Treasure Island (1990 film)

Infobox Film
name = Treasure Island


caption = US VHS cover art
director = Fraser Clarke Heston
writer = Robert Louis Stevenson (novel)
starring = Charlton Heston Christian Bale Oliver Reed Christopher Lee Julian Glover Pete Postlethwaite Clive Wood
music = Paddy Moloney, The Chieftains
released = flagicon|United States 22 January 1990
country = UK / USA
language = English
imdb_id = 0100813

"Treasure Island" (1990) is a movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous 1883 novel Treasure Island. It was filmed in 1989 on location in Cornwall, England, and in Jamaica, and also at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. Jim Hawkins (Christian Bale) discovers a treasure map and embarks on a journey to find the treasure, but pirates led by Long John Silver (Charlton Heston) have plans to take the treasure for themselves by way of mutiny. It was an original production filmed and aired by the TNT network, and directed by Fraser Clarke Heston; it was released theatrically in the UK. The name has appeared on some film covers as "Devils Treasure", rather than "Treasure Island".

The music was composed by Paddy Moloney, leader of the Irish folk music group The Chieftains, and performed by the group; selections from it can be heard on their album "Reel Music: The Filmscores".

According to All Movie Guide, Charlton Heston "plays the character [of Long John Silver] as written: a cold, crafty, cunning rogue, by turns charming and deadly, but never to be underestimated". But reviews in 1990 were not so favorable: "The mast ain't all that's mizzen in a dreary and confused new production of Treasure Island...miscasting and embarrassingly poor performance of Charlton Heston as Long John Silver, a laborious mistake from arrival (in the second half hour) to departure. That Heston is one of the most humorless hulks who ever stood before a camera helps not a bit..." (Tom Shales, The Washington Post, January 22, 1990, STYLE; PAGE B8)

Despite cult status, "Treasure Island" has yet to see a release on DVD. The video, now out of print, has gained a five-star rating on Amazon from customer reviews, and many of these complain of the lack of DVD-release. The film was also released on laserdisc.

Cast

*Charlton Heston as Long John Silver
*Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins
*Oliver Reed as Capt. Billy Bones
*Christopher Lee as Blind Pew
*Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney
*Julian Glover as Dr. Livesey
*Pete Postlethwaite as George Merry

External links