Luis Buñuel-Robinson Crusoe (1954)

The year is 1659. There is a shipwreck and the sole survivor Robinson Crusoe is washed ashore on a deserted tropical island. Suddenly faced with a hostile and unknown wilderness, he carves out a life for himself with his bare hands. And remarkably, he learns how to survive the maddening absence of human companionship and intense loneliness. Based on Daniel Defoe's immortal classic it is a story about the human spirit's ability to endure what seem insurmountable challenges. VCI Entertainment




The most surreal aspect of this adaptation of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is how faithful Surrealist director Luis Bunuel is to the original book! Which is not to say it's sluggish or literary–Bunuel recreates the story with lush scenery and vivid images, as if he himself were discovering the tropical island along with the Englishman shipwrecked in 1659. (–Bret Fetzer - Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com)




Crusoe (Daniel O'Herlihy, later to appear in RoboCop) spends 28 years building a home and struggling to maintain his sanity; only a friendship formed with a former cannibal whom he dubs Friday (Jaime Fernandez) breaks his isolation. (–Bret Fetzer - Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com)




Bunuel hews scrupulously to even the most colonial aspects of the original material. Crusoe's original expedition set out to trade slaves, and when Crusoe first meets Friday, he introduces himself as "Master" and comments, "How pleasant it was once more to have a servant." (–Bret Fetzer - Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com)




But moments of puckish humor–such as a theological debate in which Friday questions the emotional stability of God–reveal that Bunuel was hardly blind to these issues. Bunuel's sharp eye results in a straightforward but superb version of the classic adventure story. (–Bret Fetzer - Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com)