Up first, a review of John Silver's Return to Treasure Island...
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island - a review
Written by John Goldsmith from a story by Ivor Dean
Directed by Piers Haggard
Associate Directors - Alex Kirby and Alan Clayton
Produced by Alan Clayton
Main Cast-
Long John Silver - Brian Blessed
Jim Hawkins - Christopher Guard
Van Der Brecken - Reiner Schone
Ben Gunn - Ken Colley
Abed - Peter Lloyd
Reverend Morgan - Artro Morris
Devereaux - Christopher Godwin
Hallows - Donald Pickering
Keelhaul - Nick Brimble
Conchita - Aixa Moreno
Isabella - Deborah Poplett
Review-
I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for any sort of pirate film. I'm probably one of the few people who actually went to see the box office bomb Cutthroat Island (1996) at the movie theaters/cinemas. I've always wondered whether that particular film might have performed better at the box office had it been released after the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, the film which made pirates cool. After all, I thought Cutthroat Island was a relatively decent pirate film.
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island predates Cutthroat Island by a decade. This ITV series is ten episodes long, and features Brian Blessed as Long John Silver. Brian Blessed is best known as Vultan ("Gordon's Alive!") from the 1980 Flash Gordon film. If ever a man was made for a particular role, having Brian Blessed play Long John Silver was the perfect casting choice.
The conceit is that several years have passed since the events of the book, and Jim Hawkins has now grown up and recently graduated from college. Squire Trelawney has hired Jim Hawkins to investigate and oversee his plantations in Jamaica, as he believes (rightly) that the current overseer Hallows is siphoning off profits.
Meanwhile, Long John Silver has made his return to England to retrieve Captain Flint's treasure map. While the gold has been taken from Treasure Island, the gems "lie there still". Silver is caught and put on trial. Silver is convicted and sentenced to "transportation" to Jamaica.
As it would happen, Jim Hawkins is taking the same ship to Jamaica, along with a Dutch farmer named Van Der Brecken who is headed back to his holdings in Mexico. Also on board is Lady Isabella, also bound for her uncle's house in Mexico.
The real reason to watch this production is, of course, Brian Blessed's brilliant performance as Long John Silver. Blessed chews the scenery with wild abandon and dominates every scene that he's in.
Christopher Guard does his best with the romantic lead role, and Deborah Poplett's Isabella is a suitably feisty female lead. Reiner Schone's Van Der Brecken comes off a bit one-note, constantly complaining about Silver's treachery and acting as a bodyguard for Jim Hawkins. Peter Lloyd's Abed joins the group once Hawkins and Van Der Brecken arrive in Jamaica and aids Hawkins is exposing Hallows criminal dealings.
All of the typical pirate cliches are here: the double and triple crosses, a mutiny aboard ship and buried treasure. The group has several adventures throughout Jamaica and Mexico before finally arriving on Treasure Island and a final showdown with Hallows and his men. Of course, there's the expected happy ending for everyone concerned, including Long John Silver who has snookered them all and (SPOILER ALERT!) made off with Flint's gems!
For those expecting anything resembling the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, you're probably bound to be disappointed. This series predates the first Pirates film by seventeen years, and was obviously made on a television budget. Oddly, there is a Disney connection to both this film and the Pirates films. Return to Treasure Island was co-produced by the Walt Disney company, to be aired as a Disney Channel miniseries in the United States.
Disney did release the series on VHS back in the 1980's, but has never released a DVD version. They don't even air it on the Disney Channel anymore. Consider that the pirate them has been so popular (and profitable) for Disney, one does have to wonder why they simply haven't released a bare-bones DVD sometime in the last decade to piggyback on the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Be that as it may, the series has been released in the United Kingdom. There no special features to be had, which is a shame. I would have loved a Blessed commentary on even one episode, or perhaps a making-of documentary with Blessed and some of the cast. Ah well, I'm just glad I can finally retire my worn VHS copies that I taped off of television way back in the day (yes, I kept those VHS tapes all these years because I enjoyed this series so much!)
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island is simply a buried treasure, one that deserves to be rediscovered.
