Product Details

• Actors: Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Richard Johnson
• Directors: Fraser Clarke Heston
• Writers: Fraser Clarke Heston, Robert Louis Stevenson
• Producers: Fraser Clarke Heston, Peter Snell, Ted Lloyd
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Turner Home Ent
• VHS Release Date: December 18, 2001
• Run Time: 132 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301670108
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,293 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A tale about a fatherless boy finding dramatically different father figures throughout a remarkable adventure, Treasure Island is an entertaining coming-of-age story, with themes of family, loyalty, friendship, trust, and honesty at its core. While Robert Louis Stevenson's classic adventure tale is popular film fare, it's never been done this well. Charlton Heston stars as Long John Silver and Christian Bale as plucky Jim Hawkins in this TNT production. Directed by Heston's son Fraser (who also directed the excellent family fare Alaska), the film remains faithful to the novel, and draws much of the spirit and excitement of the book. The action scenes are first-rate, and if the ship Hispaniola has never looked better or more authentic, no surprise: the ship is the original from 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty. The opening scenes are dark and rich, as they capture the period well, with careful attention to makeup (the teeth, the body grime!) and costuming. Oliver Reed and Christopher Lee are frighteningly effective as Capt. Billy Bones and Blind Pew, and the film's first half-hour is theirs. The tone shifts and lightens when Heston appears as the legendary pirate. Look for Pete Postlethwaite, Julian Glover, and Richard Johnson in wonderful supporting roles. The film marks Bale's segue from poignantly promising child actor (Empire of the Sun) to compelling teen (he would later continue to prove his talent as a versatile young actor in Little Women and Velvet Goldmine). --N.F. Mendoza

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shiver TNT's timbers unless they issue the DVD right smart!, May 21, 2004

By 

R.L. Holly "piper909" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Treasure Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Brilliant, wonderful adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's classic seafaring tale -- this is beyond doubt THE best pirate film to have yet been made. Bar none. If you don't clap this one to your heart, ye be a false-sworn landlubber, by thunder, and here's my affydavy on that!

Update, October 2010: See the comments section -- it is being reported that a DVD release may finally come in 2011. Yarrr! And about time, too. Tremendous cast, sterling production values, brilliant cinematography, rousing musical score, crack screenplay, and vibrant performances make this an enduring classic.

I also want to put in a plug for the greatest pirate film to star a swashbuckling female, "Anne of the Indies" (aka "The Pirate Queen"), which has sadly never been released to home video in No. America but has aired on cable TV and is available on PAL Region 2 DVD (as Die Piratenkonigin) in Germany. If you have an all-region DVD player, you should run, not walk, to Amazon Deutschland and pick this up. It's the original English-language release, just switch off any German language options or subtitling. Jean Peters stars as Captain Anne Providence and gives her all in a wonderfully engaging, if corny, color production from about 1951. Peters is genuinely athletic, beautiful, and obviously loved this role. Anne of the Indies beats all other pirate queens hands down.

Now, if only they'd make a film about Grania O'Malley, we'd be splicin' the mainbrace!

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars stellar cast, fabulous adventure, July 6, 2004

By 

Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Treasure Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A terrific telling of Robert Louis Stevenson's adventure, Christian Bale as the young Jim Hawkins and Charlton Heston as Long John Silver are both superb, and head a great cast: Richard Johnson, Oliver Reed, Clive Wood, and Julian Glover among the many actors that bring the story to life. Filmed in Jamaica, as well as the Hispaniola, a beauty of a ship, the scenery and cinematography by Robert Steadman are marvelous.
The soundtrack is by Paddy Moloney and performed by The Cheiftains, and is also very effective.

Christian Bale, so moving two years earlier in "Empire of the Sun", is here courageous and strong; only fourteen at the time this was made, he is quite remarkable, and Heston does a turn as the bad guy, and is sensational as old wily Silver, saying things like "I'll have yer liver for breakfast !".
Director Fraser Heston, who made his cinematic debut as the infant Moses in the 1956 "The Ten Commandments" his father starred in, keeps the pacing fast and though there are a lot of sword fights and shooting, it is mostly sound effects and there is very little in the way of gore, making the film suitable for children. The dialect of the sailors sounds foreign at first, but one soon gets used to it.
Originally made for television, this is rousing, exceptional story-telling, that will keep one's interest for numerous viewings.
Total running time is 132 minutes.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vote for a DVD release at TCM, December 22, 2005

By 

Blackhawk (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Treasure Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you would like to see this version of Treasure Island released on DVD, as I do, then please go to this link:

http://tcmdb.com/title/title.jsp?scarlettTitleId=14882

and vote for it (on the right hand side of the screen).

If the link does not work, then do a Google search for Turner Classic Movies, then search on the site for Treasure Island (1990). Maybe if enough people vote for it, it will actually be released on DVD. It can't hurt.