The Case for Cutthroat Island

Geena Davis is a legend in the world of action heroines as far as I'm concerned, but her action films were widely panned at the box office and are mostly known today through "cult classic" status. I don't know why that is, so I'll break it down for Cutthroat Island here.

So why did it fail?

Cutthroat Island is just about as concentrated a pirate film as you will ever find. Within the first three minutes, we’re treated to a double-cross, a lavish horse-riding on the beach scene, plank-walking, and such pirate iconography as a skull and cross bones, a monkey, a map, and a peg leg...



And within the first six minutes, we have our first underwater scene. For the rest of the film, we are treated to lush tropical scenery, impressive stunts, huge caverns full of Spanish treasure, authentic period costuming, Fairbanksian antics from a leading man, and some very large, very amazing pirate ships. And let’s not forget one seriously huge explosion at the climax of the film. It’s the stuff pirate geeks’ dreams are made of, and this movie plays out like a veritable “best of” reel of pirate standards, visuals, ideas, scenes, and characters. This makes the mystery of its failure all the more intriguing.

To date, Cutthroat Island is the biggest financial loss ever posted by a film, so sayeth the Guiness Book of World Records. It bankrupted the production company behind it, Carolco Pictures, the company also responsible for the first Terminator movie. Perhaps it was an unwilling public in 1995 that killed the film. Some films released around the same time were Father of the Bride II, Sabrina, Sense and Sensibility, Grumpier Old Men, and the closest thing to a fantasy adventure was Jumanji.

This was pre-Lord of the Rings, before new life had been breathed into the action/adventure/fantasy genres. Cutthroat Island was like the new kid in some small Midwestern town, wearing clothes that nobody had seen yet but that would be popular in a few years time.

This was also post-Alien and pre-Tomb Raider, so a woman at the center of an action film may still have been an oddity for some people. Though the ratio of male driven action films is still far larger than those of female driven action films, by a ridiculously large margin, the general public is now well acquainted with the action heroine. That was not the case in 1995. And as far as a movie about Pirates…it seemed laughable at the time. It would be eight years before pirates were “in” again with masses of moviegoers thanks to Disney.

Today, movie fans are more acquainted with the “making of” process to a film. We can track news about upcoming and underway film productions via websites like Aintitcool.com. We can hear what the directors are saying as they are making the film, and even see YouTube videos about what’s going on during the filming.



There is a way now for fans of fantasy and adventure epics to support the making of the film the whole way through, even just with word of mouth. But in the mid-90’s, the internet was still fairly new and the production of Cutthroat Island was essentially isolated. So the massive (and impressively independent) undertaking of CI’s production went unappreciated and built no buzz or excitement. By the film’s release, it’s entirely possible that a few bad reviews by some critics who had gone too many years without having fun at the box office had the power to kill the film.

You may think I’m blinded by my love of all things pirate, but I can make a few concessions about the film. It’s far from perfect. It’s a little slow in segments and perhaps a touch too long, but these are qualities typical of all escapist movies. Try sitting through a Bollywood musical or any Bruckheimer movie without going to the bathroom. I dare you.

Also, there are some real whoppers of one-liners, especially coming from the film’s central villain, played by Frank Langella, who doesn’t make the most convincing pirate in the world. Though he seems to give it his all, and is good at being despicable and making mean faces, so in my book, he makes up for a distinct lack of pirate-ness. There are some early 90’s comic touches that may not have aged very well. And in keeping with the pattern of a movie featuring a monkey, there is far too much time spent with said monkey. But nothing approaching Anaconda or Outbreak levels of screen time, not even close.

But the sheer concentrated nature of this movie is what makes it great, what gives it the ability to rise above its flaws. This is an action film. A long, violent, exploding action film! It’s every bit as exciting (and delightfully implausible) as the Die Hard films, and yet it’s treated as something to be embarrassed about liking, whereas Die Hard is treated like a timeless classic.

Why the double standard in blockbuster preferences? I don’t want to be the writer that blames Cutthroat Island’s lack of success on sexist critics…so I’ll stop that line of thought now, and encourage you to think long and hard about the ratio of action films starring men to that of action films starring women, and leave the rest up to you.



Geena Davis

I want to talk about Geena Davis, easily one of the single most under-appreciated actresses ever by film geek standards. And Pirate lovers should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring her too. You can’t talk about Cutthroat Island without talking about her. Davis has a hugely significant role in film history. Aside from her diverse career, she also has a place as one of the most notable women of the action genre.

It’s not often that a woman gets to star in an action film, though far more common today than it was when she was starring in movies like the uber-violent, The Long Kiss Goodnight. Again, Davis was working in the "women of action gap”, midway through Sigourney Weaver’s amazing performances as “Ripley” in the Alien films and pre-Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. (Which was the only movie at the time to make as much money as Alien did upon its release. Yes, there was a 22 year gap in history between leading women in a financially well-performing action flick.)

As Captain Morgan Adams, Davis positively soars. She’s so convincing as a violent pirate, that I’d wager she could defeat any other fictional female pirate ever featured onscreen. She commands a ship full of men convincingly, when she yells, she really yells. None of that namby-pamby fake yelling that some actresses do. You know the kind of actress, the one who is afraid to attempt her own stunts in case she'll look silly, the one who is afraid to make an angry face for fear that it will give her a wrinkle.

The character of Morgan dresses for practicality, unlike many other onscreen heroines who end up in a leotard or a Halloween costume for the duration of their story. She handles tough dialogue well. Dialogue like, “Open fire” and “Hoist our colors” that would sound outrageous delivered in any other way. It may seem silly to suggest that playing a pirate can be a dignified thing, but Davis brought her natural dignity onto the set, and it was a credit to the film.

They’re not just playing with gender stereotypes in Cutthroat Island, they’re reversing them and are willing to pay up on that idea the entire way through the film. Davis takes on the role of what would be the traditional leading male character. The film stays self-aware that mass audiences will be hard-pressed to accept a lady as a pirate captain, addressing it several times through plot.

The one man who directly propositions Morgan for sex in the film is very quickly stabbed by the tip of Morgan’s knife as she tells him quite unemotionally, “Now leave this place and go far away.” If Davis was the leading man, then Matthew Modine became every bit the stereotypical “damsel in distress”. It is Modine’s character, Mr. Shaw, who is kidnapped, held hostage, in constant danger, and in need of rescuing throughout the film.



The Disney Factor

With the still resounding success of the Disney “Pirates” franchise, one simply must take a second look at Cutthroat Island today. Oh sure, it’s cool now to make a pirate movie. But for years upon years, pirate movies were to the silver screen what the Scottish play (MacBeth) is to theater. A cursed endeavor, a sure financial failure, and something few people wanted to see. So in that sense, Cutthroat Island and its producer/director Renny Harlin, deserve a lot of credit. Credit for showing the team at Disney that a large blockbuster pirate film could still be done. Even though there was no guarantee of success, such a feat could be accomplished. And despite its lack of financial gain, Cutthroat Island is just as much of a visually rich film treat as Disney’s efforts. It’s just as much fun to watch, and shares many plot points as well.

I'm just sayin'...

With the internet becoming so commonplace since the film’s 1995 release date, more and more people have joined in on the rumblings of suspicion that Disney’s 2003 blockbuster smash, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl may have borrowed a little from Cutthroat Island. Who can definitively say for sure?

But one thing can be said for sure, all pirate movies share strong conventions and similar storylines. In fact, both Pirates of the Caribbean and Cutthroat Island (as well as nearly every other pirate film ever made) feature ship to ship battles, historical settings, and plot similarities. Did Disney rip off Cutthroat Island? No more than Cutthroat Island ripped off Treasure Island, or Muppet’s Treasure Island, or every other pirate film. Comparing the two films is like saying we should make Coke and Pepsi fight to the death until only one soft drink remains. It’s silly. There are people who love Coke and people who love Pepsi, and some who will drink both. To be loyal to one Pirate film over another is a waste of time, appreciate them all for their different qualities. Can’t we all just get along?

Closing Arguments

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it? Re-watch Cutthroat Island, give it a fair shake. Forget what you’ve heard about the film or what you yourself have said about it in the past. Watch with an open mind. You try to figure out why it flopped, and POTC soared. You try to figure out why you can’t find it at your local Blockbuster or Hollywood video or Wal-Mart. If you enjoy the movie, tell your friends, have a viewing party, buy it for your library and set it proudly on your shelf with Hook, The Goonies, and Disney’s Pirate films. Do what you can to de-stigmatize this excellent adventure flick.

And if by the end, you aren’t convinced of this movie’s awesomeness, then you win. If you don’t like the huge explosion, the piratey goodness, the endless final battle, the saluting monkey…well, then I’ll concede. I’ll say it’s not for mainstream viewers. But you’ll never get me to say that I don’t LOVE this movie, and I’ll never stop recommending it. The box office may be a fickle thing, but people who love Pirates will always know a good pirate movie when they see one.

And Cutthroat Island is one fine example of a pirate movie.