Video: Behind the scenes "Treasure Islands": What scenes had to be cut from the film
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
RL Stevenson's novel Treasure Island has more than once become material for creating cartoons and film adaptations, and the Soviet film version of 1982 has become one of the best, most complete and most accurate. This film was equally popular among adults and children, but the first version, according to the censors, was not childish at all, and many fragments had to be cut out during editing.
The film was directed by Vladimir Vorobyov, the chief director of the Leningrad Musical Comedy Theater, known for his theatrical performances of musicals and films in the same genre - Krechinsky's Wedding and Truffaldino from Bergamo. Initially, "Treasure Island" was also conceived as a music and dance film, but later the director abandoned this idea and decided to make a stunt adventure movie designed for children and youth audiences.
According to the director, Stevenson's novel was especially dear to him from childhood: "".
Filming took place in Leningrad and its environs and in the Crimea, in the New World. Work on 4 episodes was completed in a record time for such a project - in just 9 months. At the same time, Vladimir Vorobyov acted not only as a director: together with his son, he played the episodic roles of the pirate George Murry and "pastor" Dick Johnson, sang the song that sounded during the film's credits, performed stunt stunts and sometimes even replaced the operator. In one of the scenes, which had to be filmed in a boat swaying on the waves, and even under the "fire" of pirates, the operator refused to work for fear of falling overboard along with expensive equipment. And then the director filmed this episode on his own, replacing the cameraman in these extreme conditions.
Difficulties also arose during the filming on the deck of "Hispaniola", the "role" of which was played by the training schooner "Kodor" from the Leningrad Naval School, whose cadets starred as extras in the form of pirates. The fact is that the schooner had navigation equipment that was not supposed to be in the frame, but at the same time it was necessary to shoot a scene where Jim Hawkins controls the sailing ship. For this, the "wheel" of the steering wheel was removed from the wheelhouse and placed on the deck. As a result, in the frame, the young actor Fyodor Stukov turned the helm, which was not attached to anything, and at this time the real captain controlled the schooner with an adjustable wrench. Later, the same "Kodor" became "Duncan" in the movie "In Search of Captain Grant".
On the set of the film, a large team of stuntmen worked, led by the famous stunt director in many Soviet films, Nikolai Vashchilin. About these shootings in his book "The Stuntman's Revelations" he wrote: "". Unfortunately, the audience never saw some of the scenes that the stuntmen had been rehearsing for weeks.
The film was supposed to consist of 4 episodes, 55 minutes each. But when all the material was already filmed and edited, the censors cut it twice. They demanded to cut out those episodes where pirates fought with particular cruelty, gambled and drunk. Although in the early 1980s. censorship requirements were no longer as stringent as in the 1960s and 1970s, in a film aimed at children and youth, this seemed unacceptable.
The audience did not see the disfigured face of the blind Pew, when instead of an eye a cork stuck out, a scene of medical bloodletting, a drunken brawl of Billy Bons, Jim with a bottle of brandy and a pistol in his hands, discussions about the Bible, numerous scenes with a card game, etc. There were so many uncensored episodes that could scare children or simply did not correspond to ideological considerations that in the end, instead of 4 episodes, it turned out 3. Unfortunately, many of the author's ideas did not reach the viewer because of this.
Although as a result a quarter of the footage did not make it to the screens, the director considered Treasure Island one of his best and most beloved works. "", - confessed Vladimir Vorobyov.
This film became a classic of Soviet adventure cinema and thanks to the brilliant cast: The fate of the actors "Treasure Island".
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