David Balfour - Zwischen Freiheit und Tod

This version of Kidnapped boasts the best cast yet, led by Armand Assante, Brian McCardie (Rob Roy), Brendan Gleeson (Braveheart), David Kelly (Waking Ned Devine) and a brilliant portrayal by Patrick Malahide as Uncle Ebenezer. It moves along smoothly and quickly and never drags. It was filmed in Ireland which fills in perfectly for Scotland. Although it looks exactly like Scotland, I wonder why they didn't film there; production costs I'm guessing. At any rate, production values are superb, the music score is fine and director Ivan Passer did an exceptional job. McCardie is perfect as David Balfour and is adept at both serious and comical scenes. Assante is as good a swashbuckler as ever there was. I've been waiting for years for this to come out on DVD and now it has arrived (1/2007). I very highly recommend this film.

Well, to start with, this version of kidnapped hasn't got much in common at all with the book.

That being said, it is a masterpiece in its own right. Unlike most movies, this one is not made to gratify cravings for thrilling immature romance, gory fight scenes, or political ax-grinding.

And it is not dull.

What drives this movie is its content. The real running theme throughout the movie is what men give their lives for.

It's odd, but it has the most peculiarly uplifting execution scene. Very strange.

Armand Assante turned in a superb performance as a Scottish loyalist in Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped." Mr. Assante was totally credible in his role as a man who would stick to the principles of truth, justice, and loyalty that the author highlighted in the novel. Any fan of Robert Louis Stevenson must definitely see this outstanding motion picture.

When I read the other reviews I can't believe they cover the same movie, Generally I'm not too critical and enjoy a wide variety of genres, in particular adventure stories and was looking forward to watching this. I haven't read the book but I doubt it would have any impact on my lack of appreciation for this movie.

The characters are hollow, the storyline seems patched together and the dialogs are artificial.

At the end of the movie, I was left wondering what the whole point of the story was. Perhaps I need to watch it again, perhaps I missed something, but I highly doubt it.

Most movie adaptations of novels are just that: they pick and choose scenes in the novel to present in movie form, but basically tell the same story to be found in the novel.

This is not that. It does present much of what is in Stevenson's novel, yes, and rather faithfully. But it also includes a LOT that is not in the novel, scenes that Stevenson had suggested but never developed. Indeed, as others have pointed out, there are significant characters here who do not exist in the novel.

I found it to be a good presentation of Stevenson's novel, and I found Assante to be a lot of fun as Alan Breck Stewart, even if he is more Erol Flynn than ABS. Viewers just have to understand that this is not solely what Stevenson wrote. For that, as others have observed, the Disney treatment from the 1960s is better.

Still, this is FAR better than the BBC travesty of the novel, which is far too often unfaithful to the novel, which this really is not. It just adds a lot that is not in the original.