User Reviews

I rather enjoyed the movie, much like a Monty Python type of humor: absurd, ridiculous, sometimes plain goofy, other times genius, theatrical (as is often O'Toole himself), and, of course, very much ideological, with themes like racism, imperialism, capitalism, homosexuality not a bit discreetly woven into the story.. as in a caricature, if you adjust to it's absurdity and ignore it's obviously inconceivable details like Friday's well-educated man appearance and sudden use of such fine English, or his tribe's use of English, macramé clothing and modern music, or some unnecessary scenes like Master and Friday paragliding together, it can be quite fun.

So if you don't take it too seriously or agonize over it's ideas, it is fun, intelligent, lush and tender (even on Master's side sometimes).

Shaft meets Lawrence of Arabia, what can i say? Brilliantly funny and still poignant.I agree with the previous reviewer with reference to the songs however 'we are going to fly' song with its cannon is quite charming.The story mainly concerns redressing the racism in the original texts however the religious aspects are at the forefront of the movie.The differences between the god fearing guilt ridden Christianity of the 18th century and the free spirited tribal beliefs of Friday.Moreover the dated religious beliefs look even more dated against the background of gospel religious practises. Questions of ownership 'what is mine?',punishment,education, money capitalism etc are all scrutinised. The moments that bond the film are the more touching areas where Friday and Crusoe have shared emotions and empathy.The final twist in the tale of the film is where Friday turns the gun on Crusoe and en slaves him.After they escape to the island of Friday Crusoe is rejected by the tribe after impassioned speech by Friday, again turning the original tale on its head. one of the main goofs in the film is where Crusoe is teaching Friday to say Master. Crusoe says marster in a very English ways whereas Friday replies master in a very American way oops

this film is a must for DVD.

This film is the allegorical definition of the white/black dynamic.

The scene where "Friday"(not his given name)-now in psychic trauma, is first renamed then trained to call Crusoe "Master" is an intentionally aggressive polemic.

Which begins a relentless,psychological,cultural,political,economic rape and exploitation his fellow castaway.

In a very abstract view it is also a love story. I think Robinson Crusoe actually is in love with "Friday".

It contains both the historical problem and the future solution for this permanent incompatibility. This is a must see film. It cannot be critiqued for "entertainment" value alone.

I wish it was available on DVD.

This is a reality hell for sure, a version of Crusoe that needs to be studied for its analyzation of slavery and the domination of one race over another. We don't see Peter O'Toole as Robin Crusoe getting stranded on the island. All you see if the beginning is him sitting there, sunning himself, when three native visitors from another island approaching to be friendly and he ends up shooting two of them to death. Rather than overpower him and kill him, the remaining one, Richard Roundtree, immediately plays subservient and survives, basically becoming his servant. Over time, it becomes very apparent that Roundtree has more of a moral compass than the educated and allegedly Christian or O'Toole does. But after awhile, he has had enough and stands up to O'Toole, refusing to work for him because O'Toole basically does nothing but order him around. Roundtree is seen throughout explaining what happened to his own people, and by the time he stands up and defends his own freedom, you are cheering for him.

It's an analogy of how any man can only take so much abuse, and the angelic Roundtree puts up with a lot before he uses force to put O'Toole in his place. There are times when O'Toole does break down and show humanity to Friday, but then he catches himself and he is back to being the savage white man who's on prejudices and hate how destroyed his soul. There is one moment that is very surprising, a hint of homosexuality from Roundtree with advances towards Crusoe since there are no women around, not something that I found entirely believable, but as the film goes on, the real question becomes what is morality and who decides what is moral or not. Another element that's interesting is Friday snapping when Crusoe offers to teach the children everything he knows and realizing that most of what he knows is not something they should know. But it is apparent that throughout the film, O'Toole does learn a bit as evidenced by his reaction to a slave ship landing near the island.

The songs that Roundtree sings throughout don't really serve a purpose, and you begin to wonder how the natives from Roundtree's island ended up learning perfect English. But those are minor gripes because this is taking Daniel Defoe's popular novel and twisting it to a complete opposite point of view. Both actors are excellent, but O'Toole because of the character he is playing does emote a bit too much at times while Roundtree is subtle, often funny, and given a much more humane character to play that you normally would see Friday played as, particularly in the 1954 movie with Dan O'Herlihy. That film is exquisitely done and is faithful to the novel, but it's nice to see aspects of island natives that are rarely ever shown in movies. They are either extremely savage or overly cheerful and welcoming of visitors, much to their own regret later on. Everybody is given a human element to understand the point of view of these different cultures, and yet the film never lectures on what is right or wrong, just showing how wrong it is to try to change someone from a different culture based on previous conceived notions.

A satellite view of the earth is the first camera shot of this film then it plunges down to the island on which Crusoe (O'Toole) is stranded.A quick and direct start to a film. Every now and again I expected John Cleese to be playing a piano on the beach.There is a scene when the two characters are on a podium after racing, it's straight out of Monty Python. There is definitely something about this film even though there are some cringe worthy singing scenes that, I think are a little ludicrous.It delves into religion, class,education, race, the idea of money and the general cultural relativism that exists between the proverbial "savage" and "civilized" man. Although people have said that Crusoe is the fool in this version, I do tend to see some sense in the things he does, like the need for money in order to keep a work ethic and a civilized notion of transaction of possessions.However his religious spin on everything is a little monotonous and self deceiving. He is put into context of his origin when some Brithish missionaries arrive on the island.He is actually not that bad a fellow at all.

Friday (Rountree)is a bit of a hippy in this really and overly idealistic.

Some where in the middle of the two characters is the sort of person you could live on a desert island with!

I thought Crusoe's shooting himself was a wonderfully dark ending.