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Crusoe

1989, Movie, PG-13, 95 mins

Crusoe: Review

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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 native (Sapara), and the two men begin an odd, complex relationship. While CRUSOE has its redeeming moments, it is a curiously lifeless film as a result of Deschanel's emphasis on the simply picturesque over a more engaged directorial perspective. It is almost as if the director chose the material purely for its visual potential and left screenwriter Walon Green (THE WILD BUNCH) to worry about meaning. Regrettably, this filmmaking approach has delivered a movie so detached that the performers are left to flounder while Deschanel concentrates on capturing the "right light" for a perfectly composed sunset. While some may find the storytelling in CRUSOE refreshingly sparse and unforced, it is really a matter of too little story given too much screentime. leave a comment
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