Treasure Island (1990)
Young Jim Hawkins, while running the Benbow Inn with his mother, meets Captain Billy Bones, who dies at the inn while it is beseiged by buccaneers led by Blind Pew. Jim and his mother fight off the attackers and discover Billy Bones' treasure map for which the buccaneers had come. Jim agrees to sail on the S.S. Espaniola with Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey to find the treasure on a mysterious isiand. Upon arriving at the island, ship's cook and scaliwag Long John Silver leads a mutiny of crew members who want the treasure for themselves. Jim helps the Squire and Espaniola officers to survive the mutiny and fight back against Silver's men, who have taken over the Espaniola.
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Touches You
Such a frustrating disappointment
Fresh and Exciting
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
As a young lad, I was fascinated when I read Treasure Island for the first time. I have read it multiple times since, and when I came to know about this film, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. This movie is by far one of the best adaptations of the original book which I have come across. The actors have done a thoroughly admirable job and a young Christian Bale had shown early on in his career what he is capable of. Charlton Heston did well as Long John Silver, as did Julian Glover as the doctor. Not much from the original book has been lost, with much of the main content kept intact, thus the 2 hours 10 minutes run time. But every minute will keep you engrossed to your screens. A must see film for anyone who enjoyed the book.
*Spoiler/plot- 1990, A boy and his mother have a country inn on the ocean cliffs. An old sailor moves into the inn and is dying. He befriends the son of the inn keeper with is stories of living on ships. One night a strange blind man arrives and marks the old sailor for death from a pirate brotherhood with the 'Black Spot'. During a cutlass fight, the boy finds a treasure map in the sea chest of the dying sailor. He takes the map to the local authorities that know about it and set up a ship and crew to find the treasure. Once the ship, 'Hispaniola' leaves the port with mostly a secret pirate crew aboard; they arrive at the Treasure Island. The crew takes over the ship and attacks the obedient crew members trying to get the treasure for them. A marooned sailor helps the obedient crew members to find and stow the hidden treasure aboard the ship to go back to England for justice. 'Long' John Silver shows that he is an able conman, pirate, liar, double-crosser, and schemer through this whole treasure hunting experience.*Special Stars- Charlton Heston. Dir: Frasier Heston*Theme- Men will look for treasure even if they suffer for it.*Based on- Robert Louise Stevenson's famous pirate novel*Trivia/location/goofs- TV series remake condensed into a feature film. The "Hispaniola" ship used for the film is actually the "Bounty" a ship originally built for the MGM classic film with Clark Gable and Charles Laughten. The pirate dialog is a joy to hear and understand.*Emotion- A rather good updated version of the Stevenson pirate movie using Mr. Heston's strong leading man charisma and acting talents. This film is a very nice example of Heston's later screen appearances and excellent casting with an authentic West Country English accent and language colloquialisms of the 17th century seamen. Well worth your time and very entertaining.
This is one of my favorite movies. I was introduced to it by an old family friend who had copied it when it was originally broadcast on cable. My sisters and I ruined the tape with watching. My father has declared this movie his very favorite, and we all have the music from it (yay, Chieftains!). It is an incredible movie, which was my introduction to Christian Bale. I like this one even better than Empire of the Sun. My only gripe is that they have stopped printing this movie, even on VHS. It is a bear to get hold of a copy, let alone a decently-priced one. I hope that someday, a DVD will be made for all of us devoted fans of this brilliant movie.
More superlatives from me are not necessary. I will only say that I agree with the other commenters who consider this the best version of Treasure Island made so far. What would make a difference is for it to be released on DVD. If you would like to see this version of Treasure Island released on DVD, as I do, then please go to this link:http://tcmdb.com/title/title.jsp?scarlettTitleId=14882 and vote for it (on the right hand side of the screen).If the link does not work or you don't care to use it, then do a Google search for Turner Classic Movies, then search on the site for Treasure Island (1990). Maybe if enough people vote for it, it will actually be released on DVD. It can't hurt.