Robinson Crusoe (1997)

Robinson Crusoe: Directed by Rod Hardy, George Miller. With Pierce Brosnan, William Takaku, Polly Walker, Ian Hart. 1703: Robinson Crusoe has to leave Scotland for a year, but after months sailing, a storm wrecks his ship. He ends up as only survivor on a desolate island.

“Pierce Brosnan is a tough man to watch these days. Wherever he goes you canu0026#39;t help but hear the chanting of u0026quot;Bond…Bond…Bond…u0026quot; in the back of your head. Itu0026#39;s really a curse, as the man is really a great actor.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhich is what makes this movie better than I thought it would be, because for the duration of this film I never once thought of good olu0026#39; James. Here, Brosnan has the difficult task of portraying a character even more famous than Bond and it must be said he does so with elegance. A job well done!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe story is well known to everybody, therefore I will not dwell on it. I will say, however, that it was fun to see how the liberty was taken here, as the movie somewhat fantasizes about how Daniel Defoe might have come up with the story about Robinson Crusoe. Heu0026#39;s presented with a travel journal of a wayward seaman (Crusoe), and upon reading it (which is the narrative of the film) decides that he wants to write a book about the whole thing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat this does is this allows the filmmakers a little liberty in changing a few dots in the well-known story of Crusoe. It somewhat protects them from being blamed for any changes that might have been made, because they can say u0026quot;look, this is what actually happened and if youu0026#39;ve read otherwise itu0026#39;s because Defoe changed it!u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhich is of course bollocks, as it is Defoeu0026#39;s NOVEL, but it works like a charm here.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s tough to nail down a flaw here. Sure, with a bit more money u0026amp; time they could have done this movie better. And it was weird seeing William Takaga in the guise of Friday making a few simple errors (like saying u0026#39;foodu0026#39; the American-way while Brosnanu0026#39;s been saying it in Scottish accent all the time, as in u0026#39;fu-udu0026#39; and not u0026#39;foodu0026#39;). But on the whole the movie worked and you believed it, which is no small feat.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;d recommend that anybody interested in seeing a movie adaptation of this world-known novel check this movie out. Itu0026#39;s certainly worth seeing, even though it may be far from breathtaking. Surely one day somebody will come along and do the book more justice but until then, you canu0026#39;t go wrong with Brosnan…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e3/5”