all the money's been spent. High, wide and handsome hokum at that, designed to fill the wide Cinerama screen

The disaster movie formula was already well enough established for the stock characters to be present: Brian Keith's diver with a busted lung and a bottle of laudanum, Rossano Brazzi and Sal Mineo as father and son balloonists, John Leyton's claustrophobic diving bell designer, Barbara Werle's photographer and `soprano', Diane Baker as treasure hunting skipper Maximilian Schell's just-out-of-the-asylum lover, Jacqui Chan's pearl diver... Throw in a cargo of convicts (replaced by orphans and singing nuns for the return voyage) and you can pretty much fill in the blanks in the plot yourself. Subtle it ain't - after Barbara Werle does a striptease for Brian Keith while singing An Old-Fashioned Girl Like Me, the camera cuts to engine pistons hammering away - and Schell might just be Dr Who in an earlier regeneration - his ship's interior is so much larger than its exterior it might as well be called the TARDIS instead of the Batavia Queen - but it's a lot more entertaining than something this silly and clichéd should be.

True, it's a long voyage as it sets the scene for the big eruption with mysterious fogs and fireballs, with some of Eugene Lourie's special effects reminiscent of the early scenes of his monster movie Gorgo. They only arrive at Krakatoa just in time for the intermission (or what used to be the intermission), the island volcano revealed through the mist in a scene Ridley Scott would borrow for 1492. Once there, there's only time for one big setpiece - Cinerama films always had a `rollercoaster' scene putting the audience in the driving seat of some runaway vehicle, be it a wagon careering down a mountain track in Custer of the West or on a runaway train in How the West Was Won, and here it's a runaway balloon drawn through narrow canyons into the crater - and a quick mutiny of their convict cargo before the volcano blows and the resulting tidal wave threatens to drown the ship as well as the surrounding ports. It may not be exactly photo-realistic or bear much resemblance to what actually happened, but for lovers of classic special effects and pyromaniacs alike the model explosions at least provide plenty of colourful fun that even John Leyton's Charlie Chaplin impersonation or the singing nuns can't dampen. It's the kind of film that can be easily filed under `guilty pleasure,' but it's certainly a lot more spectacular and entertaining than When Time Ran Out in the volcanic eruption stakes.

MGM/UA's DVD is a fine 2.35:1 transfer with rich colour and good detail. Sadly there are no extras and the overture and intermission are missing, but other than that it is the full-length roadshow version rather than the 105-minute reissue version available on extremely poor quality public domain DVDs. The Anchor Bay DVD also offers a fullscreen version. The other current Region 1 transfers should be avoided at all costs.

I had high expectations during the first 20 minutes or so of this movie, but the were all dashed. It starts out okay and it is interesting but as it goes on, you may find yourself wondering when the story is going to start. Unfortunatly it never does. I describe this movie as a mix of alot of people's stories all mixed up and unconnected. The volcanic explosions were great visually, but the wern't lead up to very well at all. It was kind of like, "Okay, let's have an explosion." with no suspence or anything. ALSO, the quality of the DVD is HORIBLE it jerks and the sound is off about a second at some times and it stoped for about 5 seconds at a time about every ten minutes. Very Annoying. Don't waste your money on this DVD.

This is one of those movies that must have had a limited budget during its production, and as a result, the viewer is treated like a moron during some scenes. What do I mean? The same footage is used over and over again during the eruption. As tedious as this becomes, it gets downright irritating when we have to watch the island blowing up to smithereens from a distance, and then a minute or two later, more "special effects" of the volcano errupting (repeating footage we have already seen) from a volcano that is reassembled. This kind of editing is really insulting to the viewer, like we are too dumb to notice that - again and again.

Another example, the boat toward the end of the movie. They show it from a distance leaning about 45 degrees on its side, then switch to a scene inside the boat, and the decks are level.

An older movie should never be penalized for not containing special effects equal to today's technology. This is different. Repeating a few seconds of special effects footage over and over again is not an outdated technology handicap. It is bad editing/directing.

I immediately purchased this DVD title because it is the very first movie I remember watching at a theater as a very small child! The theater was the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd. in 1969-1972 Hollywood, (they re-released it a few times, I saw it 5 times at that theater). This DVD simply put, is bad! Even on a big screen TV the picture is squashed, the sound is muffled, the theater experience is lost. The editing seems to have been done with scissors and tape. Entire scenes are missing, or cut very short. However, the best parts of the movie that I remember from when I was four years old are ok. The volcano eruption scenes, tidal wave, and really cool lava piercing the ship! That's the stuff you remember for a lifetime.

Anchor Bay has re-released this film in all it's 131 minute unedited glory (this is the copy with the hot air balloon on the cover). Some sources say this film originally ran 136 but that's counting the intermission. The DVD is terrific (no skips or jumps), widescreen, great sound and color. The unedited version helps the story along without question so take that in account when reading reviews that talk about muddled plotting in the shorter version. If you are into Jules Verne style films you'll like this one complete with volcanos, tidal waves, hot air balloons, deep sea exploration, late 19-century sailing ships, convicts, etc... Perhaps a little too much brought into the film and dispensed with quickly, but still nifty as far as the genre goes. Maxmillian Schell (the captain in the Jules Verne inspired THE BLACK HOLE) plays the captain, Diana Baker plays his love interest looking for her long lost child, Brian Keith plays an over-the-hill diver.

Krakatoa, East of Java is a grand adventure with a fine international cast diving, ballooning, and dodging volcanic eruptions in technicolor.
Maximilian Schell (Judgement at Nuremburg, The Black Hole) captains an 1883 expedition hunting treasure in a sunken ship between the islands of the title. Brian Keith (Family Affair) is along to dive in one of those awesome antique suits, but has not informed the captain of his worn out lungs and laudenum addiction. Diane Baker seeks her young son at school on one of the islands. Rossano Brazzi (South Pacific) and Sal Mineo are a father and son aeronaut team, along to search for the shipwreck from aloft in their ballon, which goes off course and right into the mouth of the nearby island volcano, which erupts - based on historical events - and turns their treasure hunt into a rescue mission.
The movie runs slightly over two hours, the first of which is spent, entertainingly, on character development and so forth. The second half is well packed with action and special effects. The final Tsunami scenes are still the best of their kind. The giant wall of water is scary.
Personally I also liked the melodic theme, appropriate for the exotic location and period. The acting is excellent, and the special effects excellent for 1969, and still hold up today. The only major flaw is in the title; I believe "East" should have been "West." It doesn't matter.

Is it East or West of Java? let's not get into a debate about the location of Krakatoa and instead focus on this films amazing special effects which even today, after we have been literally inundated with CGI marvels on screen still amaze with their quite scary realism. The film "Krakatoa, East of Java", came along in 1969 long before disaster epics became commonplace on screen. The film is interestingly divided almost in half with the first section dealing with the personal stories of a diverse group of individuals on a ship sailing to search for some sunken treasure while the second half moves quickly towards a highly exciting climax where we see the famous historically recorded explosion of Krakatoa which apparently made the loudest sound ever heard on the earth according to the experts. The special effects of the island volcano erupting and the resulting tidal wave which destroys everything in its path are first class and more than make up for the many slow patches in the earlier part of the film. While the majority of the talented cast, especially Sal Mineo and Diane Baker have little to really work with in the story, the film makes great action viewing as long as the focus is on the natural disaster that makes up the film's spectacular centrepiece.