Treasure Island

Having read the book to my children, now teenagers, when they were younger we all watched this having saved it on DVD - can't abide adverts. Though there were inevitable departures from the book it is a pretty faithful rendition and Eddie Izzard confirms his status as a charismatic actor well cast as the complex Silver. The idiocy of the Squire's venture and motley collection of adventurers are ably brought to life by an impressive array of top actors - though of course that means it suffers from 'recognition distraction' on first viewing! (My rule of thumb is always watch a film twice before drawing conclusions - and if you don't want to see it again that tells its own story.) The locations, ship and costumes are superb and really bring to life the squalor of the times and the urge for riches as the only way out. Arguably the Squire becomes too nasty and the Doctor too insipid in this version but Philip Glenister is excellent as Capt Smollett. The incorrigible nature of the pirates and Silver's restless intelligence are well portrayed. Memorable.

This is a pretty good film as it goes but the main character of Long John Silver was the worst casting error in Eddie Izzard that l have ever seen, there was no 'Ey Jim Lad' Izzard just spoke in a cultured English accent, l have noticed that a lot of remarks on this film say they had never seen any version of Treasure Island before this, let me recommend the Disney version made in the 50's in colour with the wonderful Robert Newton, now here is an actor who 'was' Long John Silver, eyes rolling, the right type of accents, and as sly as they come.

The other actors in this 2012 version did a fair job, Daniel Mays was good as Dr Livsey, as was Phil Glenister and Penry-Jones, so in all this film was good but Eddie Izzard as Silver oh no.

7/10

Well,I only have a vague memory of the novel which I read when I was around 14-15. Therefore, while watching this I really couldn't compare the story and the characters with the original, which I guess was a blessing. I enjoyed this a lot because of several reasons. Firstly,it was quite realistic (esp.without supernatural elements as in POC.)Characters were depicted nicely and felt quite real and believable.Action scenes were decent without unnecessary flamboyance. Locations were wonderful and well matched with the images I had in my mind about the Treasure island since my childhood. If you liked "Master and commander", this is definitely for you. If you are still a fan of POC franchise, you may not like this.

First, I have to say good on Eddie Izzard for not trying to copy John Newton's Silver. On the other hand, it would have been staggeringly foolish to try that *again* in this day and age. No, Izzard delivers a new interpretation of Silver and does rather a good job of it.

In many trivial ways, this production is more faithful to Stevenson's classic than the as of yet undefeated champion of dramatic productions: the Disney 1950 film. (More running time, I guess) In some important ways it's even more faithful, and even adds a few interesting ingredients. We get to meet Capt. Flint (both of them). We also get the meet the "woman of colour" that Stevenson had married to Silver--something Disney didn't acknowledge. Oh, and speaking of the race card, it was played with the likes of Billy Bones and Mr. Arrow (black as a bucc'neer's colours in bilge water, they is!) I guess it does add an important bit of realism, now present in a lot of recent 18c nautically-themed productions.

But in some serious ways it diverges from the the book. I can't say whether or not it was a mistake to make Trelawney a partial crook and "Bible-reading hypocrite". (It was definitely a mistake to have a gentleman using "who" in the objective) It certainly was important to the ending. Oh yeah, that ENDING!!

The ending loses it 2 stars easily (though as a TI purist, it was a challenge not taking off 4). It's perfectly understandable that they not use the book's ending, Disney didn't even do that, but this unique ending takes the whole story off course and changes the genre from pure adventure to something of a morality tale. In making a miniseries, there was the opportunity to rehabilitate the Treasure Island myth, as was done in 2000 with Frank Herbert's Dune. Unfortunately, what we have is probably the least Stevensian Treasure Island production to date. Sorry.

Stevenson's Treasure Island was one of my favorite childhood books I used to read over and over again. Currently I can't remember its nuances - the plot of course I do - and I enjoyed the 2012 version. Background and costumes seems realistic and one can notice at once that it non-US movie - compared to Pirates of the Caribbean, for example.

Izzard, Regbo, Sutherland and Wood are very good, the rest are just above average - or their characters are too "simple" to make some real shine out of them. On the other hand, it is good that no one really steals the show as Depp does when portraying Jack Sparrow. Fight scenes, collusions etc are also more "medieval" here.

In short, highly recommended for those fond of historic adventures, and not seeking deep philosophy or reasoning.