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Image Credit: wikipedia.org

I was surprised to discover that Daniel Defoe’s famous eighteenth-century castaway narrative has been filmed several times in the twentieth century, and that at least four of these films can be watched in their entirety on the web. This visual archive will appeal to instructors who want to introduce students to the text, and to viewers already familiar with Robinson Crusoe. The four films are interesting for their modernizations of Defoe’s tale, and their interpretation of particular passages. The most striking discrepancy between the four films pertains to scenes featuring Robinson Crusoe and “Friday”: the native he instructs in English and Christianity. The four twentieth century films adapt these lessons very differently, and reflect an ambivalent tribute to Defoe’s conception of pedagogy and cultural exchange.

Image Credit: Eighteenth-Century Collections Online

In Defoe’s text, Crusoe saves Friday from his enemies and then enlists him in servitude. Once he develops sufficient trust in Friday, Crusoe attempts to teach him English words and Protestant concepts. The transmission is not so easy as Crusoe might hope: “I found it was not so easie to imprint right notions in his mind about the Devil, as it was about the Being of a God. . . . I had been telling him how the Devil was God’s Enemy in the Hearts of Men, and used all his Malice and Skill to defeat the good Designs of Providence, and to ruine the Kingdom of Christ in the World; and the like. Well, says Friday, but you must say, God is so strong, so great, is he not much strong, much might as the Devil? Yes, yes, says I, Friday, God is stronger than the Devil, God is above the Devil, and therefore we pray to God to tread him down under our Feet, and enable us to resist his Temptations and quench his fiery Darts. But, says he again, if God much strong, much might as the Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no more do wicked? I was strangely surpriz’d at his Question . . . at first I could not tell what to say, so I pretended not to hear him, and ask’d him what he said? But he was too earnest for an answer to forget his Question. . . . I recovered my self a little, and I said, God will at last punish him severely. . . . This did not satisfie Friday, but he returns upon me, repeating my Words. . . . Here I was run down again by him to the last Degree, and it was a Testimony to me, how the meer Notions of Nature, though they will guide reasonable Creatures to the Knowledge of a God . . . . yet nothing but divine Revelation can form the Knowledge of Jesus Christ. . . . I mean, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God . . . are the absolute necessary Instructors of the Souls of Men, in the saving Knowledge of God, and the Means of Salvation. I therefore diverted the present Discourse between me and my Man, rising hastily, as upon some sudden Occasion of going out . . . I seriously pray’d to God that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor Savage, assisting by his Spirit the Heart of the poor ignorant Creature” (217–19).

Of the twentieth-century film remakes, Luis Buñuel’s Robinson Crusoe (1954) is the most faithful to the words of Defoe’s text. Buñuel even reproduces the costuming in Defoe’s frontispiece, and his film captures the protagonist’s personality with subtle irony. He does introduce minor alterations, such as Friday’s desire to smoke pipes like his Master. Although this may seem to be an inconsequential addition, the pipe confers equal gravitas to Friday’s and Crusoe’s metaphysical dialogue. Friday takes up his pipe in the scene equivalent to the passage cited above (above; 1 hr., 10 min.). Although Buñuel's characters recite the key points and phrases in the dialogue, he portrays Crusoe as confused by Friday’s expert interrogation. Meanwhile, Friday almost seems to laugh at his capacity to puzzle Crusoe’s dogmatic assertions. 

Ten years after Buñuel’s film, Byron Haskin released his sci-fi Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964). Victor Lundin (the initial "Klingon" in the original Star Trek series) not only plays Friday, but he also composed a song and a music video in tribute to the movie (see below)! Paul Mantee plays Crusoe: an American astronaut shipwrecked on Mars with his pet monkey, Mona. Haskin’s Crusoe is a national hero. He stakes the stars and stripes outside his cave, and remains short-cropped and clean-shaven throughout his ordeal. His exchange with Friday transpires after Mona discovers a much-needed water supply (Part 12, 3 min. 24. Sec.): “[F:] I tell you. Mona. She know. [C: (cackles)] You bet she does. Thank God for water. [F:] God? [C:] Yeah, supreme being. Uh, Father of the Universe. Big Father. Big Father. [F:] Cahechepek. We say, Cahechepek. Order. Cahechepek. Order. God. Good. [C: (cackling again)] Yeah, that’s right. Divine Order. Good.”

Douglas Fairbanks recounts the motives behind his 1932 Mr. Robinson Crusoe: “At first, my idea was to make a literal translation of “Robinson Crusoe” which is a regular mine of Boy Scout activity, but I soon saw that the book is really not adaptable to the screen, because when analyzed it lacks variety, and also it would not offer the opportunity I sought to accent the true value of Scout lore which, when conscientiously undertaken and thoroughly absorbed, gives a boy not only physical and mental training, but also a foundation in character that will stand him in good stead all through life” (297–98). Fairbanks converts Crusoe from a Brazilian planter and slave-trader into a dissatisfied Wall Street banker. Mr. Robinson Crusoe wishes to escape "Park Avenue and 52^nd Street" and immerse himself in nature’s leisure and simplicity. At the beginning of the film, Fairbanks dives overboard from his cruise ship and swims to a Tahitian island resort. There he watches local dances, drinks umbrella drinks, listens to college football games on the radio, and plays copious rounds of golf. He also consorts with a female pupil, “Saturday.” There are hints of moral correction in Mr. Robinson Crusoe when she distracts him from putting: “‘Saturday, you never, never as long as you live speak while a man is putting, you can steal his watch, but never talk . . . You can’t do that! Taboo! Taboo!’” (Part 6, 1 min. 10 sec.). Mr. Crusoe also approaches seriousness in his account of the difference between their cultures: “You see Saturday, we’re savages. You’re a calm, mild, peaceful people. We have football, prize fighting, gangsters, dentists. For example, do you play bridge?’ ‘Yes.’ [He laughs]” (Part 6, 6 min. 12 sec.). If the exploitative subtext is not obviously clear from these exchanges, the film concludes when Saturday returns with Mr. Crusoe to New York and becomes an exotic dancer in the Broadway troupe, “Zeigfeld’s Follies.” Since Youtube does not enable embedding of this video, you can find it there. 

The most recent film adaptation of Robinson Crusoe stars Pierce Brosnan in the lead role. Rod Hardy and George Miller’s Miramax version is almost unwatchable. Instead of heading to sea under an ambiguous urge for adventure, Crusoe departs after a duel over a lover. Perhaps Hardy and Miller needed to justify their casting, but this love story brazenly contradicts the conspicuous and strange absence of any women from Defoe’s original. Uncomfortable with Crusoe’s moral pedagogy, Hardy and Miller suppress the reality of the original protagonist's proselytizing motives and prerogatives of mastery: “[F:] I am not slave! [C:] I know Friday! You’re my friend! [F:] I tell you my spirit name. Only spirit, me, and Tonga big men know. [C:] Why are you telling me this? [F:] Crusoe gave life, not say more. [Friday gives Crusoe a necklace] Give power of bird, fly safe to land [they shake hands, it thunders, they laugh]” (Part 7, 45 sec.).

There is so much to say about this awkward exchange. I'll just say that what I find interesting about these four films is their dialectic of fidelity and departure. I find that Luis Buñuel’s film provides the most faithful but also the best critical rendering of Robinson Crusoe. Alternately, Hardy and Miller's erasures of ideology seem to capture the spirit of Defoe's representations and their influence in the literary tradition.  

Image Credit: wordpress.com

Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, ed. J. Donald Crowley (Oxford: Oxfor Univ. Press, 1998).

Keri Leigh, ed., Douglas Fairbanks: In his Own Words (Lincoln, NE: Douglas Fairbanks Museum, 2006).