The Film:
Man Friday is a film that hit the world with acclaim as it became one of the few films each year to get nominated for the Golden Palm award at the legendary Cannes festival. Unfortunately, soon after, it rather fizzled out and disappeared underneath most people's radars. Should it have gone on to achieve more success though? In my opinion, yes.
Directed by Jack Gold (Aces High, Escape From Sobibor), and starring two actors who were possibly at the best stages of their careers, Peter O'Toole (Casino Royale, Goodbye Mr Chips) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft, Q: The Winged Serpent), Man Friday is more than just a story, but also an interesting insight into some views of racism from many moons ago. Based on the original story by Daniel Defoe, in which a shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe believes he has saved a black aboriginee from being murdered, the film gives us a different vantage point. In the book, we hear from Crusoe's side of the story, yet here in the film, we hear from 'Man Friday's' side (the black man who was saved). We watch as Robinson Crusoe turns Man Friday into his slave until things go wrong and Man Friday escapes, turning the way of the story.
The film itself, is no masterpiece and the acting, although good, isn't exactly of Academy Award standards, but as the story goes on, you find yourself feeling sorry for both Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. You know you should feel sorry for Man Friday, a captured poor man, but you also feel sorry for Crusoe as he becomes increasingly depressed and uptight the longer he stays shipwrecked. All in all, I'd recommend this film to fans of the novel, who, like me, may have read it in school, and fans of other shipwrecked stories and dramas.
The DVD:
Video:
Network have provided us with an anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer and they've done a rather good job with it aswell. There is little grain and hardly any print damage on this now ageing print, and the only major gripe I had was the very occasional aliasing which happened noticeably twice. As with The Ipcress File, Network have shown that when they want to, they can provide us with a pretty good picture. No subtitles have been included.
Audio:
Network have provided us with just one audio selection, but don't worry as it's the original mono track in English. A dialogue driven film with practically no special effects means there isn't really a need for anything more, though the option of perhaps a 2.0 Surround track would have been nice for the songs in the film. There was no real damage to the sound and the only problem I had was a very small amount of background hiss.
Extras:
None.
