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Kidnapped novel Robert Louis Stevenson author
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Kidnapped Young David Balfour's adventures in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and sometimes its sequel, Catriona, have been a favourite subject of filmmakers since the silent movie era. Over two dozen adaptations have been made around the world in the past century. Fortunately for us, two of the best, most faithful versions are relatively recent. Bogged down in
Scotland Also it has young Michael Caine, who cuts a romantic figure as Breck, with dashing mustache and long blond hair. Caine is a complex rebel, by turns rambunctious and peaceful, hard-hearted and loving, inspiring and jaded. But the transitions are never jarring. Caine's unpretentious acting style keeps him from turning the mercurial character into a cartoon. A very human man behind the legend. Unfortunately, he's paired with a poor David Balfour. It's not Lawrence Douglas's fault he was cast for the role. Davie's supposed to be fifteen (this is said in the movie), but Douglas looks more like twenty-five. A cute twenty-five, granted, but cute in the way of a mid-1960s pop star—and always with his shaggy hair beautifully coiffed, no matter what hardships he and Alan go through in their fights and flights. Hard to feel the sympathy you're supposed to for the poor little orphan boy shanghaied to sea and hunted across the highlands. Nonetheless, the first half of the film is ripping good. In a departure from the book, the film starts in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden, in which thousands of Jacobite rebels were killed by the British forces and their cause decisively defeated. Against this background Davie is sold by his uncle to a sea captain, fights alongside Breck against their common captors, is shipwrecked, and is thrown in with the remnants of the Scottish rebels. Lots of action and intrigue, not so much between the Brits and Scots as between the Scot factions. It all bogs down in the second half, though, after Davie and friends make their way to Edinburgh. Now the political story thickens. All about the differences between the Lowlanders and Highlanders (Balfour and the Edinburgh authorities versus Breck and his friends), between the clans (the fighting Stewarts and the compromising Campbells), and between the rebels who want to fight on and the rebels who concede defeat (Breck versus just about everyone else). Veteran British actors Gordon Jackson as a rebel lawyer and Trevor Howard as the lackey Lord Advocate come to dominate the screen in a lot of talkative scenes. Much of this material comes from Catriona, the sequel to Kidnapped. Scuttlebutt has it that this is because the production ran out of money and could no longer to afford to shoot any more of the exciting Kidnapped plot. Hence, that part of the story is condensed and more talky scenes are added. Still, enough of Stevenson's tale get through and, led by Caine, the team delivers a sincere and thoughtful version of the great work. Unfortunately, this film is hard to find in North America, as it appears to have been released only on European-compatible DVDs. On foot in
New Zealand The beautiful cinematography is actually of New Zealand substituting for Scotland. But somehow, despite the lack of heather, these hills feel more like the Highlands than some films shot in the UK. Also, the story is shot excitingly in a modern style with moving cameras. But without sacrificing any of the classic content of Stevenson's story. There's a lot of running all over the hills, for example, giving the film a sort of Lord of the Rings feel—not surprising, given that the hobbit saga was also shot in New Zealand. Most of the actors are themselves Celtic, which helps. Veteran Irish thespian Adrian Dunbar plays both Davie's dying father and the uncle who cheats the lad out of his rightful inheritance. Iain Glen is magnetic as the mercurial, flamboyant rebel Alan Breck—more dashing than Michael Caine even and brought even lower. He starts as a larger-than-life dashing character brandishing a sword and swashing a buckle with the best of them, but this Breck's romanticism is fraying at the edges. His heroic stature is chipped away by treachery and the revelation of his own human frailties. What seemed contradictory and confusing in the novel are in Glen's flesh made whole and human. The performance is so strong it turns Kidnapped into Breck's story, rather than Balfour's. Satisfyingly though, Breck is redeemed in the end through some movie-style heroics not found in the book's narrative. Throughout the highland escapades Breck and Balfour are hunted on behalf of the British by a scary bunch of mercenaries called the Long Mile Gang. I can't remember if they were in the book, but with their skinheads, black coats and cutthroat methods they add an element of contemporary horror that makes the historical tale seem more immediate in this film. (Again I am reminded of Lord of the Rings—the dark riders that hunted down the heroes, though the Long Mile Gang do it all on foot.) But this story, presented over two and a half hours, is more emotionally complex than can be indicated here, going way beyond the adventure of a kidnapped lad. — Eric |
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