Robinson Crusoe

This first column first ran in The Age on December 27, 2003

In the various Survivor series that are the backbone of much 'reality' TV it is only those who can lie cheat and manipulate their 'tribe' most effectively who win. In the four-part series, Robinson Crusoe, that begins on SBS tomorrow night (7.30pm) it is only by coming to love and accept one's fellow man that one has a chance of survival. Call me sentimental, but it presents a vision of humanity that I find much more engaging.

Daniel Dafoe's 1719 novel was loosely inspired by the real life adventures of William Selkirk who was shipwrecked in 1704 and stranded on an island in the pacific for 5 years. (Robinson Crusoe is stranded for 28 years in the novel, and 15 years in this screen adaptation). Though the original novel was English, this version is French and has been produced by those who made the Napoleon series.

Being French, it has a very particular sense of humour and delicacy. It is a sometimes slow, sometimes comic, odd tale of a man and his alternately touching and mis-guided attempts to recreate 'civilization' on his island using the objects - pianos, bibles, wine, gold and rope - washed to shore with him. The only other survivor of the wreck is a dog called Venus and the first and second episodes focus on this relationship. The moments where the shaggy lazy Venus's life is in danger are truly harrowing, and Crusoe's grief when he is truly alone is quite devastating.

The island, supposedly somewhere in the Caribbean is beautiful, fertile, and much of it is shot on the beaches of Cuba, which makes it very easy on the eye. However it is the riveting performances that make this such a moving series. Pierre Ricard is Crusoe and makes him, by turns, a buffoon, a religious zealot, a madman and a compassionate, gentle, man. It is nice too, to see an older man play the adventurers role. No buffed up Tom Hanks here, but an ageing (sexy) man who has put on weight and has wild, white hair. Nicolas Cazale gives the most gorgeous performance as Man Friday, who first appears at the end of episode two.

Friday's role has been reinterpreted and modernised (which I suppose some people may object to) to draw our attention the wrong headedness of Crusoes' attempt to subjugate him to servant status and convert him to Christianity. Unlike Dafoe's Friday, this one refuses to wear western clothes because they make hard for him to hunt and hates the fact Crusoe calls him Friday rather than using his real name, Itawa. He continues to worship his Gods and, in one very lovely scene, convinces Crusoe to do so too. He even manages to make Crusoe understand the spiritual basis for his people's cannibalism. By the end of their years together Friday/Itawa has become a son, not a servant and it is Crusoe who is converted and sees the error of his former existence working in the slave trade. In a season of paltry television offerings, Robinson Crusoe is a real pleasure.

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