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Credits
Music
Miscellaneous
Characters
Speculation
Sights
Sounds
Links
The Endeavour Replica
References
Sir Joseph Banks
James Cook
Endeavour
Joseph Banks Rhine
J. P. Shanley
Moonstruck
Five Corners
JVTV Script
2005 Shanley Interview
Kathleen Mattson has generously volunteered to compile a Joe versus the Volcano FAQ. When completed it will be posted at the alt.movies.joe-vs-volcano newsgroup and on this webpage. If you have any information about this film which you think should be included in a FAQ, please email it to Kathleen or me.
Meanwhile, here are a few bits and pieces of info about this film which you may find of interest.
Box Office
The worldwide box office gross for Joe versus the Volcano was $39,400,000.
The Soundtrack
An official soundtrack for Joe versus the Volcano is available from Varese Sarabande. A promotional CD of some of the music has also been located and includes a track that didn't make it to the movie. See the Music section of this site.
Joe's Lamp
I have heard that music box lamps like the one Joe had at the factory were fairly common novelty items at one time, but I have never run across one. The lampshade and the tune are probably unique to the movie.
The Shipwreck
According to Patricia's SOS the shipwreck occurred somewhere near Longitude 150 degrees 18 minutes West and Latitude 10 degrees 8 minutes South. This would be about two-thirds of the way from Los Angeles to New Zealand. I have included a map of a portion of Polynesia. The location of the shipwreck is about at the center of this map.
The Name 'Joe Banks'
Sir Joseph Banks was an English naturalist who accompanied James Cook's expedition around the world in the Endeavour.
Joseph Banks Rhine was an American psychologist who is well-known for his research in parapsychology at Duke University.
The Tweedle Dee
The Tweedle Dum and The Tweedle Dee are boats belonging to Samuel Harvey Graynamore. They are named after the characters Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who appear in Lewis Carroll's book 'Through The Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There'.
The Hairdresser
The end credits for Joe versus the Volcano say that Lisa LeBlanc played the hairdresser Cassi Sommeretti. Lisa LeBlanc is apparently a stage name for the actress Carol Kane, who actually played this part. (The IMDB also lists Carol Kane as having played the hairdresser.)
John Patrick Shanley
J. P. Shanley, a well-known playwright, wrote and directed the movie Joe versus the Volcano. He also wrote the screenplay for Moonstruck, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Another of his screenplays, Five Corners, was awarded a Special Jury Prize by the Barcelona Film Festival.
If you are a Joe fan, it is worth reading the Introduction to '13 by Shanley', a collection of his plays published by Applause Books in 1992. In it he describes his feelings about death, self-discovery, and courage. It's pretty clear from this and other writings that Joe Banks is basically a caricature of Shanley himself.
In early March 2005, MarkB, a major contributor to this website, conducted a brief email interview with Mr. Shanley. Here is the text of that interview.
Screenplay
The screenplay for Joe versus the Volcano is included in Shanley's book 'Moonstruck, Joe versus the Volcano, and Five Corners', published in 1996 by Grove Press. There is an excellent Introduction by Shanley in which he explains how personal experience led to his creation of Joe.
Greg Brush (and others) painstakingly reconstructed a pre-production version of the script. A zipped copy of it is available here. It is interesting to note the differences between this script and the movie itself. For example, the ending was changed radically.