Review: The Island
Blu-ray: The Island (1980)
No, not THAT ‘The Island’, the other one based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, who also wrote the screenplay. This Island is about a savage group of pirates, including Dudley Sutton and Don Henderson. Old school.
Blair Maynard (Michael Caine) is a British-born American journalist who is investigating the mystery of why so many boats disappear in the Bermuda Triangle. He takes his very annoying son Justin with him to Florida on a promise of a trip to Disney World, which of course doesn’t happen because Blair is on a job.
While fishing, both are attacked by a weird madman, tied up and taken to….The Island.
Soon Blair realises the reason all these boats and people are missing….. Pirates.
I’d never even heard of this film, never mind seen it and it is without a doubt, bat shit crazy. You know how Michael Caine wavers between classic films (Get Carter, The Man Who Would Be King) and pay the mortgage films (Blame it on Rio, Jaws: The Revenge). Well this fits in neither, it is all at once terrible, and fantastic with the most incredible over acting by David Warner et al.
Buy it!
(I’ve loved this movie since first renting it on VHS many years ago, and this Treasured Films Blu-ray release is an absolute gem. It was great to watch it with such a superb picture quality and sound…made the “Rambo 4′ ending even better still! The special features had me hooked too.An added bonus was Tina enjoying it on her first time watch – Dave).
Limited Edition Contents
- Double-walled slipcase with alternative artwork
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new artwork by Graham Humphreys and writing by
Barry Forshaw and Darrell Buxton - Webstore exclusive ‘Axe-in-the-obvious-fake-head’ magnet
- Webstore exclusive A3 poster reversible fold-out poster
Special Features
- Presented in widescreen from high definition master
- Uncompressed English DTS-HD Master Audio 5:1; English DTS-HD Master Audio 2:0
- NEW Audio Commentary with Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw
- NEW Pirate Queen: Interview with star Angela Punch McGregor (20:53)
- NEW No Child is an Island – Michael Ritchie: Video Essay by Howard S. Berger & Kevin Marr (44:47)
- NEW Peter Benchley on Screen: Video Essay by Author John Harrison (21:27)
- NEW Ennio Morricone: A World Unto Itself: Video Essay by Eugenio Ercolani (42:23)
- Image Gallery
- Archive Trailer
- Reversible Sleeve featuring two artwork choices: original cover and Belgian cover
- English SDH Subtitles
Review by Tina from a disc kindly supplied by Treasured Films.