I can't say that I was too impressed with this 1954 version of Robinson Crusoe. For most of the film the actor Dan O'Herlihy who plays Robinson Crusoe narrates his story to us the audience, what he plans to do to survive and how for many years on the island, his only companions are a cat and a dog.Eventually he has unwanted company on the island which are a dozen or so cannibals who plan to eat one of their own until Robinson Crusoe quietly assists the cannibal captor who literally runs for his life into the path of a gun toting Crusoe who takes care of the two (2) cannibals chasing what becomes Crusoe's new found friend that he calls by the name Friday.So Crusoe teaches Friday the English language and Friday learns quickly that Crusoe considers himself to be the alpha dog and temporarily shackles Friday in fear of his own life until their communication becomes clear that Friday has no intention of ever harming, nor leaving Crusoe, the man who saved his life from his fellow cannibals.Days, weeks, months, years and even decades pass by and Robinson Crusoe accepts his fate until one day the island is inhabited by some white sailors who appear to have their own prisoners they are dealing with on land, while their ship stands only hundreds of yards away from the shoreline. Once Crusoe determines who are the bad guys (mutiny) and who are the good guys Crusoe and Friday lend a helping hand in exchange for their freedom to set sail to the Americas. Will their plan work? Watch the film and find out yourself.I give the film a two thumbs up out of four.

Bunuel turns in a relatively straightforward adaptation of Daniel Defoe's novel. It's a handsomely mounted technicolor production produced during his Mexican exile period, but shot in English for consumption North of the border. Dan O'Herlihy (best known to modern audiences for "Robocop") stars (the producers wanted Orson Welles, but Bunuel rejected Welles in favour of O'Herlihy whom he saw playing McDuff in Welles's "Macbeth"). O'Herlihy does a fine job and received a Best Actor nomination for his work here. There are almost none of Bunuel's usual touches here ... though a case of kittens born through what appears to be immaculate conception and a Biblical debate between Robinson and Friday seem to gesture at his contempt for the Church.

I am sure that fans of director Luis Buñuel probably have very mixed feelings about this film. On the one hand, it's an exceptionally well made film from start to finish, but on the other, it's way too "normal" for the usually anarchic and often surreal director. In other words, the fact that this is a relatively straight retelling of the classic Daniel Defoe story may be held against it. There are no eyes being cut with razors, no devil coming to tempt Robinson nor is there any sexual chemistry between him and Friday--all touches you might expect from Buñuel. However, I am not a huge fan of the director's odd films--though I have enjoyed several of his more "approachable" films. So, it's not surprising that I liked this film very much. It was a fine quality product throughout. I also liked that in this version, Robinson is NOT a perfect man or some sort of saint--he's very flawed--especially in his initially paternalistic attitude towards Friday. It had a lot to say about slavery and the tendency to see all the natives as "savages". Well done--well directed and especially well acted by Dan O'Herlihy. A touching and interesting film.

This adaptation of Daniel Defoe's masterpiece was the closest that Buñuel ever was to mainstream. Here he forgot about his fight against Catholic Church or against the bourgeoisie and made sort of a short version of "The adventures of Robinson Crusoe". It's probably the poorest work of Buñuel's and it does not contribute with anything to the novel, but the fact is that "Robinson Crusoe" is quite hard to adapt to cinema: a guy that's alone in an island with nobody to talk with (at least in "Cast Away" Tom Hanks had that ball). So, if Buñuel would have wanted to he'd have been a nice director of adventure movies, because "TAORC" was so nice filmed.*My rate: 5/10