Treasure Island [Devil’s Treasure] *** (1990, Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 2062

Charlton Heston’s son Fraser Clarke Heston writes and directs a satisfyingly faithful, high-quality 1990 film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous classic 1883 pirate adventure novel Treasure Island. Charlton Heston stars as Long John Silver, leader of the gang of cut-throats who plot to stage a mutiny and take the treasure they have sailed off to find after young Jim Hawkins (Christian Bale) discovers a treasure map.

Much of Heston Jr’s dialogue comes directly from the book and he also lustily re-creates several of its more violent scenes in his movie, while making photogenic use of the Caribbean and Cornish backdrops. A splendid cast is assembled for this spirited, well-produced and handsome-looking version of the novel. It also stars Oliver Reed (as Captain Billy Bones) and Christopher Lee (as Blind Pew) who had starred with Heston in the 1973 The Three Musketeers, as well as Julian Glover (Dr Livesey), Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney, Clive Wood as Captain Smollet and Pete Postlethwaite as George Merry.

Heston Sr has a whale of a time and makes a grand job of playing Silver as the less-than-loveable cunning rogue of the book and Bale is excellent as the kid in a lively, shipshape turn as Jim Hawkins, with the practised British character actors giving notable polished performances in support, some of them overacting enjoyably in eye-catching cameos.

Made for American TV as Treasure Island, the film was produced by the TNT network and was screened by them in the US, but it was released in cinemas as Devil’s Treasure outside America. It was picturesquely filmed on location in 1989 among the lovely settings of Cornwall and Jamaica, and at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.

The replica ship Bounty II was used as the book’s Hispaniola. It was constructed for Mutiny on the Bounty in 1964 but its star Marlon Brando saved it from being destroyed afterwards. However, it sank off the coast of the Carolinas during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2062

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