7/10
Nice rendition by the Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel , based on the known novel by Daniel Defoe , well starred by Daniel O'Herlihy
19 June 2020
A fine adaptation about a man struggles to survive after being shipwrecked on a deserted island . Stars Daniel O'Hearlihy : Robinson Crusoe who travels from Great Britain on a ship and subsequently stranded on a far island , telling the well-known story of how a Brit becomes stranded on a desert location . As Robinson journeys from England aboard a ship, then wreckage happens and Crusoe washes at a mysterious island . Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island , until he meets a native who nicknames as Friday (Jaime Fernández) , he is a cannibal tribesman whom Robinson saves from being killed . Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend , but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice by cannibaling practices to their gods . Over time, their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion . Robinson Crusoe Lives!

Attractive recounting about the classy castaway novel with the loner Robinson who but after months sailing , a storm wrecks his ship . Based on the novel written in 1719, this is said to be an interesting period drama about loneliness , set in the 18th century in which the loner Robinson ends up as only survivor on a desolate island , then he meets his pal Friday , retelling their adventures and misfortunes . While sticking some incidents close to original tale , others are utterly fictious . Being narrated under his point of view . The picture has nothing to do with the classic original by Daniel Defoe , taking freely parts here and there . The movie relies heavily on the relationship between Robinson and Friday , charting the peculiar treatment the native receives of the civilized man ; as Robinson teaches English language to the escaped native until some invader pirates spoil the fun . Starring Dan O'Herlihy gives a decent acting as the distressed castaway who after a fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship he is stranded and living by himself on an uncharted island while tries to civilize the proud native Friday well played by Jaime Fernandez .

The picture was compellingly directed by Luis Buñuel who was voted the 14th Greatest Director of all time . This is a Buñuel's strange film to his ordinary works , that's why it doesn't contains surrealist scenes , nor dreaming images , but a simple and classic narration , as it belongs to his second period developed in Mexico . Born in Calanda , Aragon (1900) , Buñuel subsequently moved to Madrid to study at the university there , where his close friends included Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca . After moving to Paris , at the beginning Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs , including working as an assistant to director Jean Epstein . With financial help from his mother and creative assistance from Dalí , he made his first film , this 17-minute "Un Chien Andalou" (1929) , and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its disturbing images and abstract plot . The following year , sponsored by wealthy art patrons , he made his first picture , the scabrous witty and violent "Age of Gold" (1930) , which mercilessly attacked the church and the middle classes , themes that would preoccupy Buñuel for the rest of his career . That career, though, seemed almost over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by and after the Spanish Civil War , where he made ¨Las Hurdes Tierra sin pan¨, as Luis emigrated to the US where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros . After that, he went on his Mexican period in which he teamed up with producer Óscar Dancigers and after a couple of unmemorable efforts shot back to international attention with the lacerating study of Mexican street urchins in ¨Los Olvidados¨ (1950) , winning him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival . But despite this new-found acclaim, Buñuel spent much of the next decade working on a variety of ultra-low-budget films, few of which made much impact outside Spanish-speaking countries , though many of them are well worth seeking out . As he went on filming "The Great Madcap" , ¨The brute¨, "Wuthering Heights", ¨El¨ , "The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De la Cruz" , ¨Robinson Crusoe¨ , ¨Death in the garden¨ and many others . Most of them being produced by Oscar Dancigers who also financed him Robinson Crusoe . After returning his native country, Spain, by making ¨Viridiana¨ this film was prohibited on the grounds of blasphemy as well as ¨The milky way¨ or ¨Via Lactea¨ , both of them were strongly prohibited by Spanish censorship . This French-Spanish final period in collaboration with producer Serge Silberman and writer Jean-Claude Carrière with notorious as well as polemic films such as ¨Viridiana¨ , ¨The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" and ¨Belle De Jour¨. His last one was the notorious ¨That obscure object of desire¨ (1977) .

Other retellings of this prestigious novel ¨Robinson Crusoe¨are the following ones : silent version 1927 narrated by Don Carney . Mr Robinson Crusoe 1932 with Douglas Fairbanks . Robinson Crusoe of mystery island 1936 by Max Wright .Sci-fi interpretation of Defoe classic titled Robinson Crusoe on Mars , 1964 , by Byron Haskin with Adam West . Robinson Crusoe 1970 by director: René Cardona Jr. with Hugo Stigliz . British rendition titled Man Friday 1975 by Jack Gold with Peter 0'Toole , Richard Roundtree . Robinson Crusoe and the Tiger 1972 by Rene Cardona with Hugo Stiglitz . Castaway by Nicolas Roeg with Oliver Reed . Robinson Crusoe TV series (2008-2009) with Philip Winchester as Crusoe , Tongayi Chirisa as Friday and Sam Neill.
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