Crusoe

This revisionist adaptation of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe is not without merit, but its attempt to mix an anti-racism message with travelog footage distracts from the film's socially conscious content. Caleb Deschanel, the superb cinematographer of films such as BEING THERE, THE BLACK STALLION, and THE NATURAL, in his second directorial effort (THE ESCAPE ARTIST in 1982 was his first) seems more concerned with painting pretty pictures than with illuminating character and theme through active imagery. The familiar story has Quinn as the shipwrecked sailor who finds himself alone on a desert island. His loneliness ends with the appearance of a n...