The pirate bride
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The pirate bride |
| Original title | Cutthroat Island |
| Country of production | United States , France , Italy , Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1995 |
| length | 124 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Renny Harlin |
| script |
Marc Norman Robert King |
| production |
James Gorman Renny Harlin Laurence Mark Joel B. Michaels |
| music | John Debney |
| camera | Peter Levy |
| cut |
Derek Brechin Florent Retz Frank J. Urioste Ralph E. Winters |
| occupation | |
| |
The Pirate Bride (original title Cutthroat Island ) is a pirate film from 1995 . The director was Renny Harlin , with Geena Davis , Matthew Modine and Frank Langella starring . The film went down as the biggest flop in film history to date . Because of the film, pirate films were viewed as " box office poison " for years .
action
The film is set in the Caribbean in the 17th century . The privateer Morgan Adams has to watch her uncle Dawg kill her father Harry: Dawg and Harry Adams are pirates . Her grandfather had once captured a Spanish gold ship with an extremely valuable cargo of gold; he hid the treasure on the hidden island of Cutthroat Island and encrypted the location using a three-part map. He bequeathed part of the treasure map to each of his three sons. Dawg wanted to get the treasure with the help of Harry's card, but Harry refused. Lying dying, Harry can tell his daughter that he has the card tattooed on the back of his head. Morgan therefore scalps her now dead father with a heavy heart and also goes in search of the treasure with his ship and crew.
In the meantime, the pickpocket and cheater William Shaw is captured in a British island colony . Morgan is also present incognito because the treasure map contains Latin text and she needs a translator. Since she mistakenly thinks Shaw is a doctor who speaks Latin, she kidnaps him. Shaw enters into the game to avoid execution. But Morgan quickly notices his imposture and throws him into the bilge .
With a lot of skill and fighting spirit, Morgan steals the second piece of the map and can reach Treasure Island at the end. But Dawg and his crew also get to the island - with the help of the British, with whom the pirate has made a pact. Morgan and Shaw have to work together to find the hiding place and actually find the gold cargo. But Dawg comes before them during the rescue, steals the gold and apparently gets rid of them.
Morgan and Shaw make it back to their ship, however, and they join forces to board Dawg's ship. Morgan and Dawg engage in a final fencing match in which the already defeated pirate bride kills her uncle with a cannonball. Shaw tries to recover the gold cargo from the pirate ship, which is about to explode, but is wedged. At the last moment, Morgan can free him before the frigate blows up. Both are saved - as is the treasure that Morgan tied to empty barrels before the explosion, so that the sunken treasure can then be recovered.
The enthusiastic crew agrees to search for more treasure under Morgan. This orders Shaw to "immediately" go to her cabin.
Reviews
James Berardinelli described the film on ReelViews as "dull entertainment". He found the portrayal of Geena Davis as "superficial", Matthew Modine seemed "boring". Berardinelli praised some of the “breathtaking” visual effects as well as the “thrilling” film music.
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on December 22, 1995 that the film was exactly what a pirate film by that name should be. He praised the costumes, the stunts, the special effects, and the direction.
“The extremely simple story is enriched with all the clichés of the genre without any irony. The film is characterized above all by numerous explosions and stunts in front of an elaborate backdrop; but the staging is unimaginative, sometimes sloppy. "
Awards
Director Renny Harlin was nominated for the Golden Raspberry in 1996.
background
The film was shot in the Caribbean, Thailand and Malta . The Maltese film sets as well as the ships were made before the script was finished.
Director Renny Harlin convinced producer Mario Kassar to cast the lead role with Geena Davis, with whom he was dating at the time of shooting. The couple also shot the thriller Deadly Christmas together before the relationship broke up shortly thereafter. The occupation of the remaining roles became Sisyphus' work. For the male lead, Keanu Reeves , Liam Neeson , Charlie Sheen , Jeff Bridges , Ralph Fiennes and Michael Keaton were in talks, but they all declined. Even Michael Douglas was offered the role, but who refused on the grounds that Geena Davis' role would push him too much in the background.
The intended cameraman Oliver Wood injured himself on the set and broke his ankle . He was replaced by Peter Levy. The injury was so severe that Wood was unable to perform his next engagement, the film Operation - Broken Arrow by John Woo . Here, too, he was exchanged for Levy. Last but not least, one of Woods' originally planned guest appearances also had to be deleted and he was replaced by an extra.
In one scene, Geena Davis rushes through a window into an arcaded bay room. As she runs through the rooms, the carriage driven by Modine drives under the arcades. Davis jumps out the window and lands on the driver's seat next to Modine at the right moment. The interlude was realized by both actors without the use of stunt people . Davis' jump and landing on the carriage were two different takes and were digitally combined into one recording at the editing table: in one take she jumps out of the window and plays a role, in the other take Davis is already sitting on the carriage.
The pirate bride went down in cinema history as a gigantic financial failure. For a time, it was considered the biggest commercial flop in the film business, according to the Guinness Book of Records . With an estimated production costs of about 100 million US dollars , the strip was playing with just under 10 million dollars, only about a ten percent of spending. Because of this flop, the production company Carolco Pictures , which had commissioned many successful films such as Red Heat or Total Recall , went bankrupt .
Web links
- Cutthroat Island in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Cutthroat Island at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The pirate bride at Metacritic (English)
- The pirate bride in the online film database
- The pirate bride in the German dubbing index