| Cutthroat Island | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Renny Harlin |
| Produced by | Renny Harlin Laurence Mark Joel B. Michaels James Gorman |
| Screenplay by | Robert King Marc Norman |
| Story by | Michael Frost Beckner James Gorman Bruce A. Evans Raynold Gideon |
| Starring | Geena Davis Matthew Modine Frank Langella Maury Chaykin Patrick Malahide Stan Shaw |
| Music by | John Debney |
| Cinematography | Peter Levy |
| Editing by | Derek Brechin Florent Retz Frank J. Urioste Ralph E. Winters |
| Studio | Carolco Pictures[1] |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | December 22, 1995 |
| Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States France Italy Germany |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $98 million [2] |
| Box office | $18,517,322 [3] |
Cutthroat Island is a 1995 action adventure film directed by Renny Harlin. The film stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, and Frank Langella.[4] The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a major box office bomb: listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office flop of all time.[5] It was the last film Carolco Pictures produced before it went bankrupt.
Contents |
The film begins in Jamaica in 1668. After bedding and outsmarting a bounty hunter trying to arrest her, female pirate Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) hunts down her uncle and fellow pirate Dawg (Frank Langella), who has captured her father, Black Harry (Harris Yulin), who has one of three pieces to a map to a huge stash of gold on a remote island called Cutthroat Island. Dawg has another piece while their brother, Mordachai (George Murcell), has the third. Dawg tries to force Harry to give him the map, but Harry refuses and escapes with Morgan's help, but not before being mortally wounded. Before dying, Harry reveals to his daughter the location of the map piece: on his scalp.
After scalping her dead father for the piece, Morgan, now the captain of her father's ship, the Morning Star, sets out for the treasure. Unfortunately, the instructions are in Latin, which no one on board reads. So, they go to nearby Port Royal to find a translator. There, they learn that one of the slaves up for auction, a con man and thief named William Shaw (Matthew Modine), is fluent in Latin. After threatening a man determined to win, Morgan wins the auction. Unfortunately, she is recognized from her wanted poster and is chased out of town (which is demolished), along with her crew and Shaw. Humiliated, Governor Ainslee (Patrick Malahide) vows to find her.
The crew then goes to Mordachai in Spittlefield Harbor. Before they can learn where the second piece is however, Dawg appears. A fight ensues, during which Mordachai is killed, Morgan is shot, and Shaw secretly finds the piece and keeps it to himself. After they escape on the Morning Star, Morgan collapses from her wound, but is saved by Shaw, who is a self proclaimed doctor. During this time, the two start a romance.
Eventually, Dawg's ship, the Reaper, bears down on them. Morgan directs the ship toward a coral reef...and a gale. Shaw tries to piece together the location of Cutthroat Island with his and Morgan's piece, but is caught and thrown in the brig. During the storm, the majority of the crew mutinies against Morgan and shanghai her and those loyal to her in a boat. Ironically, though the boat is wrecked, the tide takes them straight to Cutthroat Island.
As Morgan goes after the treasure, Shaw, who escaped during the storm, steals the last piece from Dawg, who's on the island, but runs into quicksand. Morgan finds him and, after finding out he has the piece, frees him. Together, they find the gold, only for it to be stolen by Dawg, forcing them to flee.
After regaining consciousness, Morgan then learns that Dawg has joined forces with the mutineers and Ainslee with the intent of a three-way split between them. In addition, they've captured Shaw. She manages to retake the Morning Star, but Dawg is not fooled and gives chase. A huge open sea fight ensues, during which Shaw escapes. Morgan eventually boards the Reaper and duels Dawg while Shaw gets trapped below in rapidly rising water with the treasure. Eventually, Morgan kills Dawg with a cannon and saves Shaw, forced to abandon the treasure to escape the sinking ship. Luckily, Morgan uses a trick to retrieve the treasure and the newly rich crew sets sail for their next adventure in Madagascar.
Cutthroat Island had a total cost of $98 million and the total U.S. gross was approximately $10 million.[2] It is widely believed to be a contributing factor to the demise of the film's production company, Carolco Pictures, and of Davis as a bankable star.
In a radio interview in 2011, director Renny Harlin discussed the film's box-office failure. He pointed out that Carolco was already in ruin before the film even began shooting and studio executives knew that they would not produce another film after this. MGM, the film's distributor, was in the process of being sold and thus could not devote itself into financing a marketing campaign for the film.[6] Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month before Cutthroat Island's release.[7]
The abject disaster of Cutthroat Island is also credited with significantly reducing the bankability and Hollywood production of pirate-themed films, which only recovered with the production of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003.[8]
This film was nominated for one Razzie Award, for Harlin as Worst Director, and has a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
By contrast, the film's swashbuckling music by John Debney has been critically acclaimed, and compared with the works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold.[9][10][11] [12]
The British release of the film was originally rated 15 (no patron under the age of 15). Distributors decided to target a family audience and so over a minute of film was cut to get a PG certificate.
A side-scroller released for major platforms of the time to tie-in with the film.
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