Man Friday (film)
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| Man Friday | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jack Gold |
| Produced by | Gerald Green |
| Written by | Adrian Mitchell |
| Starring | Peter O'Toole: Robinson Crusoe Richard Roundtree: Man Friday |
| Music by | Carl Davis |
| Release date(s) | 1975 |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | USA, UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Man Friday is a 1975 British/American film. Being based on Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe, it reverses the roles, portraying Crusoe as a blunt and stiff Englishman, while the native he calls Man Friday is much more intelligent and empathic. The film can be regarded as being highly critical of western civilization, against which it draws a somewhat naïve, idealizing picture of caribbean tribal life.
[edit] Story
Friday and three of his friends arrive in a canoe on the island on which Crusoe has been stranded for years. Crusoe thinks they are cannibals, killing Fridays friends and taking the latter to his camp.
Friday is very quick to learn the english language. Crusoe tries to teach him western concepts like property, sports, punishment, living in fright of god and so on, but Fridays reaction is bewilderment and amusement; he begins to question and mock these concepts, that seem senseless and destructive to him. One day he rebells, refusing to be a slave anymore. After some conflict, a more equal relationship develops, as Crusoe has to admit that he can't live without Friday anymore. Also, he starts to pay him one gold coin per day for his labour.
When an english ship appears, Crusoe is full of joy; two gentlemen arriving in a boat are invited for diner. But when it turns out that they are slave traders who want to capture both Crusoe and Friday, the intruders are killed and the ship leaves again. For a while, a kind of friendship develops between Crusoe and Friday. Friday thinks that he maybe can teach Crusoe his more relaxed way of living, and not to be controlled by "thoughts of power, guilt and fear".
But one day, Crusoe falls back into his old delusions of being a superior being. He had been trying to teach Friday in a mock-up school, complete with a chalkboard. We see that the topic of the day, written on the chalkboard, is "civilization". Obviously, for Crusoe this is a culmination point, where his concepts are ultimately confronted with those of Friday. He binds Friday to a pole and holds a frightful, lunatic sermon about the superiority of his ways, threatening him with his gun; in the end, he shoots his talking parrot, which has been his only companion beforr Fridays arrival. After that shocking experience, Friday gives up his attempts to change Crusoe.
After several years, when having been paid 2,000 gold coins, the price that Crusoe mockingly called for the hut and everything else, Friday throws the gold on a table and takes control of Crusoes gun. He forces Crusoe to build a raft and sail with him to his home island. There Friday tells the story of their relationship to the gathered tribe, which reacts with astonishment and amusement. Finally, Crusoe requests to join the tribe, proposing that he could teach the children. But Friday speaks against him, claiming that "the only thing he teaches is fear". So Crusoe is rejected and returns to his solitary island, where he commits suicide.
[edit] Release and reception
The film premiered at the 1975 Cannes film festival, where director Jack Gold received a nomination for the Palme d'Or.
- "This subversively satirical variation on the Robinson Crusoe tale is a cheeky critique of colonization, race relations and the class struggle." - Rotten Tomatoes
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