L'isola dei delfini blu

ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O`Dell was a novel that my class had to study for a project when I was eleven years old . We had to come up with things like " What would you have as a food menu if like Karana you were stuck on an island " and we also had to write a story as to how we thought the novel would end . Being a massive fan of monsters I wrote an ending that featured a great battle with the " Devilfish " which is - While not referred to in the book as such - in reality a giant squid

The giant squid features in several passages in the book and I looked forward to seeing the movie version simply because I wanted to see how realistic the special effects team could handle this endevour , I mean a convincing giant squid is very difficult to realise on screen especially before the technique of CGI . Unfortunately when the end titles ran I was still excitedly waiting for a giant squid to turn up and was slightly disgusted when it didn`t appear . You could argue that the producers had the right idea by not attempting the difficult task of bringing a squid to screen since its appearences in the book don`t affect the plot , but this movie version of ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS is very bland , slow moving and in need of some excitement , an excitement that would have been helped by a giant squid

Out of the gate, I'd like to start by describing this as an awfully simple "snippet" of someone's life, not so much a story.

But for something from the 60s, it's refreshingly grim situation and cruel developments manage to entertain for its duration. Still, it is dreadful slow in some parts, but still structurally okay. The lead is somewhat charming and her relationships are touchingly cute at times. And while we see her struggle a bit (sanity), I bet the novel provides deeper insight into her thoughts and emotions during this ordeal. Sadly, this movie could have done so much more with the plot!! Also the novel spans 18 years worth of abandonment.. but the film makes time-passage quite ambiguous.

This is probably a "bad" adaptation of the source material.. but an interesting entrypoint to what might be a richer story to those interested.

Personally, I liked what I saw, but would be reluctant to recommend it.

I liked the movie well enough, considering it came from 1964. I felt that they didn't depict the passage of time very accurately and I was surprised when all of a sudden, the movie was over. I know that books and movies are usually very different, but I think this movie could have been a far better representation of the book. Add some more details, don't change some of the details from the book. But hey, I'm not the director or in charge of the budget. That is the other thing to consider, budget. They didn't have big budgets back then and this was what they got for their budget. All in all, I enjoyed the movie well enough. I would enjoy seeing a remake with some better details, more representative of the book. Still an OK movie though.

I remember seeing this movie years ago. It was based on the book, which was a true story. However, it is true that when Europeans came along, they did bring along diseases, and sadly enough murdered innocent natives. Those people tried hard to defend their territory, but were outnumbered. This movie tells the story of a girl who survived after her tribe left the island. It's too sad to think about much more. I would only recommend it if you like true stories about history. Otherwise, all you will see is a lot of people dying, and sad stuff along the way.

We rented this video because my 10 yr old son read the book and loved the story. The only redeeming part of the movie was watching 23 year old Celia Kaye (playing a 15 year old who doesn't age or wear out her clothes over the course of 5 years) in her fake-Indian leather outfit with the slit skirt. Hubba hubba. Wooden acting, stupid ending. The kids liked it. I liked Celia's skirt.