Wednesday, Film4, 6:40pm
Ah, Cutthroat Island—the 1995 swashbuckling adventure that sailed into cinemas with high hopes, only to sink faster than a ship laden with cursed doubloons. Directed by Renny Harlin and starring Geena Davis as the fierce pirate Morgan Adams, this film set out to revive the long-languishing pirate genre. Instead, it became a cautionary tale of cinematic excess, production woes, and the perils of budgeting as though you're plundering Blackbeard’s treasure. Yet beneath the dubious legacy lies a spirited, if flawed, romp that's well worth revisiting for fans of high-seas hijinks.
The plot is a quintessential pirate yarn: Morgan inherits a piece of a treasure map from her slain father, and with her ragtag crew (and a wisecracking Matthew Modine as thief-turned-sidekick William Shaw), she races against time to beat her villainous uncle Dawg Brown (Frank Langella, delightfully chewing the scenery) to the titular island's hidden riches. The film embraces every pirate trope with gusto, from swinging ropes to buried gold, all wrapped in a relentlessly energetic pace. However, its ambition often outpaces its coherence, with dialogue as choppy as the stormy seas Morgan navigates.
One area where Cutthroat Island undeniably shines, however, is in its rousing score by John Debney. Debney, then an underrated composer, delivered a sweeping orchestral score that channels the spirit of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s classic pirate epics like The Sea Hawk. It’s an absolute banger of a soundtrack, featuring soaring melodies, thunderous percussion, and strings that practically demand you swash your buckle immediately. The music feels like it belongs to a far better film, and indeed, it’s become a cult favorite among soundtrack enthusiasts, often cited as one of the best pirate scores of all time. If you close your eyes while listening, you might even forget the box office disaster and imagine yourself aboard the Black Pearl—or at least something seaworthy.
Despite its infamous reputation, Cutthroat Island has garnered a certain charm over the years, particularly among fans of unabashedly cheesy adventure. It’s not the treasure chest Hollywood hoped for, but it’s a fascinating relic of its time, complete with plenty of gold for those willing to dig beneath the surface. Just keep a parrot on your shoulder and a mug of grog nearby—it helps.
- Noel Chambers