Robinson Crusoe

Ahh, the French, they do everything so differently. This was a completely different story to the one I read at school. Either the plot was genuinely implausible in some places (curing an arm that was already black with gangrene - please!), or I failed to understand it.

But the atmosphere, the ambience - it was good. The sense of despair at being stuck on the island came through quite well. RC's resourcefullness was good, in fact it was a bit over the top. I mean the harpsichord was always in tune, there were lots of candles to burn, the glasses were unbroken, and there was plenty of writing ink - even after those fifteen years. And by the way - how DID the "sauvages" managed to stay clean shaven all the time???

And you ladies out there, I hope you enjoy the rear views of Vendredi in his G-string as much as my wife did - "strapping" was the word she used.

All in all - a pleasant diversion, not a very believable story, but an interesting one.

I actually found this movie to be quite intriguing, incorporating the use of humor at times but still able to effectively depict the desperation felt by Robinson Crusoe. There are no real disappointments during the viewing of this two parter and it may be challenging keeping up with the subtitles but at least it is one of the better versions to appear, that there is still a company out there willing to reiterate this story for a newer generation of viewers. The locations during the movies are absolutely breath taking and I found that it became useful that I knew as much about the French language as Friday did, making it almost equally (albeit the subtitles) as hard to understand what Crusoe was going on about when he is trying to teach Friday the more "civilised" ways. This movie is particularly insightful as it also deals with the themes and beliefs of two different cultures meeting together and how the beliefs of each are both challenged and united. It was an incredibly pleasing film, highly recommendable for viewing with very few scenes that would disturb an audience under twelve but is highly valuable to all ages.