I saw this last night and ended up being rather astonished by how much I enjoyed it. I never knew this film existed before a week ago, and only added it to my queue because I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to see. Bearded Brosnan held a certain appeal, so I figured "why not?"
Why not indeed. It's a solid adventure movie, and surprisingly it doesn't attempt to whitewash the objectionable racial content of the original novel. There is a reason the movie calls itself "Daniel Dafoe's Robinson Crusoe", as Crusoe and his story are presented as the imaginings of Dafoe (played by the guy who played Michael Gambon's son in LONGITUDE) as he reads a "lost" journal brought to him by his friend James Frain. I guess the questionable accuracy of the way that the natives are portrayed in the novel necessitated this framing device so that we're not actually watching the story of a guy named Crusoe, we're watching the origins of the book written about him.
As for Mr Crusoe and his story, I was stunned by how often I found myself disliking Brosnan's character. He's basically nothing more than a racist asshole. He treats his slave (who he tricks into calling him "master") with enormous cruelty, and continues to degrade him and his awesome crocodile god even after they've bonded as friends. I guess it's of the period, and I can appreciate that they went for that level of accuracy, but all the same it's Pierce Brosnan's least likable role to date (IMHO)
I was a bit apprehensive over the first 15 minutes, as the color palette had a kind of cheap washed out made for TV look. Brosnan was compelling as always though so I stuck with it, and by the time he got to The Island his strong acting skills and awesome beard had me hooked
Even more amazing was the fact that for the first 40 minute of the film, his only companion was a Pembroke corgi! As a corgi owner, this was extremely cool. The corgi was named Skipper and I was genuinely sad when SPOILERS he got blown up when one of Crusoe's plans went awry END SPOILERS
Watching a movie about Pierce Brosnan and his corgi pal Skipper.. can you think of a better way to spend a Tuesday night?
Crusoe and "The Skipper" taking a stroll
Anyway, I had planned a mini movie marathon for yesterday, but by the time I got off work I was so tired that I ended up taking a nap till 8 pm. When I at last set sail on my marathon , I worried that by the end of it (I'd initially planned to watch at least four films) I'd end up like the runner of Marathon and keel over dead from exhaustion. I decided scrap my ROAD rewatch after 30 minutes so I could dive into PHENOMENON (which was OK and maybe I'll write about that later), but by the time that wrapped up, I was kind of beat. I wearily put on my pjs and walked to the mailbox to retrieve Crusoe, thinking I'd only watch a few minutes before shutting it off. I think one of the highest compliments I can give the movie is to point out that it does what the best adventure films do: keeps you engaged and excited. By the time the credits rolled I felt ready to tackle ten more movies!*
Before I finish up here, I'd be remiss not to point out the strong acting of the guy who portrayed Friday (Crusoe's slave). He was really cool, and I found myself siding with him and against Brosnan in many conflicts. Also, his eulogy for Skipper the Corgi was genuinely touching. Brosnan says that corgis don't have souls, so skipper won't go to heaven. Friday says that he'll ask the crocodile who gave birth to the world to look after Skipper instead
Has anyone else seen this one? It's from 1997 so it seems like Brosnan made this after he became Bond, though it was released by Miramax so maybe they were just hoarding it till his Bond popularity grew and the film had an audience.
*ended up watching MADMEN and then going to sleep though
