Cutthroat Island is a 1995 adventure swashbuckler film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert King and Marc Norman from a story by Michael Frost Beckner, James Gorman, Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon. It stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and Frank Langella.[5] It is a co-production between the United States, France, Germany and Italy.
It had a notoriously troubled and chaotic production involving multiple rewrites and recasts. Critical reactions, where the script was the focus of criticism, were generally negative. It was one of the biggest box office bombs in history, with losses of $147 million when adjusted for inflation.[6] It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the biggest box-office bomb of all time,[7] and significantly reduced the bankability and Hollywood production of pirate-themed films until 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Its failure caused the closing of Carolco Pictures.
Plot
In 1668 Jamaica, Morgan Adams having escaped a sting operation to capture her with aid of her father’s boatswain Mr. Glasspoole and Bowen, hunts down her uncle and fellow pirate Dawg Brown, who has captured her father, Black Harry. Black Harry has one of three pieces of a map to a huge stash of gold on the remote Cutthroat Island. Dawg has another piece, having stolen it from the corpse of a third brother, Richard, while a fourth brother, Mordechai, has the last piece. Harry refuses to give Dawg his piece and escapes with Morgan’s help, but not before being mortally wounded by Snelgrave, Dawg’s one armed and one eyed first mate. A dying Harry reveals to his daughter the location of the map piece: on his scalp. At the same time in Port Royal, during a ball hosted by its corrupt Governor Ainslee, thief William Shaw is captured by Captain Trotter, having fleeced several guests of their valuables.
References
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d “CUTTHROAT ISLAND (1995)”. catalog.afi.com. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
- ^ “CUTTHROAT ISLAND (PG) (CUT)”. British Board of Film Classification. March 13, 1996. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
- ^ Jump up to:a b “Cutthroat Island (1995) – Financial Information”. The Numbers.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c “Cutthroat Island”. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
- ^ Brennan, Judy (December 21, 2005). “Troubled Route to Pirate Epic ‘Cutthroat’; Movies: As the swashbuckling adventure starring Geena Davis, directed by her husband, Renny Harlin, opens this weekend, financial woes surround its release”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
