Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 tale of adventure, piracy, treasure and treachery has been filmed four times by 2020. While the original of 1950 surely serves as a benchmark, this 1990 TV movie stands out among all those made. The 1950 Disney film was very good with a good cast that was mostly unknown outside of England. But this 1990 film has a much wider known cast of actors from around the UK, and American actor Charlton Heston as Long John Silver.
A young Christian Bale, at the start of his huge career, plays Jim Hawkins. And a well-recognized supporting cast performs superbly. Among them are Oliver Reed as Capt. Billy Bones, Christopher Lee as Blind Pew, Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney, Julian Glover as Dr. Livesey and Pete Postlethwaite as George Merry. .
The filming in Jamaica, at Cornwall and elsewhere around England provides a sense of reality to the story, as though it were taking place then and there. And these 30 years later, here and now. I have now watched this film three times, and the original Disney film four times - with Robert Newton as Silver and Bobby Driscoll as Hawkins.
In the 40-year leap between those two films, I don't think the producers lost any sense of reality. The costumes, makeup, presentation of characters and all aspects of the story seemed authentic for the period. The 1972 adaptation seemed to modernize the story some. That British film that starred Orson Welles and Kim Burfield seemed to be made in the early to mid-20th century by the clothing, hair styles and other aspects. The costuming seemed too clean, neat and Hollywoodish. Nor was the acting nearly as good as the original.
The 2012 TV movie appears to try to appease the modern culture in the characters. The costumes in it look as though they were just made from new material, and the setting has the obvious CGI aura about it. The modern acting in these roles loses the sense of dark mystery, suspense, fright and thrill of adventure that Stevenson wrote. The 1950 and 1990 films worked to capture that.
Modern audiences and those in the future who want to educate children about the classics, should read the books. After that - and for those who don't or won't read classical literature, a good grasp of the story, with its culture of the time and place can be had by watching the 1950 film or this 1990 film.
A young Christian Bale, at the start of his huge career, plays Jim Hawkins. And a well-recognized supporting cast performs superbly. Among them are Oliver Reed as Capt. Billy Bones, Christopher Lee as Blind Pew, Richard Johnson as Squire Trelawney, Julian Glover as Dr. Livesey and Pete Postlethwaite as George Merry. .
The filming in Jamaica, at Cornwall and elsewhere around England provides a sense of reality to the story, as though it were taking place then and there. And these 30 years later, here and now. I have now watched this film three times, and the original Disney film four times - with Robert Newton as Silver and Bobby Driscoll as Hawkins.
In the 40-year leap between those two films, I don't think the producers lost any sense of reality. The costumes, makeup, presentation of characters and all aspects of the story seemed authentic for the period. The 1972 adaptation seemed to modernize the story some. That British film that starred Orson Welles and Kim Burfield seemed to be made in the early to mid-20th century by the clothing, hair styles and other aspects. The costuming seemed too clean, neat and Hollywoodish. Nor was the acting nearly as good as the original.
The 2012 TV movie appears to try to appease the modern culture in the characters. The costumes in it look as though they were just made from new material, and the setting has the obvious CGI aura about it. The modern acting in these roles loses the sense of dark mystery, suspense, fright and thrill of adventure that Stevenson wrote. The 1950 and 1990 films worked to capture that.
Modern audiences and those in the future who want to educate children about the classics, should read the books. After that - and for those who don't or won't read classical literature, a good grasp of the story, with its culture of the time and place can be had by watching the 1950 film or this 1990 film.