Review of Man Friday

A satellite view of the earth is the first camera shot of this film then it plunges down to the island on which Crusoe (O'Toole) is stranded.A quick and direct start to a film. Every now and again I expected John Cleese to be playing a piano on the beach.There is a scene when the two characters are on a podium after racing, it's straight out of Monty Python. There is definitely something about this film even though there are some cringe worthy singing scenes that, I think are a little ludicrous.It delves into religion, class,education, race, the idea of money and the general cultural relativism that exists between the proverbial "savage" and "civilized" man. Although people have said that Crusoe is the fool in this version, I do tend to see some sense in the things he does, like the need for money in order to keep a work ethic and a civilized notion of transaction of possessions.However his religious spin on everything is a little monotonous and self deceiving. He is put into context of his origin when some Brithish missionaries arrive on the island.He is actually not that bad a fellow at all.

Friday (Rountree)is a bit of a hippy in this really and overly idealistic.

Some where in the middle of the two characters is the sort of person you could live on a desert island with!

I thought Crusoe's shooting himself was a wonderfully dark ending.