Cutthroat Island

**Cutthroat Island** is a 1995 American adventure swashbuckler film directed by Renny Harlin which was released on December 22, 1995 by Carolco Pictures.

## Plot

The film follows a female pirate and her companion as they race against their rivals in order to find a hidden island that contains a fabulous treasure.

## Cast

* Geena Davis as Morgan Adams
* Matthew Modine as William Shaw
* Frank Langella as Douglas "Dawg" Brown
* Maury Chaykin as John Reed
* Patrick Malahide as Ainslee
* Stan Shaw as Mr. Glasspoole
* Harris Yulin as "Black" Harry Adams
* Rex Linn as Mr. Blair
* Paul Dillon as Snelgrave

## Production

At the time "Cutthroat Island" was produced, Geena Davis and director Renny Harlin were married. Harlin convinced producer Mario Kassar to cast Davis (who was known for starring in light comedies) in hopes that it would turn her into an action-adventure star.

Carolco (who were already deeply in debt when the film entered pre-production) initially budgeted $60 million for the film and pinned its hopes for survival on its success.

In order to fund the film, Carolco cancelled its only other project under production, "Crusade" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It lost $13 million in the process, but it freeded up additional money for "Cutthroat Island."

It also sold a $20 million interest in Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls, Last of the Dogmen and Stargate and aggressively marketed the film to overseas distributors, who were convinced to buy the distribution rights in their various countries with the promise that the film was a sure-fire hit.

### Casting

Michael Douglas originally agreed to play Shaw under two conditions: filming had to start immediately because he was available only for a limited time and his character had to have the same amount of screen time as Geena Davis.

However, Douglas eventually pulled out of the film, claiming that Geena Davis's role was expanded at his character's expense. Davis wanted to quit when Douglas did, but she was contractually obligated to finish the film.

After Douglas quit, Harlin was so preoccupied with trying to find a male lead actor that set construction and script work were done without his input. Consequently, he did not like what he saw when shooting was set to begin which led to expensive rebuilding and rewriting.

Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, Jeff Bridges, Ralph Fiennes, Charlie Sheen, Michael Keaton, Tim Robbins, Daniel Day-Lewis and Gabriel Byrne all turned down the role of Shaw before Matthew Modine agreed to do the role, partly due to his experience as a fencer.

Oliver Reed was originally cast for a cameo as Mordechai Fingers, but he was fired after getting in a bar fight and attempting to expose himself to Geena Davis while intoxicated. George Murcell eventually took his place.

### Filming

Filming for "Cutthroat Island" took place from October 31, 1994 and ended on April 2, 1995. It was shot on location in Malta and Thailand.

The indoor scenes were shot at Mediterranean Film Studios in Kalkara, Malta, and models were shot at the Paddock Tank at Pinewood Studios, in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.

However, shooting was delayed for various reasons which allowed the budget to spiral out of control. During the first week of production, the film's original cinematographer, Oliver Wood broke his leg after falling off a crane and into one of the water tank and was replaced by Peter Levy.

Renny Harlin required actors to do their own stunts whenever possible. While promoting the film, Geena Davis appeared on talk shows with clips of her doing stunts over and over (including one take where she fell out of a window too soon, rolled down the roof and under a carriage) and described the bruises and injuries that she sustained while filming.

After Harlin fired the chief camera operator following a dispute, more than two dozen crew members quit.

In addition, broken pipes caused raw sewage to pour into the water tank where the actors were supposed to swim. Harlin spent $1 million of his own money to rewrite the script because Carolco was in so much debt, they could not afford to pay further.

## Box Office

"Cutthroat Island" grossed $2,371,415 during its opening weekend, debuting at #13 at the box office in the United States.

Overall, it grossed $10,017,322 on an estimated budget of $98,000,000. It made the Guinness World Record as the biggest box-office bomb of all time.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "Cutthroat Island" has an approval rating of 38% based on 40 reviews with an average rating of 4.43\10.

The site's consensus reads: *"Cutthroat Island may aspire towards the earnest thrills of classic swashbucklers, but a distinct lack of charm and stilted script make this adventure a joyless hodgepodge of the pirate genre's flotsam and jetsam."*

Writing for Variety magazine, Todd McCarthy said: *"What seemed like a dubious proposition on paper plays even more dubiously onscreen, as Cutthroat Island strenuously but vainly attempts to revive the thrills of old-fashioned pirate pictures. Giving most of the swashbuckling opportunities to star Geena Davis, pic does little with its reversal of gender expectations and features a seriously mismatched romantic duo in Davis and Matthew Modine."*

The San Francisco Chronicle called the film a *"swashbuckling extravaganza"*, but said that Geena Davis was not convincing in her role.

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: *"Cutthroat Island proves too stupidly smutty for children, too cartoonish for sane adults and not racy enough for anyone who regards Ms. [Geena] Davis in a tight-laced bodice as its main attraction."*

The San Francisco Chronicle called the film a *"turgid, swollen, wheezing old contraption"* and *"a crashing bore of special effects in which the most exciting moment gives us two ships sitting in water sending cannon balls at each other for what seems like hours on end."*

The Washington Post called Geena Davis and Matthew Modine *"almost transcendentally unappealing"*.

Despite the negative reception, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: *"Cutthroat Island is everything a movie named Cutthroat Island should be, and no more. It is a pirate picture, pure and simple, and doesn't transcend its genre except perhaps in the luxurious production. Leaner and meaner pirate movies have worked more or less as well, but this one gets the job done."*

## Aftermath and legacy

In a radio interview in 2011, Renny Harlin discussed the box office failure of "Cutthroat Island", pointing out that Carolco Pictures was in ruin before shooting even began, but they had to make the film since financing from foreign investors was already in place.

MGM (the film's distributor) was in the process of being sold and could not devote itself into financing a marketing campaign for the film. Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month before the release of "Cutthroat Island."

The failure of "Cutthroat Island" is also credited with significantly reducing the bankability and Hollywood production of pirate-themed films, which recovered only with the production of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003.