ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

NewtonFigg I had read the story of Robinson Crusoe before I saw the movie at our 5th run neighborhood theater and found the movie to be a pretty straightforward recreation of the book. It was impressive. I was interested in the story. If there were allegories, I didn't recognize them. Bunuel? Never heard of him. Robinson Crusoe was another on the list of color films, like Disney's Treasure Island and Great Locomotive Chase, The Searchers, Shane, The Command, Sign of the Pagan, Fort Ti, that were much more alluring than the usual B&W fare and better remembered.Now, in the 21st century I watched it again and it lived up exactly to my expectations. Still no allegories, but isn't that a refreshing change? I probably overrate it at 9 because of the nostalgia factor. It would be an ideal movie to take a pre-teen grandson to.

sddavis63 It's been a very long time since I read Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe," so a good deal of the story matter in the movie seemed relatively fresh to me, although from what I do remember of it the movie is a pretty good adaptation of the novel. It revolves around the most obvious theme of loneliness, as Crusoe deals with life on this deserted island, with only a dog and a cat who also survived the shipwreck as his companions. As such, the movie has every now and then some spiritual reflections (not surprising, since Defoe himself was a Christian and a religious "dissenter") as Crusoe also finds himself having to make peace with God. For the most part all that was well portrayed by Daniel O'Herlihy, who for the majority of the movie is putting on a one man show.One thing that I thought was lacking in this, though (and it's a significant weakness) is any real sense of emotion. Much of the story of Crusoe's time alone on the island is told by a rather cold narration of Defoe's writing, and that basically matched the overall emotional feel of the movie. It was well filmed, and it did a decent enough job of portraying Crusoe's struggles and adjustments, but O'Herlihy never really drew me in to the character and never gave me any feel for him. To be perfectly honest, the only real sense of emotion I got from this revolved around Rex, the dog - his death and the last shots of the film. I admit that as Crusoe walked toward the boat that would finally rescue him I thought "aren't you even going to go to Rex's grave to say good bye?" So the last shot (of Crusoe looking back at the island from the boat and hearing Rex's bark) hit a bit of a nerve with me.Otherwise, it's a technically well made movie; just surprisingly lacking in real feeling. (5/10)

kosmasp Well of course I'm not talking about Robinson (he's actually quite "alone" most of the time, as you surely know), but about the movie adaptation. There have been quite a few (even the Tom Hanks starring "Cast Away" can be counted in, if you want to), so why is this different and/or better? Well the thing is, that this movie sure worked when it came out, with some very nice dialog, some funny scenes and a great central performance. The question remains, how this will be received by an audience that is more than well aware of the Robinson story. Will they be bored? I guess some might and probably will find the movie somewhat boring. Not me though. Mr. Bunuel shows again, what he's made of. And while this isn't his best work or anywhere near that, this is more than entertaining (with a few stabs at the church/God). You might know the story, you might have watched others play Robinson, but this (a bit camp) movie is worth your time!

MisterWhiplash In maybe his only time of giving into a commercial project, Luis Bunuel, deliciously notorious surrealist and satirist, took off his usual run of Mexican-produced films of the decade and adapted The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. On the surface, if one weren't familiar with the director's works at all, it has the seeming quality of being an average B-movie adventure of a man in solitude who is saved by his man Friday and his own resourcefulness. The story of the cast away has ended up having better days, specifically in Zemeckis's Cast Away, as far as with how the actual details of the story unfurl. It boils down to this: Crusoe gets shipwrecked on an island, takes what he can from the ship (some supplies, actually lots, a few animals), builds a camp, and little by little after the novelty of a deserted island wears off he goes near mad in loneliness. That is until the cannibals arrive, dropping off a man whom Robinson names Friday and quasi-domesticates as his servant-cum-friend. This is a story that even school-children know, and has even appeared as a goof on a Peabody & Sherman cartoon.But the fun in watching this rendition of Crusoe is for fans of the director to see what he does with the material. It's not a perfect affair, truth be told, as Bunuel isn't the greatest director of suspense, particularly in the climax. But what is essential for a film with as basic a plot as this to have is an understanding of what can be subverted, lightly and slightly twisted into personal expression. This is nothing new for many of today's famous filmmakers ala Spielberg or Scorsese, but for Bunuel he approaches it in ways that his best fans will be keen to look for and get in nice quantities. For example, as he is known more often than not as a director of dreams (his best film, Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, has dreams within dreams in savagely playful fashion), we see Crusoe having a dream early on where there's soft gel on the sides of the screen (maybe to appease the producers, who knows), and in it Crusoe dreams of his father pouring sauce or other on a pig, and images of Crusoe in water, cut together and acted in truly classic style. It's probably even one of his better dream sequences, followed up by another later on that features a pretty funny image to boot.Actually, part of what makes Bunuel's Robinson Crusoe so enjoyable is spotting the references to past films- his palm covered with some bugs speaks right away cheerfully to Un Chien Andalou- as well as just mildly absurd usages of animals on screen (how did the cat have kittens?), and even Christian imagery in simply showing Crusoe with his huge beard, which Dan O'Hearlihy sports proudly for most of the film, and even carrying what looks like a cross (!) but turns out to be the stand for a scarecrow. Then there's also the aspect to the bond between Crusoe and Friday, which is almost a pop-art form of one of Bunuel's own treatises on the division of the classes in many of his films (i.e. Viridiana and Exterminating Angel). In a way it works just as well as a simple story anyway, because Bunuel is able to have his cake and eat it, by having a tale that as stilted it might be in its not-quite-high-or-low budget and form of writing/narration at times is fairly gripping in an 'old-school' way, as well as enough room to bring out his flashes of brilliant imagery and jabs of surrealism, and even absurdism.