What Did Robinson Crusoe do with Friday Saturday Night?

Did you know that wildman filmmaker Luis Bunuel made a family-friendly Robinson Crusoe (1954) in Mexico? True story.

It stars Dan O'Herlihy as Crusoe. We see him shipwrecked (on a slaver), then marooned on his island. We see him swim out to get as many tools and supplies as possible, then slowly build his home along with the ship's cat, a dog and a local parrot. When the dog dies after many years, he begins to go mad from the loneliness. More years pass, and he rescues a native from cannibals, who only visit his island for feasts. Here, he goes from loneliness, to mad fear of strangers, to savior of Friday (Jaime Fernandez).

The movie follows the book fairly well, which emphasizes the long time scale (marooned over 20 years) and loneliness, as well as a little bit of the technology of survival. Also faithful to the book is the racism and condescension towards the savages. This is more than a bit disturbing, and made it impossible for my wife to enjoy the movie. I saw it differently, as a document of the time - but I'm not sure if the time in question is the 1700s or the 1950s.

There are a few crazy dream sequences, but very little of the Bunuel you might know from his more famous works. This is almost Disney in style and flavor, if a little more literary. But not really much of a classic.