The Island (1980)

[6]

Michael Caine stars as a reporter who takes his young son (Jeffrey Frank) to the Bermuda Triangle to investigate the disappearance of many ships and travelers. After a plane crash strands them on an island, the father and son are kidnapped by a band of modern-day pirates who have eluded discovery and prey on passers-through. The pirates, led by actor David Warner (Time After Time, Tron), sentence Caine’s character to sexual servitude to the only fertile woman among them (Angela Punch McGregor) and begin brainwashing his son to call the pirates his new family.

The Island reunites the producers of Jaws with author Peter Benchley. The story is an intriguing one that makes us question how far removed mankind has come from its primal roots, and how easily we might regress when given the chance. The pirate characters are first depicted like horror movie monsters in a couple of slasher scenes, as they prey on vacationers at sea in the dark of night. When Caine and his son are brought before them (probably the strongest scene in the movie), the pirates are a bewildering bunch with their own language, attire, and attitudes. They become less menacing afterward. The film muddles its tone when it shifts gears, portraying the pirates’ lifestyle as an escapist fantasy, especially when they raid a schooner ship, loot it, and kill all the passengers to the tune swashbuckling, classical music.

The film is conceptually strong enough that I enjoyed it overall, even though the execution is lacking throughout. The film desperately wants to be a horror/adventure film, but director Michael Ritchie steers as far from genre conventions as possible. The result is a film that feels flat, even when there’s sex, murder, or mayhem depicted on-screen. The film also makes a major misstep in glorifying the pirate characters during the schooner raid. It robs them of their mystery or their ability to frighten us. A strong genre director could have hit a home run with Benchley’s wild, strong concept of modern day pirates. I’d be interested in seeing a remake from a director who embraces genre filmmaking.

Frank Middlemass adds some British gravitas in a supporting role, and it never hurts to have an Ennio Morricone score.