Product Description

Dynamic screen star Pierce Brosnan (THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) braves the perils of an untamed land in this classic story of sweeping action and high adventure! As the sole survivor of a disastrous high-seas shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe (Brosnan) is forced to build a solitary life on a deserted tropical island. But he eventually discovers that even this existence is threatened by a local tribe, which uses his island for barbaric sacrificial rituals! Soon, Crusoe will risk his own life to save a doomed tribesman from certain death! In a thrilling adaptation of the timeless novel by Daniel Defoe, both men -- each stranded and unable to return home -- must cross an immense cultural divide to forge a friendship and survive against impossible odds!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29051 in DVD
• Brand: Disney
• Released on: 2002-01-22
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
Pierce Brosnan stars in a new movie version of the classic adventure tale Robinson Crusoe. After killing a friend in a duel, Crusoe flees his native Scotland and takes to the high seas. A storm casts him ashore on an island in the Indian Ocean, where he builds himself a home out of bamboo and goes a little crazy from solitude--until he finds a footprint in the sand that isn't his. The relationship between Crusoe and Friday, a native from a neighboring island, gets a more contemporary (less colonial) interpretation than in the original story; the result is quite enjoyable. Brosnan is particularly good at depicting Crusoe's borderline madness from isolation, and William Takaku gives Friday both dignity and intelligence. The cinematography of the island is gorgeous. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

waste of time
I'm still trying to figure out how they got away with calling this movie "robinson crusoe". It has few similarities to the book. If you enjoyed the book, do not watch this movie. It just made me angry.
I'm usually not one to be like "oh the book is way better than the movie", but in this case the movie leaves out massive detail and makes up things that never even happened in the book.

Here is an example:
Book-- Crusoe on island for 28 years
Movie-- 6 years.

Stranded: Flat and Insipid Re-Telling of Classic Novel
This `Robinson Crusoe' film stars handsome Pierce Brosnan, but though it was shot in 1994, it remained on the shelf for more than three years before finally released straight-to-video in America The film is distributed by Miramax, one of the powerful studios in Hollywood, but few people have heard about it. And TWO directors were attached to the project - Rodney K. Hardy and George Miller, the latter being the one who directed `Never Ending Story 2,' no, not the Australian director who did `Mad Max.'

The film's history suggests something very awful. The fact is, `Robinson Crusoe' is not as awful as you might think it is, but it is still awful all the same. Not that it is boring. It has lots of actions - a Scotsman dueling his best friend, a shipwreck, meeting with a native, fighting against the tribesmen, etc. -- but the storytelling of the entire film is so flat that the film looks as if being cut, edited, and put together by computer software. Crusoe's adventures are all on autopilot, allowing very few moments to make us care the hero and his friend Friday.

The back cover of my VHS of the film reads `SWEEPING ACTION AND HIGH ADVENTURE!' `BARABARIC SACRIFICAL RITUALS!' `SAVE A DOOMED TRIBESMAN FROM CERTAIN DEATH!' `SURVIVE AGAINST IMPOSSIBLE ODDS!' And look at these phrases with exclamation marks added to each of them. Yes, all of them surely happen in the film, but none of them is as thrilling as these four exclamation marks suggest. Even a dog appears to share the adventures with Crusoe, but the subplot about poor pooch ends up with a very misguided (and poorly done) conclusion which will leave you speechless.

Brosnan is a decent actor, and he is OK here (though his Scottish accent comes and goes), but more impressive is William Takaku as Friday. The supporting actors are Polly Walker (about 5 minutes), James Frain (about 1 minute), and Ian Hart (about 1 minute). Sean Brosnan, son of the star, briefly appears as cabin boy.

So, after all, what can you expect from a filmed version of `Robinson Crusoe'? You think you know the story, and probably have read the original book of Daniel Dafoe when you are a child. Whatever your memory might be, the film must have adventures, and lots of them. This film attempts to show as many as it can, but none of them is exciting as it should be.

Defoe would spin in his grave
This film, although sporting many elaborate Hollywood props full of explosions and tribal wars, has taken a potentially exciting and meaningful screenplay and altered many key components of Defoe's original novel to incorporate a mushy love story (taking away from the feel of Defoe's original). Many dramatic and important scenes I hoped would be in the movie were either altered beyond recognition or missing altogether, and the "politically correct" additions are a final blow to this sinking ship. This film is about as true to the novel as the 1970 animated version with talking animals.