Robert Louis Stevenson's classic gets another dramatic outing in this 2012 production starring comedian Eddie Izzard in the role of Long John Silver. The screenplay was written by Stewart Harcourt who made some unsubtle and to my mind unnecessary changes to the story. His altered representations of two of the major characters, Squire Trelawney and Dr Livesey, make little sense and add no extra dramatic value. Director Steve Barron works for a rather realistic representation of the story with a mixed race crew of pirates posing as honest seamen on board the Hispaniola. This helps to steer a course away from unnecessary comparisons to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. Izzards John Silver lacks the matey easiness of Robert Newton's classic 1950 characterisation, as well as the colour and roguishness. He is believable however, and at times gives a very good performance but I never found him as threatening as Newton's Silver. Philip Glenister was excellent throughout as Capt. Smollett, the professional sailor who begins the voyage with grave misgivings but remains steadfast during all of their adventures. Perhaps the only instance of miscasting was that of Elijah Wood as Ben Gunn, not only too young but again re-written for no real advantage. Wood himself gives it a good go, there's no faulting his performance, it is just that there is again no reason behind the changes to the character. This could have been an excellent version of Treasure Island, certainly the production values are high and the cast are for the most part enjoyable but the curious move away from Stevenson's original characterizations, the change to some of their motivation, and the totally unnecessary emphasis on a 21st Century reaction to materialism, mars this version. If you have never read the novel then this might pass as an entertaining adventure film but Stewart Harcourt's adaptation looses too much of the original and criticises social conventions in such a way as to suggest a lack of historical integrity or even understanding. Fun but not a patch of the 1950 classic.

Treasure Island is one of my absolute favorite books, and so I tend to shy away from movies of it; they never do the book justice. This feature is no exception- and yet it is one.The deliciously adult depictions of the pirates, the times, and the addition of the storyline about Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. Silver work beautifully to add twist and interest to what might be an over-familiar tale. I thought Izzard was a brilliant Long John Silver. I also felt Wood's Ben Gunn was wonderfully true to the spirit of the character, and the twist to his tale (away from the original book storyline) at the end also was thoughtful and interesting, and more just to the character.On the other hand, the serious destruction of the characters of the Squire and the Doctor utterly destroy the main contrasts and points of the original story: the pitting of honesty, generosity, courage, and loyalty in believable, likable characters against the evils of self-indulgence, trickery, greed, and cowardice of the pirates. It also takes away from Jim Hawkins coming-of-age by handing that role- strangely- to the Doctor.I also thought it utterly idiotic to dump the treasure at the end. It is almost like somebody decided they wanted to have the treasure dumped in an allegory against greed, and so they fit the "good guys" to this ideal, making them into bad guys, just like the pirates. Or, perhaps they wanted you to cheer harder for Long John Silver and be happier about him getting away in the end (I'm all good with Jim helping him to escape, especially with the insertion of the woman-at-home storyline to compliment it), so they had to make the "good" guys into cowardly jerks so you wouldn't want them to win- which is, of course, superficial and stupid.In the end, it is a beautiful rendition, if you can get over the annoying changes to the Squire and the Doctor- or just take them as given as they are, and watch it for the wonderful complexity of Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins and their shifting and changing relationship.

I wanted to like this recreation of the classic Treasure Island. One doesn't expect a slavish adherence to the original as long as the main story elements are in place, and who would be nitpicking enough to criticize every deviation from precise details of 18th century settings, customs and props. Making the feckless first mate a black guy might be a stretch, Billy Bones is not black in the original, but even the book describes Long John's wife as "a woman of color." Political correctness would be certain to ruin any classic, but I didn't detect toxic amounts of that here. No, the violation was far worse. About one third of the way through this re-creation takes a dark and nasty turn.So I was enjoying this Treasure Island and it's dodgy crew as they set out to sea. Only having had it read to me as a small lad, but I kept coming up short: "Wait a minute! I don't remember that!" I knew my memory of the book was quite faded so I had to look it up. In this TV production squire Trelawney is turned into an angry, abusive tyrant. He virtually keelhauls some poor fellow as a punishment and the fellow dies as Jim looks on. That is totally gratuitous, it's not in the book. In fact, Trelawney is supposed to be a decent fellow and invites Jim on the voyage because he likes him. Later in the TV version the Squire abuses Jim irrationally and cruelly and drives him out of the camp on the island. He is supposed to be Jim's protector, but in this version he becomes his persecutor. Classics are classics for a reason. In the story of Treasure Island it's the power of the narrative, the storytelling, that's the key to its popularity for many generations. The makers of this TV drama, as in so much of movies and TV drama, have no sense of the narrative. Treasure Island is a story of a rite of passage, of a young man being introduced to the world and for this to work he needs people on his side, protectors who care about his welfare. For him to be betrayed by the people who brought him along and took him into their confidence, makes no sense at all. At that point the narrative loses its moral compass and becomes absurd. I can't imagine a motive for such a drastic alteration in the story. Certainly Trelawney is given no motive to turn on Jim and leave him to the mercy of a bunch of cutthroats who intend to kill him. At that point in the TV version Jim is on his own, he virtually has to take care of himself. He has no allies. But rite of passage is not something that adolescents do on their own, as in "Lord of the Flies." They need compassionate adults to help them along. And though I can't imagine why the screenwriters made such a poor decision about the plot line, I can see the parallels with contemporary culture where many young people are virtually abandoned by their elders and left to raise themselves on junk food and pop culture. Along with that comes a visceral dislike of established values, the well-off, and any authority, combined with an exaggerated feeling of entitlement. Perhaps the writers thought that the values of the RLS book were too outdated and corny for an audience of feral children used to getting their own way. As in the "Occupy" movement, all rich guys are automatically considered evil just because they're rich, so the squire has to be evil. I don't know. But you can see the result of such a philosophy in the London riots of 2011 and the ever expanding percentage of out-of-wedlock births in the Western world. In any case these seemingly unnecessary alterations in the story line throw the entire story out of kilter, and Treasure Island is no longer fun. Don't get me started on the ridiculous ending. Avoid this version.

I started seeing this movie without reading the book, so I cannot compare the two.Before I started I heard mixed reviews, but looking at the details still made me want to watch the movie as I normally like a good pirate movie.The beginning was alright, so I stuck to it for a good while. All in all I can only say that the acting was just terrible, and so typical nothing new kind of approach. Lets first kill the people we hire to do one set so nobody will miss them and eventually we will get to the more important people. But that is not even the worse, the worse is that at some point you just ask yourself. What am I doing, why am I still watching this. I am proud that I made it to around 2 hours before I just felt the need to get on IMDb to warn people not to see the movie. The only upside was the costume of Elijah wood witch I thought was really cool. But the rest, from the I am a pirate on one leg with a parrot on my shoulder to the bad story.