criterionforum.org

Blu-Ray.com

I coincidentally saw this for the first time the other night and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I wouldn't rush out and buy this but I might pick it up at a B&N sale. This might be worth a revisit.

CD Soundtrack now available from Screen Archives.

I watched the film last night and thought it was quite lovely. As a fan of '50s/'60s sci-fi novel covers (and DDL's Flash Gordon), there was a lot that caught my eye here. I loved the beauty of the skies in the movie as well as the use of the landscape. It looked incredibly beautiful to my eyes. I'd expected this is to be rather hokey and campy, but felt rather surprised at the lack of moments that could be easily mocked. Kit's interactions with "Friday" wouldn't go over too well today, obviously. Otherwise, it was a fascinating product of its time. The budget seemed rather generous as nothing looked too fake, effects were good, and the mise-en-scene was consistent and effective. All in all, I enjoyed it very much. As an added bonus, I've now found the perfect gift for a friend who takes movies like this one very seriously.

I just watched this, and I was pleased- it's not a deep movie, but it's a lot of fun and something I'm glad to own.

I have to admit, though, that I spent almost the whole movie thinking about it in terms of its relationship to the Dafoe story, and specifically to the reading of the Dafore story as a parable for colonialism. As problematic as the Kit/Friday interactions got, it's downright revisionist compared to the original- there's definitely an Uncle Tommishness about Friday, but there's no sense that he's a savage who needs enlightened white men to show him the way- he's smart, capable, and pretty obviously Kit's equal in the film's eyes. There is at least some sort of an attempt to show that he has his own language, and explore what that might be, and rather than imposing Christianity on him, the movie concludes that Friday and Kit share their beliefs at a fundamental level already.

Moreover, chaging the people from whom the Robinson figure rescues Friday from fellow natives (well, they're not actually natives in the movie, but still) to technologically advanced slaveholders is itself a major thing- I mean, it's not remarkable that a movie in the sixties wouldn't uncritically accept the institution of slavery as Dafoe's Crusoe did, but that change is a really clever piece of revisionism, in its way. Crusoe and Friday become fellow fugitives and brothers, rather than overlord and acolyte.

The other major change, apart from the nature of Friday, is the length of time for which the Robinson figure is able to endure being alone. In the book, he's on the island for 24 years before he finds that first footprint. Kit's going insane after four months. The difference, to me, is profound- the book seems to conclude that basically, you can go through life totally alone, depending on no-one, interacting with no-one. The movie totally upends that conclusion, and wipes out some of the libertarian idealism of the underlying story- it still has the sense of man's struggle for survival, and the power of ingenuity in a harsh environment, but it underlines much more strongly the importance of inter-dependency and fellowship. Hell, even before Friday shows up, Kit has to rely on Mona to find water.


And thus concludes my overthinking of a movie which had been specifically recommended to me as one that didn't require overthinking. Hooray!