voyeur to the cannibal feast
by Douglas Messerli
Luis
Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel, Hugo Butler, and Phillip Roll (screenplay, based on the
novel by Daniel Defore), Luis Buñuel (director) Aventuras de Robinson Crusoe (Robinson
Crusoe / The Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe) / USA 1954, Mexico 1955
Indeed his salvation seems God-sent when
he discovers that a portion of his ship has lodged itself only a short distance
away on an outlying rock, allowing him to retrieve food, tools, wood, guns and,
just as importantly, the crews’ cat Sam and dog, Rex.
Yet it is the lack of human company
which tortures this Crusoe, particularly when he becomes sick and lies dreaming
in a fever in which he calls up the image of his unforgiving father. Crusoe is
even more devastated after the death of his beloved dog. His cat, quite
amazingly, seems to have found another of her species on the island, producing
kittens, which, along with her, soon grow wild and leave him, predicting,
perhaps, what will ultimately have to happen to him if he is to survive.
In order to maintain his sanity, Crusoe
(even in this religious-hating director’s telling) has no choice but to read, over and over, the one
book he has retrieved, the Bible. In his most lonely moment, he reads the Psalm
of David (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”) to the hills from whence
his melodious voice echoes, creating an imaginary friend out of his own voice
and God’s word. But, as he himself admits, soon after, dressed in furs and
carrying an outrageous umbrella, he would appear as a terrifying figure in any
civilized city.
After years of loneliness, he accidently
discovers, one day, that the island is regularly visited by the most
uncivilized beings we can imagine, cannibals from a nearby island who use his
island to kill and consume their victims. And, in fear for his life, he is
forced to watch the horrible ceremony, later retching when he comes upon their
left-over skeletons. Although he imagines and even prepares a bomb for their
eventual destruction, he determines not to destroy them—in part, it is hinted,
because to destroy them would mean that he has no possibility for human
connection.
The next time they appear, he observes
through his trusty telescope that one of the two men they are about to kill,
has escaped. As two of the cannibals attempt to chase down the escapee, Crusoe
hits one over the head with a rock and shoots the second. When the first comes
to, the escaped victim kills the other man himself.
Yet the cannibals soon appear again, and
this time they perceive that there are far too many of them to intervene,
retreating to their fortress home. A sudden explosion draws them out to inspect
once again, only to discover that Spanish sailors have come ashore, scaring the
local natives off. Not so very differently from the cannibals, the
newcomers—mutineers we soon discover—have taken two “loyalists” from their ship
in order to tie them up and maroon them. Crusoe and Friday secretly cut the
ropes which bind the “believers,” and help the two escape.
Crusoe’s last great gesture is to ask
his now equal friend whether—having just witnessed that the so-called
“civilized” men are not so very different from Friday’s native companions—he
still wants to travel with him to England. Friday commits to the voyage,
willing to embrace a new world that, given his race, may be far more brutal
than even than the one he has left behind. Obviously, he newfound friendship
with Crusoe has provided more faith than the values of his past or those he
might imagine to be provided by those to whom he is traveling. And it is now
inevitable, even if unstated, that the two shall live the rest of their lives
together.
Jaime Fernández, brother of the famous
Mexican actor Emilio Fernández, was working as a film grip when Buñuel spotted
him; apparently he did not know a word of English when the director began
shooting his Robinson Crusoe
simultaneously in both English and Spanish. The younger Fernández evidently
learned to speak the language on the set, much in the same way (but surely more
quickly) as the character, Friday, learned it from Crusoe. Certainly, his
bronzed handsome look made a perfect foil for the virile Irish actor who had
previously played in Shakespeare characters in Abbey Theatre productions.
Los Angeles,
January 22, 2016
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