Director: Nicolas Roeg
Screenplay: Allan Scott
Based on a Book by: Lucy Irvine
Starring: Oliver Reed, Amanda Donohoe, Georgina Hale, Frances Barber, Tony Rickards, Todd Rippon, John Sessions
Country: UK
Running Time: 117 min
Year: 1986
BBFC Certificate: 15
88 Films continue their diverse range of archive releases with their new Blu-ray of Nicolas Roeg’s Castaway (1986). After EMI, then the largest and basically the last surviving British major film studio were bought by Golan-Globus’ Cannon Films in 1985, it effectively put the entire British industry in the hands of the notorious Israeli duo. What they did with that control was rather ignominious – Lifeforce (1985), Superman IV – The Quest For Peace (1987), Three Kinds of Heat (1987) and a few bland attempts at prestige such as Andrei Konchalovsky’s Duet For One (1986). This film kind of fits somewhere between the art side and the exploitative side.
The film is based on the memoirs of Lucy Irvine, a 25 year old Englishwoman who responded to an advert placed by writer Gerald Kingsland looking for a female companion to spend a year with him on the uninhabited island of Tuin, a Torres Strait Island between New Guinea and Australia. Kingsland was a 49 year old journalist who set out to be a modern Crusoe. The film seems very much a prestige project for Cannon. Nicholas Roeg, fresh from doing the underperforming Eureka (1983) and Insignificance (1985) was still seen as a major talent. Amanda Donohoe, about to come to fame on TV’s LA Law was still a newcomer, while Oliver Reed, perfectly cast as Kingsland, was no stranger to Cannon, having already done Dr Heckyl and Mr Hype (1980) for the fledgling company. What could be either a sweeping adventure or an erotic fantasy is neither, though it definitely had a reputation as a naughty movie, even in this reader’s childhood.
The film is very mid-80s, featuring a Kate Bush theme – ‘Be Kind to my Mistakes’, and a score by Stanley Myers and his protege Hans Zimmer. The film now feels like a time capsule of 80s Britain – vans carriyng Britvic, billboards telling us Johnnie Walker is only £4.35, Ollie Reed roaming about in a parka reading Time Out magazine. However, it has that bland televisual look that crippled so many 1980s British films. It looks like a ‘Comic Strip Presents’, presenting bland milieus like a kids’ swimming pool where Ollie Reed avuncularly parades. When it reaches the tropical paradise (IRL the Seychelles), it looks like a British Airways advert. Reed is playing himself, essentially, to the point it resembles a vanity project for the tabloid favourite. The cast is limited. Australian actor Tony Rickards plays a visitor to the island, while the much missed Georgina Hale and Frances Barber (before she became a defender of women’s rights) pop up as nuns. Donohoe is rather forgettable, mainly because she is unusually a blonde. She is supposed to be the viewpoint character, but Reed eats her off the screen. The film though has a charm, reflecting its era.
Film: 
Castaway is out now on region B Blu-ray and DVD, released by 88 Films.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
– Brand New 4K Scan from the Interpositive
– High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray Presentation
– 2.0 LPCM Stereo
– Audio Commentary by Film Historians Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
– Audio Commentary by Film Journalist David Flint
– Interview with Driector of Photography Harvey Harrison
– SDH Subtitles
– Trailer
– Stills Gallery
– Presented in a double-walled slipcase featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore
The Blu-ray features 2 commentaries – film historian David Flint, doing one, and fellow enthusaists Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson doing the other. There is also an interview with cinematographer Harvey Harrison, who tellingly reveals his background in adverts (though he has a wild CV – DOP on both 80s slasher The Burning and such glam rock tat as Never Too Young to Rock and Side by Side).
Disc/Extras: