Very likable and endearing, this is a kids' humorous swashbuckler, and, as a gangster movie set on sea in the 18th c., it also reminds a bit of the revisionist Westerns—Mendoza and his black-hearted ilk; so, its genre is adventures amidst lowlifes. ''Tis a long time since Treasure Island'—yet Jim doesn't seem to have aged much, if at all—though his demeanor has an erotic undertone that boosts the story, as he looks uncannily precocious, his expression betrays more knowledge than provided by his age. Long J. S. is portrayed as a humorous schemer, while the boy seems naughty, precocious and sexualized in a way that gives the plot a disturbing subtext; the couple is obviously _eroticized, and the girl gets left outside.
Silver's mistress brings him young women, to tempt him, and turn him away from his wickedness—and Hawkins is lusted by her, and promised to be taught, as she attempts to seduce him too, as Silver foresaw; these sexual undertones give the scenes an eerie twist.
A hymn to _homoerotism, as Silver leaves his fiancée, and Hawkins leaves behind the girl, as the two males realize, after a lovers' fight, that they belong together, and bond—the escaped pirates being their merry wedding members, in a glamorous, given the harshness of the places, wedding party —all these are stated with an astounding shamelessness and mirth. Given the gist of the story—depraved seamen, eager for bodily satisfaction—this homo-erotic undertone belongs naturally.
The plot reminds me a bit of another Scottish masterpiece—'Kidnapped'; here, the story takes off slowly, and rambles—as the two, humorous Edenic couple, try to revisit their past, to relive it. Deprived of his famous literary ambiguity, Long J. S. is a lustful, discretely stylish, oldster, who gives his settling for a committed idyll with a boy. Searching for their past, and presumably softened, the two stumble into a incongruous present—Mendoza's den, the heroic past traded for a patchy present. Instead of settling, Long J. S. runs away with the boy, in search of adventure; and, once on the Island, which they live to see again, Silver's dialog with Israel is a bit of surrealism in a twisted comedy.
Seduced by the severe Captain, by his bigotry and piety, Hawkins betrays Long J. S.. But the Captain at least keeps his word—and maroons, rather than kills, the crew. The blind—man on the Island is a Gollum figure, vengeful, poisoned by hate, i.e., by lust—for the boy, whom he chases blindly, hence the attempted rape, in a suspenseful scene, and the plot line never looses track of this gay undertone. So, it's a kids' comedy, and a sharp, wicked comment on same—sex relationships.
Once again, the boy looks as if Visconti picked him.
It's a very enjoyable movie, and quite one—sided, taking a real interest only in the characters, otherwise, though set in the tropical regions, it totally wastes the location opportunity of gorgeousness, of unrestricted lushness—instead, it focuses on characters and their interplay, and these are comic book characters, three standing up (Long J. S., MacDougal and his second, O'Reilly), and I thought the Governor's wife was nice; not much of sets, action or slapstick, but much symbolic characterization—cartoons, Stevenson written by Dickens or Scott .
Silver's mistress brings him young women, to tempt him, and turn him away from his wickedness—and Hawkins is lusted by her, and promised to be taught, as she attempts to seduce him too, as Silver foresaw; these sexual undertones give the scenes an eerie twist.
A hymn to _homoerotism, as Silver leaves his fiancée, and Hawkins leaves behind the girl, as the two males realize, after a lovers' fight, that they belong together, and bond—the escaped pirates being their merry wedding members, in a glamorous, given the harshness of the places, wedding party —all these are stated with an astounding shamelessness and mirth. Given the gist of the story—depraved seamen, eager for bodily satisfaction—this homo-erotic undertone belongs naturally.
The plot reminds me a bit of another Scottish masterpiece—'Kidnapped'; here, the story takes off slowly, and rambles—as the two, humorous Edenic couple, try to revisit their past, to relive it. Deprived of his famous literary ambiguity, Long J. S. is a lustful, discretely stylish, oldster, who gives his settling for a committed idyll with a boy. Searching for their past, and presumably softened, the two stumble into a incongruous present—Mendoza's den, the heroic past traded for a patchy present. Instead of settling, Long J. S. runs away with the boy, in search of adventure; and, once on the Island, which they live to see again, Silver's dialog with Israel is a bit of surrealism in a twisted comedy.
Seduced by the severe Captain, by his bigotry and piety, Hawkins betrays Long J. S.. But the Captain at least keeps his word—and maroons, rather than kills, the crew. The blind—man on the Island is a Gollum figure, vengeful, poisoned by hate, i.e., by lust—for the boy, whom he chases blindly, hence the attempted rape, in a suspenseful scene, and the plot line never looses track of this gay undertone. So, it's a kids' comedy, and a sharp, wicked comment on same—sex relationships.
Once again, the boy looks as if Visconti picked him.
It's a very enjoyable movie, and quite one—sided, taking a real interest only in the characters, otherwise, though set in the tropical regions, it totally wastes the location opportunity of gorgeousness, of unrestricted lushness—instead, it focuses on characters and their interplay, and these are comic book characters, three standing up (Long J. S., MacDougal and his second, O'Reilly), and I thought the Governor's wife was nice; not much of sets, action or slapstick, but much symbolic characterization—cartoons, Stevenson written by Dickens or Scott .