Man Friday Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Man Friday Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2013

Note: This film is currently available only in the double feature The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday.

Shout! Factory has been going whole hog lately with a slew of double (or more) features under several of its imprints, including Timeless Media Group. Some of these offerings, such as Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns, at least had a genre knitting the disparate films together, though even supposed genre siblings like The Hot Spot / Killing Me Softly might seem at least a little odd to some. Taking the cake in this recent sweepstakes of forced disc-mates is the rather unlikely pairing of The Count of Monte Cristo, a made for television opus starring Richard Chamberlain which was quite well received in its day but which has languished in the home media department, and Man Friday, a fascinating reboot of the hoary Defoe epic Robinson Crusoe, a big screen effort teaming Peter O’Toole and Richard Roundtree in a decidedly different telling of the famous tale. Aside from the fact both of these entries are part of the ITV catalog, there really isn’t much recommending a pairing of them, other than that they both are circa mid-seventies.

When Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe first appeared in 1719, many initial readers thought it was actually a true first person account by a man long isolated as a castaway on a forgotten island. While later readers came to understand it was a work of fiction, so visceral was Dafoe’s account that his two iconic characters of Robinson Crusoe and Friday entered the public lexicon as very few fictional personages ever have. If Defoe’s novel is a bit more cumbersome read for modern day audiences than it was even a century or so ago, that’s at least somewhat ameliorated by the fact that it has been adapted into a huge glut of film and television fare in offerings as diverse as Luis Buñuel’s 1954 opus The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe to decidedly more tangential outings like Disney’s Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. or Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Even the most outlandish adaptation of this oft told tale would probably have more whimsy than the 1975 film Man Friday, however.

This “Bizarro World” retake on Defoe’s original vision posits Crusoe (Peter O’Toole) as something of a savage and Friday (Richard Roundtree) as a noble native who may not have the sophistication of a European, but who has a much sounder moral center and generally sanguine approach toward life. Man Friday was culled from a British stage piece written by Adrian Mitchell, a noted left leaning satirist whose penchant for skewering the ruling class is more than a bit evident throughout this often outrageous entertainment. Speaking of The Ruling Class, Man Friday also offers one of Peter O’Toole’s most viciously manic performances, one that finds Crusoe a near madman at several key points in the proceedings, perhaps not quite as murderous as Jack Gurney in the Peter Medak film, but at least coming close on a couple of occasions. Anyone who’s familiar with any of the many iterations of Robinson Crusoe, or in fact with the original novel itself, will have no problem being drawn into this revisionist take on the subject. This is in essence a “two hander” where Crusoe sees that infamous footprint in the sand and then comes across Friday, setting the two out on their improbable journey of learning about each other’s cultures. In this version, however, Crusoe is a superstitious (albeit Bible thumping) maniac who shoots and kills some of Friday’s tribesmen in fear and then who supposedly “civilizes” Friday while more or less turning him into a slave.

The biggest issue with Man Friday is its very (very) self-consciously ultra liberal political take on the subject matter. There’s no denying that this approach is actually a fascinating perspective from which to view the Crusoe – Friday relationship, but it’s also going to drive some audience members a little batty, especially when Friday, the supposed “noble savage”, is a saintly espouser of free love and “don’t worry, be happy”, while Crusoe storms around like some possessed evangelist trying to keep a wayward flock on the straight and narrow.

Man Friday tends to be a “one step forward, two steps back” affair. There is for example a nicely done sequence where the deserted island actually gets a couple of well heeled visitors who are welcomed by Crusoe with open arms. These two uppity Brits take tea with Crusoe in his improbably luxe grass shack, and are somewhat surprised to be waited on by Friday, who insists he’s not a slave since Crusoe, in one of many obvious plot developments, has started paying him for his services. Their smug dismissal of Friday’s inherent worth turns out to have a more serious undertone when it turns out the two are actually operating a slave trade—and that both Friday and Crusoe may end up in chains.

However, scenes like that are undercut by frankly silly moments like a bizarre sequence where Crusoe and Friday go hang gliding together (yes, hang gliding), in a quasi-bromance scene that I half expected to suddenly be accompanied by the Carpenters warbling “We’ve Only Just Begun”. The film’s good intentions can’t entirely be doused by an over obvious screed like presentation, but if you’re a political centrist or even a smidge to the right of center, you’re probably going to find much of Man Friday a tedious exercise in trying to “educate” its audience in Political Correctness 101.

Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Man Friday is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Timeless Media Group (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer. This high definition presentation is marginally better than that of its disc-mate The Count of Monte Cristo, though it, too, is culled from elements that have their fair share of age related wear and tear. The image here, though, is slightly but noticeably sharper and better defined than the Chamberlain telefilm, and fine detail is actually quite good in close-ups, even while midrange and wide shots tend to often look quite soft. The location photography here is a real bonus, and some of the colors are quite beautiful. There are some minor contrast issues here, especially in the dark scenes with Friday recounting his adventures around a tribal campfire. While this is certainly not going to be anyone's first choice for demo quality material, it's a solid if unspectacular looking release.

Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Man Friday features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track (delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0) which sounds just fine, with no damage or undue hiss to report. The film has a rather nice score by the wonderful Carl Davis, including some songs (if you can call them that) more or less warbled by Roundtree and O'Toole (if you've seen Goodbye, Mr. Chips or Man of La Mancha, you'll know O'Toole is not exactly a world class singer). Dialogue comes through cleanly and clearly, and fidelity is very good, though the track, somewhat similarly to The Count of Monte Cristo, doesn't have an overabundance of depth.

Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Photo Gallery (1080p)

Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm certainly not immune to the fact that Man Friday is a product of its time and of the rather unmistakable leftward political leanings of its author, and yet I found myself unexpectedly drawn into this radical revisionist version of Robinson Crusoe. This certainly won't be to everyone's taste, but it features a bizarrely entertaining performance by O'Toole, and it's certainly lush and scenic. This Blu-ray has generally decent video and nice sounding audio. Recommended.