Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PLFEB 34601

Cert: PG

Running time: 122 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV)

Year: 1995

Pressing: UK, 1996

Chapters: 26 (12/13+1)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen : 2.35:1

Price: £24.99

Extras : Original Theatrical Trailer

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Director:

Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight)

Producers:

Laurence Mark, Joel B. Michaels, James Gorman, Renny Harlin

Screenplay:

Robert King, Marc Norman

Music:

John Debney

Cast:

Morgan : Geena Davis (The Long Kiss Goodnight, Thelma and Louise, Beetlejuice, The Fly)
Shaw : Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Short Cuts)
Dawg : Frank Langella (Eddie, Dave, Brainscan)
John Reed : Maury Chaykin (Devil In A Blue Dress, The Adjuster)
Ainslee : Patrick Malahide (The Long Kiss Goodnight, Minder (TV))
Glasspoole : Stan Shaw (Roots, Runaway)

Cutthroat Island teams up the director, Renny Harlin, and star, Geena Davis (also husband and wife...) who went on to make 1996's, The Long Kiss Goodnight, in a pirate adventure also starring Matthew Modine

The year is 1668, and Geena Davis stars as Morgan Adams, a pirate, who after a recent altercation with Dawg (Frank Langella, currently starring in the cinema hit Eddie) and his men, sees her father die in the struggle to escape. His dying wish is that she takes over the captaincy of his ship, The Morning Star, and to cut his hair to the scalp. When next on board, she brings the captain-election bickering to an end by announcing herself as the new captain, holding up the piece of her father's scalp which shows a treasure map of Cutthroat Island...

..or rather there are three pieces. The second is held by her uncle, so no problems there, but the third is in the hands of Dawg. Another problem, is that the map is written in Latin, so the search is on for someone who can translate. Morgan's ship lands in Port Royal, Jamaica, where she buys Shaw (Matthew Modine), a slave who she buys to do the job, and together as they break out of the town with a couple of crew members, the action begins with a carriage chase, with the locals in pursuit including the owner of the carriage, Ainslee (Patrick Malahide, most well known as Inspector Chisholm from the TV series Minder), as well as John Reed, who he has just bribed to turn traitor on Morgan (ie. if he doesn't lead him to her, Reed will be shuffling off his mortal coil more sooner than he thought).

Geena Davis does an adequate job as Morgan, not that it's much of a taxing part and a far cry from something like Thelma and Louise or Angie, both of which gave her much more to get her teeth into, while Matthew Modine joins in with the wisecracks, but does little else apart from stand and smile. It's interesting to note that his part was originally written for Michael Douglas, but he literally jumped ship from the project.

Frank Langella grimaces and gnarls his way through his lines of script in a straight-forward fashion, but you certainly can't beat the appearance of Patrick Malahide, also seen in The Long Kiss Goodnight, albeit using a horrendous Texan American accent of some description then. Using his own voice this time, I kept expecting him to mention Arfur Daley... :)

If I only had one gripe about this disc, it's that the film has been cut by approximately 75 seconds to get a PG-rating. I understand that the pieces cut are headbutts and other bits of violence, mostly performed by Geena Davis, although some of this is still quite clearly visible, and even in its form on this disc, it has its violent moments including a nasty neckbreak from Davis in chapter 18 (Morgan To The Rescue). Why the cuts? Well, the BBFC usually tend to have a hard time passing scenes of violence towards women, so it doesn't follow that violence by women would be any different. However, it might not necessarily be the BBFC's fault entirely if the film company, Carolco, requested a PG-certificate.

In the past, other works of director Renny Harlin's have suffered at the hands of either the BBFC or the respective film company. Cliffhanger (1993) was cut for a 15-certificate, and for Die Hard 2 (1990) the cinema version and pan-and-scan video release were also cut to a 15-certificate. The widescreen video and PAL Laserdisc are both available as an uncut 18-certificate, although the BBFC will now no longer allow two versions of a film to be released with differing certificates.

On the plus side of things, the picture of the disc is excellent and sharp, the widescreen framing essential for Renny Harlin's extreme compositions and stunning sets and locations. The surround sound also lashes out, especially in chapters such as Straight Through The Storm, Open Fire, and the aforementioned Carriage Chase.

The disc is well-chaptered with 25 spread throughout the film, plus one at the end for the original theatrical trailer. The gatefold sleeve is a very plush affair. Although the front looks simple with a silver skull and two swords accompanying the title and names of the two main stars, the back has the film credits and four stills of the characters in the film, and inside is a sunset scene for the background, with four more stills from the film, a brief essay about the production of the film, and a chapter listing.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.