''The Island'' is a 1980 American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by Michael Ritchie and starring

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

and

David Warner David or Dave Warner may refer to: Sports * Dave Warner (strongman) (born 1969), Northern Ireland strongman competitor * David Bruce Warner (born 1970), South African alpine skier * David Warner (cricketer) (born 1986), Australian cricketer Oth ...

. The film was based on a 1979 novel of the same name by

Peter Benchley Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for his bestselling novel '' Jaws'' and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works ...

who also wrote the screenplay. It is about a savage group of pirates, made up of outcasts, thieves, and murderers, who are hidden from the outside world by an uncharted Caribbean

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, and who have raided boats to sustain themselves since the 17th century.

Plot

Blair Maynard is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-born American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

who was once in the Navy and who decides to investigate the mystery of why so many boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle of the Caribbean. He takes his estranged son Justin with him to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

with the promise of a vacation to

Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...

and, while fishing, both are attacked by an unkempt man and forcibly brought to an uncharted island. On the island, Blair discovers that the inhabitants are a centuries-old colony of savage French pirates. The group has been living on the island for centuries, unseen by society (except for an English archeologist obsessively keeping their secret) and sustain themselves by raiding pleasure boats. The pirates kill whoever comes to the island; however, Blair and his son are both kept alive due to a false assumption that they are descended from

Robert Maynard Robert Maynard (19 September 1684 – 4 January 1751) was a British lieutenant, and later captain, in the Royal Navy. Little is known about Maynard's early life, other than he was born in England in 1684 and then later joined the English Navy. ...

and a need to offset the negative effects of

inbreeding Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and o ...

. Blair is used to impregnate a female and act as a scribe for the largely illiterate group, while Justin is brainwashed to become a surrogate heir to Nau, the pirate leader. Blair struggles to escape from the island, but all attempts fail. Blair begins his captivity as a very peaceable and civilized everyman, but he is helpless in the absence of law and the presence of the almost unlimited violence the pirates commit. Subjecting him to constant fear and abuse, the pirates fail to realize how desperate Blair is becoming as his repeated escape attempts continually fail. He eventually arranges for the pirates to come head to head with a US Coast Guard cutter, but they manage to wipe out the crew and take over the vessel. Blair sneaks aboard and, while most of the pirates are gathered on the aft deck of the ship, he discovers a deck-mounted

M2 machine gun The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, wh ...

hidden underneath a tarp. He opens fire on the pirates, and continues to fire even after they are all dead. He then learns that Nau was not on the deck. The two men then stalk each other through various parts of the decimated vessel. Blair eventually gets the upper hand and kills Nau with a

flare gun A flare gun, also known as a Very pistol or signal pistol, is a large-bore handgun that discharges flares, blanks and smoke. The flare gun is typically used to produce a distress signal. Types The most common type of flare gun is a Very (s ...

. Blair and his son, who no longer desires to be a pirate and seems much more respectful of his father, are reunited.

Cast

as Blair Maynard *

as Nau *

Angela Punch McGregor Angela Punch McGregor (born 21 January 1953, in Sydney) is an Australian stage and film actress. Film credits Her film credits include: ''The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith'' (1978), ''Newsfront'' (1978), '' The Island'' (1980), '' The Survivor'' ...

as Beth *

Frank Middlemass Francis George Middlemass (28 May 1919 – 8 September 2006) was an English actor, who even in his early career played older roles. He is best remembered for his television roles as Rocky Hardcastle in '' As Time Goes By'', Algy Herries in '' To ...

as Windsor * Don Henderson as Rollo * Dudley Sutton as Dr. Brazil *

Colin Jeavons Colin Abel Jeavons (born 20 October 1929) is a retired British television actor. Career Jeavons' earliest television role was as Jules Neraud in an episode of the 1956 anthology series of teleplays ''Nom-de-Plume''. Broadcast live, it is unkno ...

as Hizzoner * Jeffrey Frank as Justin Maynard *

Zakes Mokae Zakes Makgona Mokae (5 August 1934 – 11 September 2009) was a South African-American actor of theatre and film. Life and career Mokae was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moved to the United Kingdom in 1961, and to the United States ...

as Wescott *

Brad Sullivan Bradford Ernest Sullivan (November 18, 1931 – December 31, 2008) was an American character actor on film, stage and television. He was best known for playing the killer Cole in ''The Sting'', hockey goon Mo Wanchuk in ''Slap Shot'', mobster Geo ...

as Stark *

Reg Evans Reginald Evans (27 March 1928 – 7 February 2009) was a British-born actor active in Australian radio, theatre, television and cinema from the 1960s, after having started his career in his native England. Biography Evans started drama while ...

as Jack "The Bat"

Production

Richard Zanuck Richard Darryl Zanuck (December 13, 1934 – July 13, 2012) was an American film producer. His 1989 film '' Driving Miss Daisy'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Zanuck was also instrumental in launching the career of director Steven Spi ...

and David Brown paid Benchley $2.15 million for film rights to the novel and a first draft screenplay, as well as a guarantee of 10 percent of the gross, five percent of the soundtrack sales, and approval of the crew and locations,Westward They Come, Big Bucks for Big Books. Rosenfield, Paul. Los Angeles Times 18 Feb 1979: n1. which at the time was the largest amount ever paid for film rights to any book. Benchley later claimed that he could have been able to retire if the film was more successful. Brown said the budget was $12 million plus 25% overhead but other reports put it over $20 million. The film was mostly shot on the islands of Antigua and Abaco,Of Pirates and Perrier. Rosenfield, Paul. Los Angeles Times 26 Aug 1979: m1. and the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

cutter ''Dauntless'' stands in for the fictitious USCGC ''New Hope'' in the movie. Some scenes were also shot in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. Australian

was cast after Michael Ritchie saw her in ''

Newsfront ''Newsfront'' is a 1978 Australian drama film starring Bill Hunter, Wendy Hughes, Chris Haywood and Bryan Brown, directed by Phillip Noyce. The screenplay is written by David Elfick, Bob Ellis, Philippe Mora, and Phillip Noyce. The original mu ...

''.

Release

Home media

On July 27, 2011,

Universal Studios Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...

released the film on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

as part of its Universal Vault Series as an

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

exclusive. On December 11, 2012, Shout! Factory released a retail Blu-ray Disc/DVD combo pack of the film.

Reception

Box office

The film performed poorly at the box office, earning $15 million on the budget of $22 million.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 40% based on , with an average rating of 4.8/10. Author and film critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

awarded the film a BOMB, his lowest rating, calling it " nAbsolutely awful thriller", and criticized Warner's casting as "the most normal guy on the island". Donald Guarisco from Allmovie gave the film a more positive review, calling Benchley's script "dark and witty, with gruesome violence, black humor". Guarisco summarized in his review by writing, "''The Island'' is not for everybody but fans of big-budget oddities are likely to be fascinated by the well-funded eccentricity at play here."

Accolades

* 1st Golden Raspberry Award ** Nominated: Worst Actor (

) ** Nominated: Worst Director ( Michael Ritchie)

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Island 1980 Film 1980 films 1980s action adventure films 1980 horror films 1980s psychological thriller films American action adventure films American action horror films American psychological thriller films American adventure thriller films American horror thriller films Films about journalists Films based on American novels Films based on adventure novels Films based on thriller novels Films set in the Caribbean Films set on islands Pirate films Adventure horror films Universal Pictures films Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films directed by Michael Ritchie Films produced by Richard D. Zanuck Films produced by David Brown Films based on works by Peter Benchley Films shot in Antigua and Barbuda Films shot in the Bahamas The Zanuck Company films Films shot in Miami Films shot in Florida Films set in Florida Films set in New York City Films set in Miami Films set in the Bermuda Triangle 1980s English-language films 1980s American films