Man Friday (1975) – Nostalgia Central

When a movie rests as strongly on its two principals as this story does, you really need top-notch acting to carry it off.  Man Friday has got just that, with Richard Roundtree in the title role and Peter O’Toole as Robinson Crusoe.

It is a measure ot their superb performances that this movie of Daniel Defoe’s classic tale is a fascinating and totally absorbing experience.

Filmed on ravishingly beautiful Mexican locations, the story is told in flashback style, as Friday recounts to his tribe the life he led on Crusoe’s desert island.

Despite his long years in solitude, Crusoe quickly reverts to his origins when Friday is washed up on his island, teaching him the 18th-century white man’s ethic of God, class structure and the master/slave relationship.

As with any bright pupil, Friday first accepts, then begins to question his teachings. He tries to show the man he knows only as ‘Master’ a different way of living, based on his own tribal experience of many gods, loving friendship, generosity and honesty.

But Crusoe’s beliefs and fears are rigidly set. Only when they join forces to destroy men from a slave trading vessel who inadvertently visit the island do they really unite.

Ultimately, Friday has to turn the tables by using Crusoe’s own weapons – both literally, by taking possession of his gun, and mentally by reversing their roles.

The whole tone of the story is one of cryptic humour interlaced with some genuinely touching moments as Friday tries to put across his gentle free-thinking philosophy.

O’Toole is marvellous as the man bound so tightly by his inbred ideals that he cannot see they have no place in this far-flung isolation, while Roundtree changes subtly from a carefree native islander to a man who can outclass his teacher.

Robinson Crusoe
Peter O’Toole
Friday
Richard Roundtree
Carey
Peter Cellier
McBain
Christopher Cabot
Doctor
Joel Fluellen
Young Girl
Sam Seabrook
Young Boy
Stanley Clay

Director
Jack Gold