Cutthroat Island (1995)

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writers (WGA):

Michael Frost Beckner (story) &
James Gorman (story) ...

Release Date:

22 December 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Family | Romance

Tagline:

The Course Has Been Set. There Is No Turning Back. Prepare Your Weapons. Summon Your Courage. Discover the Adventure of a Lifetime!

Plot:

A female pirate and her companion race against their rivals to find a hidden island that contains a fabulous treasure.

Plot Keywords:

Treasure | Slave | Pirate | Pirate Ship | Ship Wreck

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Geena Davis	...	Morgan
Matthew Modine	...	Shaw
Frank Langella	...	Dawg
Maury Chaykin	...	John Reed
Patrick Malahide	...	Ainslee
Stan Shaw	...	Glasspoole
Rex Linn	...	Mr. Blair
Paul Dillon	...	Snelgrave
Christopher Masterson	...	Bowen (as Chris Masterson)
Jimmie F. Skaggs	...	Scully
Harris Yulin	...	Black Harry
Carl Chase	...	Bishop
Peter Geeves	...	Fiddler Pirate
Angus Wright	...	Captain Trotter
Ken Bones	...	Toussant

Also Known As:

Corsari (Italy)
Die Piratenbraut (Germany)
L'île aux pirates (France)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some strong pirate action/violence and brief sensuality.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA | France | Italy | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #34180) | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Australia:PG | South Korea:12 | Philippines:PG-13 | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Denmark:16 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:12 | Italy:T | Portugal:M/6 | Singapore:PG | Spain:7 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (cut)

Filming Locations:

Malta

Company:

Beckner/Gorman Productions

Trivia:

Keanu Reeves, Liam Neeson, Jeff Bridges, Ralph Fiennes, Charlie Sheen and Michael Keaton all reportedly turned down the male lead role.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The Finnish flag on the shop front window was not in use at the time the film was set.

Quotes:

William: Congratulations, madam. There's another town you've destroyed.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Charmed: Charrrmed! (#7.4)" (2004)

A Woman Pirate?

I am a native Californian, but I have been living in Norway since 1996. Therefore, since only the box office blockbusters seem to make it over here, I did not have a chance to see this in the theater. Somehow, I seemed to have missed it when it came out in California. Nonetheless, I have seen it here on TV a couple times. The first time I saw it was just after I had seen "The Pirates of the Caribbean" (POTC) and I thought it was made afterwards in an effort to be as good or better than POTC. Then I came to IMDb and I was surprised to find that it was actually done so many years ago and I hadn't known about it. I do not think it was better than POTC, but it is certainly every bit as good, and Geena Davis does an excellent job of portraying what Anne Bonny must have been like as a pirate. If you are a Geena Davis fan, I would say that this is a MUST SEE. I personally thought she did a much, much better job on this movie than she did as the lame-brained "Larry" in Fletch or the saccharine-sweet mommy in the Stewart Little movies.

I have noticed that most of the people posting on the message board about Geena Davis have said that they think the role should have gone to someone else (a male) because 1) she is a woman, 2) she was the ship's captain, and 3) she had pearly white teeth.

Being a woman pirate IS historical, but most people do not know about it. There WAS a general rule that there were to be no women aboard because it was considered bad luck and it was often considered such a grievous sin that any man disobeying the rule would be immediately put to death. Nonetheless, there WERE a few women pirates who were smuggled aboard dressed in men's clothing. However, they had to know how to pull it off by fighting like a man. Two women of notoriety were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who were both smuggled aboard by the captain himself, "Calico" Jack Rackham. You can find biographies about all three of these pirates (among others) at several websites under the keyword "pirates".

So far as Geena Davis not being convincing because "she was a woman playing a pirate -- a Captain at that", in the "Trivia for Cutthroat Island", IMDb tell us the following: "The flag flown by Morgan Adams was in reality the flag flown by "Calico" Jack Rackham, one of the only Caribbean Pirates to have women on his crew; Anne Bonny and Mary Read. He later turned his ship over to the two women." With that in mind, wouldn't it be more than safe to assume that this must have been the catalyst in writing this movie, and therefore, the movie would most likely have been written as a fantasy of what it would be like to have a woman pirate as the ship's captain?

The "pearly white teeth" thing is also believable because, after all, women pirates were few and far between, and when they were aboard, it was in their teenaged years and because they were smuggled on in men's clothing and they were bound to be caught soon, I would imagine that they would have had pearly white teeth. By the way, where did the idea come from that all pirates had rotten teeth?

I wonder if the reason that this movie did not make it in the box office is because of the woman pirate concept. If that is the case, why don't the critics bother to get out their history books or surf the web to find out if there WERE any women pirates in the annals of history?

I wonder if they would have begun the movie with a written history of women pirates, and if they would have stated that the flag that Geena Davis flew in the movie was the authentic flag that was flown by the woman pirate, Anne Bonny, if that would have added creditability to the movie--especially if it were read by some famous celebrity. On the other hand, the name of the movie is everything, so I wonder if the name "Cutthroat Island" was to its demise. Perhaps if this movie were called "Pirates of the Caribbean" and backed by Disney Studios, it would have been a smash hit. Too bad it wasn't.