This is a Mexican production (in English) directed by Luis Bu\u00f1uel.\u00a0 And surprisingly contains none of the sensationalistic or bizarre affectations that he usually included in his films.\u00a0 In fact, it is a very faithful and normal portrayal of Daniel Defoe\u2019s classic tale.\u00a0 For anyone who is unfamiliar with the plot.\u00a0 Crusoe is an Englishman of upper-class background who decides to leave his family and make his fortune in the wide world of the late 1600\u2019s.\u00a0 He gets a ship and is headed to Africa to bring a cargo of slaves to the New World.<\/p>\n
But the ship founders in a terrible storm and Crusoe swims off and eventually reaches the shore of a remote island somewhere in the tropical Atlantic Ocean off Africa.\u00a0 The ship that he abandoned ends up as a wreck stuck on some rocks close to the island Crusoe is on.\u00a0 He builds a raft and uses it to transport supplies from the wreck.\u00a0 He takes food, guns, powder, tools, clothes and even a dog and cat that were his pets on the ship.\u00a0 Shortly afterward the wreck sinks.<\/p>\n
Crusoe builds a stockaded cave dwelling and improves his life with the tools he has saved from the ship.\u00a0 He grows wheat from seed and bakes his own bread.\u00a0 He builds a potter\u2019s wheel and a kiln.\u00a0 He builds a calendar out of a log and tracks his imprisonment.\u00a0 But when his dog finally dies of old age then Crusoe finds his loneliness unbearable.\u00a0 And he comes close to losing his sanity.\u00a0 But one day he finds a human footprint on the beach.\u00a0 He discovers that African cannibals visit the island occasionally to feast on their captives.\u00a0 One day a captive breaks loose from the cannibals and Crusoe kills his pursuers and takes the escapee to live with him as his servant.\u00a0 He names him Friday after the day he found the man.\u00a0 Slowly Crusoe learns to trust Friday and they become true friends.<\/p>\n
Years later a ship arrives and the crew comes to the island to collect water and also to maroon the captain and boatswain that they\u2019ve mutinied against.\u00a0 With the help of Crusoe and Friday, the captain is able to capture the leaders of the mutineers.\u00a0 In gratitude the captain agrees to sail Crusoe and Friday back to England.\u00a0 The mutineers are allowed to be marooned on the island rather than hanged for mutiny and Crusoe leaves them his settlement and instructions on how to live comfortably on the island as castaways.<\/p>\n
None of the actors will be familiar to an American audience but the direct visual nature of the movie, and the sparse dialog or even narration works perfectly well to tell the story.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing complicated here, just an adventure story.\u00a0 But the concept of complete isolation is a sort of profound human condition.<\/p>\n
Not to belabor the point I enjoyed the film and on its own terms it is well done.\u00a0 And since you know exactly what to expect you can make up your own mind ahead of time whether this kind of story appeals to you or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a Mexican production (in English) directed by Luis Bu\u00f1uel.\u00a0 And surprisingly contains none of the sensationalistic or bizarre affectations that he usually included<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,237],"tags":[3061,43,38,1355,3077],"class_list":["post-14580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-daniel-defoe","tag-movie-review","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-robinson-crusoe"],"yoast_head":"\n