L'isola del tesoro (1987)Treasure Island in outer space
| Regia:
Antonio Margheriti |
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| Sceneggiatura
di: Renato Castellani, Lucio De Caro |
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| Fotografia:
Sandro Messina |
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| Musiche
di: Gianfranco Plenizio |
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| Produzione: TF1 / Bavaria Filmkunst / RAI-TV Channel 2 |
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| Anno
di produzione 1987 |
Stato
di produzione Italia |
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| Cast | ||||||||||||||
| Anthony Quinn … Long John Silver Itaco Nardulli … Jimmy Philippe Leroy … Squire Jonathan Trelawney David Warbeck … Dr Livesey Klaus Lowitsch … Captain Smallett Ida di Benedetto … Jimmy's mother Renato De Carmine Giovanni Lombardo Radice … Mr Hans Andy Luotto … Ben Gunn Enzo Cerusico Ernest Borgnine … Billy Bones Biagio Pelligra Bobby Rhodes … Black Dog Bruno Zanin, Sal Borgese, Al Yamanouchi … mutineers Stanko Molnar … Joyce the android Francesco Casale Biagio Pelligra … Pew Daniela Merlo … hostess Robert Spafford … Arrow - uncredited |
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| Opera di riferimento: | ||||||||||||||
| L'isola del tesoro - R.L. Stevenson | ||||||||||||||
| Trama | ||||||||||||||
| La trama è sostanzialmente aderente alla nota vicenda narrata da Stevenson, solo l'ambientazione cambia. Siamo in un futuro da 'space opera', con pirati spaziali e ricchi commercianti che percorrono le rotte dello spazio in lungo e in largo alla ricerca di nuove occasioni per arricchirsi. Jim, dopo aver conosciuto il capitano Billy Bones e aver visto la mappa sulla quale è tracciatala rotta per un pianeta sul quale Flint ha nascosto il suo tesoro, viene accolto a bordo dell'astronave Hispaniola dal capitano Smollett e dal conte Trelawney. Il trio di bizzarri gentiluomini (c'è anche il dottor Livesley) approda ben presto sul pianeta non prima di essere rimasto vittima di un ammutinamento dell'equipaggio. Sul pianeta le cose si svolgono esattamente come nel libro, fino al lieto fine. Da segnalare, nell'ultima parte la suggestiva caccia al tesoro in un ambiente selvaggio e dominato dalle ossa di mastodontici, misteriosi animali. | ||||||||||||||
| Commento | ||||||||||||||
A deeply flawed, yet highly enjoyable sci-fi update of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, directed by the man most suited to the job of shooting an 8-hour low budget science fiction miniseries. Well when you can't find a "Doctor Who" director you dig up Antonio Margheriti I suppose? Back in the early 60's, Margheriti had carved a nitch for himself with his many cheesy space operas such as Battle of the Worlds and Wild, Wild Planet. Jim Hawkins is a young lad who helps his mother run a mom 'n son hotel on some planet which accommodates to space travelers. One day, Jim's life is complicated with an old sailor Billy Bones (played by Ernest Borgnine of The Opponent and Escape from New York) shows up and drunkenly raves about how he was on a space-pirate ship which stashed its treasure on a far off planet. Of course he is the only one who happens to have the map to this elusive planet and of course there's pirates after the map as well. It isn't long before Pew, the old blind man (played by a very bald Biagio Pelligra from Milano Violenta and From Corleone to Brooklyn) shows up to give Bones the black spot which causes him to have a fatal heart attack (or something). Jim somehow sneaks away with the map while space pirates raid his hotel and he hooks up with Doctor Livesy and Squire Trelawny. The two manage to raise a considerable sum of money and finance a mission to go find the planet, of course taking Jim along. As crew they employ hard-nosed Captain Smollet as captain and shady character Long John Silver as ship's cook. Silver is sure to bring along his fair share of even shadier characters as ship's hands, including such familiar faces as Al Yamanouchi, and Giovanni Lombardo Radice. As can be expected, the crew eventually mutinies once they reach the planet, leaving the few loyal members to take up residence in an old biosphere-esque dome while Jim roams around the alien landscape, eventually encountering a lone castaway Ben Gunn. We've all read the story or seen SOME adaptation of the film, so nothing here is really all that new except the setting. The futuristic twist on the familiar story doesn't really seem to add anything to the film at all. There are a couple special effects sequences which are impressive but exist for no reason. A good example of this would be the space walk exploration of a destroyed ship, or Jim's attempt to get into the spaceship when it is stuck on autopilot in a huge sea. To his credit, Margheriti did use an earlier script written by Renato Castellani shortly before his passing, and out of respect for Mr. Castellani, Margheriti made no alterations to his original screenplay, for better or worse. The Hispanola, or the donut-shaped ship used throughout the film, seems to be several scale models; some at tall as a three story building while others about as big as a soccer ball. Acting-wise, the cast is surprisingly very good with the small amount of dialog they are given. Anthony Quinn is... well Anthony Quinn, seeming to have a surprising amount of fun with his "starring" role (though an obvious cut in pay). Giovanni Lombardo Radice comes off best as the lead villain who dies an extremely violent death via throwing-knife-in-the-face toward the end of the film... |
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| Autore della scheda: Alberto Arato | Data di inserimento della scheda 06/06/2004 | |||||||||||||
