Treasure Island: The Stockade Fight (1934 vs. 1990)

Let's compare two different versions of a scene from two different adaptations of Treasure Island.

This is the Stockade fight from Chapter 21 of the novel. The two versions were made 54 years apart. There have been countless other adaptations of various quality made over the years, but these two are my personal favorites.

Though I normally prefer older, back-and-white movies, I have to give the 1990 version the win here. Adding a cannon to the fight increases the tension dramatically (though this is a departure from the book in an otherwise very faithful adaptation.)

Also, the background music helps a lot. The 1934 movie was made early in the Sound Era and having a musical score for an entire movie was not yet common. King Kong, made a year earlier, was an important innovator in adding music to a movie, but the practice hadn't caught on completely. The lack of music in the 1934 scene is a notable deficiency when compared to the 1990 scene, which features excellent music by the Chieftains at key moments.

The second best pirate movie EVER!!!!

I know that for my blog, recommending something as recent as 1990 is a rare and notable event. But, just as was the case  with a Charlie Brown animated special not long ago, I find that the extraordinary quality of this particular movie force me to make an exception.  Besides, though this movie was made in the post-CGI age, it didn't use CGI. That's a real ship in a real ocean.

Anyway, the 1990 version of Treasure Island FINALLY came out on DVD last month. And, gee whiz, this might actually be the second-best pirate movie ever made, coming in behind Captain Blood. but beating out all other challengers. It scores a 9.7 on the Karloff/Bogart Coolness chart.

It stars Charlton Heston as Long John Silver and Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins. Bale was in his mid-teens when this was made--a bit older than most film versions of Jim. But that's one of the strengths of this version. We have a Jim Hawkins who is just the right age to believably make the transformation from boy to man.

Heston is pitch perfect as Long John. Other cast members include Oliver Reed as Billy Bones and Christopher Lee as Blind Pew. The movie seemed to be deliberately casting the few living actors who can be mentioned in the same breath as Bogart and Cagney with a clear conscience. (Well, living in 1990. Heston and Reed are no longer with us.) Heck, if they'd figured out a way to fit Leonard Nimoy and Sean Connery into the film, it would have scored a perfect 10.



But the rest of the cast does a bang up job. Clive Owen, as Captain Smollett, is particularly notable for bringing a real sense of strength and personality to the role.

The script is faithful to the classic novel, expertly directed with some beautiful location photography. Even the sound track by the Chieftains is a perfect fit. It's a movie that really has to go on your must-see list.

Treasure Island staring Moses, Batman, Athos and Dracula. How can you go wrong with that?

"Them that dies will be the lucky ones!"

The Last Stand: A desperate attempt by a small group to defend a specific location against a larger force.

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It's a trope that fiction writers and film makers have used time and time again. It shows up perhaps most often in Westerns and war stories, but it pops up from time to time in other genres as well.

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When done well, a last stand sequence can be intensely exciting. One of the best can be found in what may still be the best ever adventure novel.


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Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is pretty much the granddaddy of all good pirate stories. Narrated (with the exception of a couple of chapters) by young Jim Hawkins, it generates a true sense of adventure as Jim and a few friends battle the villianous Long John Silver and his bloodthirsty pirates. Everyone's goal--the recovery of a buried treasure.

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The novel is almost soley responsible for just about every modern image we have of pirates--from speech patterns to the concept of buried treasure. It also contains some excellent characterizations in Jim and John Silver and wraps their increasingly complicated relationship around a cracking good story.

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One of the most famous action set-pieces comes about half-way through the novel, when good guys have taken up residence in an old stockade located on the island. They are surrounded and outnumbered by the pirates, who also control the ship at this point. But the good guys have something the pirates have to have--the map showing where the treasure is buried.

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Silver tries to negotiate for the map, but he's rebuffed. Vowing "them that dies will be the lucky ones" (one of the best bits of dialogue in literary history), he marches off to organize an attack on the stockade.

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And that sets up the "last stand" sequence, as the heroes attempt to desperately fight off the pirates. At first, they stay in the cabin, popping away with muskets. But when the pirates get close enough to whack a couple of them, there's no choice but to snatch up cutlasses and "fight 'em in the open!"

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It's a great sequence--along with Jim's later hijacking of the ship and confrontation with Isreal Hands, it's one of the highlights of the book.

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Treasure Island's last stand scene is only a few pages long, but it's exciting, intense and succeeds in carrying the plot as a whole along nicely. It's also a effective snapshot of just how good a book in its entirety Treasure Island is. If you've never read it, please take a moment to feel ashamed of yourself, then run right out and get a copy.