Treasure Island (1950)

Second viewing, probably; probable previous viewing was in the 1970s or in the 1980s before the end of 1986.

Based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, first published in serial form in 1881 and 1882.

A boy comes into possession of a treasure map, and a man from his town assembles an expedition to a small island to search for it. Unfortunately, the ship's crew is comprised of pirates, brought by the cook, who is their chief.

This is a very well-made film where every detail seems to have been thought and taken care of. The story needs no introduction, as it has become hugely popular. Although everything about it screams perfection, I was left wondering why they didn't simplify the dialogue's wording just a little bit. Are children, or even adults, today or in 1950, supposed to understand phrases like "...and a boatswain what pipes man-o'-war fashions."? Or know that "fo'c'sle" is a contraction of "forecastle", which designates "the forward part of a ship below the deck, traditionally used as the crew's living quarters"? Well, perhaps they are. By almost every objective standard, this is a superior film to the 1934 black-and-white version, but why did I enjoy that earlier version more? Perhaps I didn't focus on those silly details when I watched it? Anyway I am left with more doubts than certainties regarding those questions. The story being told here, though wrapped in a children's tale format, allows for some deeper reading. Stevenson was obsessed with the problem of good and evil and the mutual conflict between those opposite poles, sometimes expressed by a "double" (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) or two opposing brothers (The Master of Ballantrae). Here he has concocted this ship allegory where evil enters unsuspected and plots to take over. The treasure hunt is an allegory for life itself, and how in every person's "ship" there enter evil elements which try to interfere with the success of our "trip". And there is the character of Long John Silver, who embodies the good-evil duality in a more nuanced way than Jekyll/Hyde or the Durie brothers: he can neither be categorized as pure evil nor as pure good. He may have been corrupted by an evil environment, but that did not destroy the spark of goodness that lived inside him. 

Rating: 65 (up from 56)