In the same way as Kevin Costner played Robin Hood in the movie with the money, while Patrick Bergin did a far better job in the other Robin movie of the same year (1991), and in the same way that Carrol Read's Oliver! (1968) was a film of Lionel Bart's musical (1960), itself a treatment of David Lean's film Oliver Twist (1948), this Treasure Island fails to match up to the BBC version of 1977, which seems to have inspired it.
Imagine the scene; the Hestons viewing the 1977 tape, not a star to be seen, and Charlton lamenting his never yet having played the Sea Cook; surely Junior could write the script - and direct it, no point in letting someone else stick their oar in - and with Charlton's name involved, surely they could get some real stars, and make a much better movie; after all, they'd have more money.
And there's the first rub, Oliver Reed never quite gets beyond Oliver Reed (and who decided Billy Bones was a Scot?), Christopher Lee is a shade gratuitous as Pew (did we have to be shown the true horror behind the mask?), and Julian Glover (Livesey), so accomplished as a villain, is a little too much like a villain with nothing bad to do today, than a truly good man. There's lots of star quality, but not much depth.
As to the script, it's not bad, though the BBC influence is definitely there, the trouble is that while the BBC adaptor, John Lucarotti had a fine grasp of RLS's pirate idiom, Fraser Heston hasn't.
It's forgivable for an American writing UK English to make the mistake, but 'Bugger', Bloody Hell' and 'Bastard' were not common C18 nautical curses, and 'Blighter' is definitely Victorian; Heston's pirates slip into 1940s far too often, and it jars. (And Trelawney habitually drinking tea; where did that come from? Is it just to underline that this story happens in England not America?)
Having said all that, Christian Bale is extremely good as Jim, and Heston's Silver is all it should be (the pity is that we just don't see enough of him), Michael Halsey is splendidly nasty as Israel, Stephen Mackintosh does a highly effective cameo as Dick, and John Benfield is a really scary and violent Black Dog.
It's not a bad film by any means, just not nearly as good as it should have been.
Imagine the scene; the Hestons viewing the 1977 tape, not a star to be seen, and Charlton lamenting his never yet having played the Sea Cook; surely Junior could write the script - and direct it, no point in letting someone else stick their oar in - and with Charlton's name involved, surely they could get some real stars, and make a much better movie; after all, they'd have more money.
And there's the first rub, Oliver Reed never quite gets beyond Oliver Reed (and who decided Billy Bones was a Scot?), Christopher Lee is a shade gratuitous as Pew (did we have to be shown the true horror behind the mask?), and Julian Glover (Livesey), so accomplished as a villain, is a little too much like a villain with nothing bad to do today, than a truly good man. There's lots of star quality, but not much depth.
As to the script, it's not bad, though the BBC influence is definitely there, the trouble is that while the BBC adaptor, John Lucarotti had a fine grasp of RLS's pirate idiom, Fraser Heston hasn't.
It's forgivable for an American writing UK English to make the mistake, but 'Bugger', Bloody Hell' and 'Bastard' were not common C18 nautical curses, and 'Blighter' is definitely Victorian; Heston's pirates slip into 1940s far too often, and it jars. (And Trelawney habitually drinking tea; where did that come from? Is it just to underline that this story happens in England not America?)
Having said all that, Christian Bale is extremely good as Jim, and Heston's Silver is all it should be (the pity is that we just don't see enough of him), Michael Halsey is splendidly nasty as Israel, Stephen Mackintosh does a highly effective cameo as Dick, and John Benfield is a really scary and violent Black Dog.
It's not a bad film by any means, just not nearly as good as it should have been.