The Island is a 1980 American thriller film, directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Michael Caine and David Warner. The film was based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley (Jaws) who also wrote the screenplay.
Blair Maynard (Michael Caine) is a British-born American journalist who decides to investigate the mystery of why so many boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle of the Caribbean. He takes his estranged son with him to the area on the “vacation” and, while fishing, both are attacked by an unkempt man and brought to an uncharted island. On the island, Blair discovers the terrible truth: the inhabitants on the island are actually a centuries old colony of savage French pirates, made up of outcasts, thieves, and murderers, who are hidden from the outside world by an uncharted Caribbean island, and who raid boats to sustain themselves…
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“The film should have been a success: producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown and author Peter Benchley had all been involved in the blockbuster Jaws and consequently the budget was huge. The Caribbean location was a plus, too, but somewhere along the line the film just wasn’t scary. And in the end the only sharks frightening enough to pose a real threat turned out to be the critics.” Michael Caine, The Elephant to Hollywood: The Autobiography, Hodder & Stoughton, 2010
“It is certainly a surprisingly violent film, although here at least Benchley is showing pirate behaviour with a much greater regard to historical realism and the real brutality with which it was conducted than any sanitised traditional Hollywood swashbuckler. But under the hands of Michael Ritchie, The Island thunders and bangs with blundering tedium and emerges as no more than an exercise in phoney machismo.” Richard Scheib, Moria
“Overly long and mean-spirited at times, this has some good amounts of gore to hold your interest. Unfortunately, slow pacing, bland characterizations and trite dialogue keep it from being anything other than a guilty pleasure.”, The Terror Trap
The Island received its first digital release on DVD/Blu-Ray from Shout! Factory in December 2012. Buy from Amazon.com
Related: Jaws
Posted by Will Holland
Categories: 1980s, adaptation of a novel, gory
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