Anna Blasco 11/10/06 “Incredible Petrified World” The 1957 movie “Incredible Petrified World” is a low-budget film about four people getting trapped in an underwater cave on an expedition in a diving bell. Techniques for filming underwater at the time were still crude and costly. As a result, the underwater scenes are simple, mostly showing divers swimming to and from the bell. Much time is given to these scenes, despite their crudeness, perhaps because of the trouble and expense that went into getting those shots.

One main theme in this movie is the role of science in conquering nature. The movie begins with a documentary about the advances of science in reaching new under water depths. The deep underwater is described much like the dangers of space travel. The wonders and advancements in science have evolved to conquer this one forbidden landscape and finally understand it.

The diving bell that the four heroes are sent down in was built and designed my a man who looks less like a scientist and more like Captain Ahab. He never goes underwater himself, although he volunteers to in order to save his crew. The crew inside the diving bell do not really have much of a function as far as running the machine is concerned. They are shown turning knobs and looking serious, but a bell is very different from a submarine in that it is mainly controlled by a boat above water. The crew of the bell runs into trouble when their vital ties to the above are severed and they fall deeper into the ocean. As in “Crimson Tide,” if they fall too far they could be crushed by the pressure, or die from suffocation once they run out of oxygen, both very common fears of the underground.

Many times a ship or submarine can hold sentimental value for the crew. For example in “Operation Petticoat,” the old crew reunites to see the submarine retired. The crew of the diving bell, however, do not have much interaction with the machine and therefore little attachment to it. Loosing the bell is presented as an economic loss, but not a sentimental one. Not fully understanding the bell’s technology got them into their perilous situation, but in the end they are saved my science, another machine, and finally understanding how the machine works. The importance of the scientific explanation is very pronounced. Many times there is a break in the dialogue to explain some strange phenomenon they experience in the underwater caves, from the phosphorus lighting to the existence of fresh water.

This science versus nature dichotomy can also be interpreted as sophistication and humanity versus the primitive and crude. When they become stuck in the underwater cave, they continue to follow the rules that govern their above water life. One of the men explains that if he is going to be a “caveman” he wants to be “a comfortable cavemen.” The only time the characters break out of their above water philosophy is when two of them fall in love. At that moment there is an acknowledgment that because they are underwater and may never escape, conventions of the world above no longer apply.

The person very obviously at the other end of the spectrum is the “weirdo” who, although once a sailor form above, has become an underground person. His time in the under water caves has made him savage, strange and inhuman. He kills his shipmate in the caves as well as threatens Gale. In a true Hollywood fashion, he and his sins are buried forever in the underwater cave by a volcano eruption. This theme is repeated in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” those underground people whose sins are to great for them to come back into the above ground society are usually buried or stuck in the underground forever.

This movie can interpreted as revolving around the upper class and their struggle to stay dignified in an underwater space. All of the characters are white, upper class people with matching morals and beliefs for their position. The cave man appears to be of a lower or immigrant class. In terms of a vertical city, the upper class briefly gets caught up in the world of the lower class, finds them undeserving of rescue, and finally escape while the lower classes are stuck underground forever. When the crew emerges from the depths they celebrate on the dock of the ship, and all decide to go home and get a “two inch steak.” The underground will never be home to the upper class, despite their best efforts to get “conformable.” The lower class caveman decorates his cave as best he can, while the crew of the bell poke fun at his attempts to make the cave more friendly, their home is always the land above.

The cave is definitely a lived space. On top of the caveman’s attempt to decorate it, it is also irrational. The tunnels are impossible to navigate and compasses don’t work in the space. In the end science inevitably conquers nature. The people re saved from the organic caves by another machine.