Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Island, The (1980)

Director: Michael Ritchie

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Peter Benchley's script from his own novel is a mad concoction in which Michael Caine and son stumble on a Caribbean island inhabited by bloodthirsty pirates, inbred over 300 years and now sterile, who survive by plundering consumer goodies from luxury yachts. Caine is designated as stud to the only female capable of child-bearing, the son is happily absorbed into the patriarchal dream world, and a thoroughly Oedipal conflict begins between the pair which looks like ending in patricide. The plot's inversion of Lord of the Flies (adults without children running amok on an island paradise), the inanely prattling buccaneers straight out of Disneyland, and the anti-materialist glee of their attack against the rich - smashing videos and taunting sunbathers - all add up to one of the most ludicrous yet entertaining mis-hits since The Other Side of Midnight.

Author: DP 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Michael Ritchie

Producer: David Brown, Richard D Zanuck

Cast: Michael Caine, David Warner, Angela Punch McGregor, Frank Middlemass, Don Henderson, Dudley Sutton, Colin Jeavons full cast

Duration: 114 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.