"Nate and Hayes, also known as Savage Islands (UK title), is a 1983 swashbuckling adventure film set in the South Pacific in the late 19th century. Directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and filmed on location in Fiji and New Zealand, it starred Tommy Lee Jones, Michael O'Keefe, Jenny Seagrove and Max Phipps." (Wikipedia)
Watched this early 80s pirate flick yesterday. It was a decent movie but i was a bit disappointed.
It was written by none other than John Hughes and David Odell (The Dark Crystal, Supergirl, Masters of the Universe) Once again Tommy Lee Jones' character was based on a real-life person (Bully Hayes).
Jones and Max Phipps were good but i think that Michael O'Keefe was a wrong choice for the part. I just couldn´t stand his grin in this one
The opening sequence is straight from Raiders of the Lost Ark but then again this movie includes a rope bridge scene before Temple of Doom. The movie also includes some pretty nice settings.
All in all it was a nice little film but i guess that the budget could´ve been bigger and the story much better. The movie feels rushed.
posted
I remember a friend of mine who has great taste in movies was raving about "Nate and Hayes" back in the day. It was a terrible flop in U.S. theatres--didn't even clear $(US) 2 million--so I had to wait until it was on HBO/Cinemax. When I caught up with it, I found that it was a pleasant enough time-waster, but not really as well put together as my friend had led me to believe. I told him that he loved pirate movies, and since it was the first pirate movie in a long, long time, he had overpraised it. In its favor, it does have Tommy Lee Jones in it, though I don't think that this is his best performance, it's colorful, and Jenny Seagrove looks great in period costumes and bondage.
I've read a lot of stuff about John Hughes over the years, but I've never really read about how he came to co-write that screenplay or his involvement in the film. I've always wondered about that. Was he called in simply as a script doctor to fix David Odell's (and perhaps someone else's) script, and he did enough to earn a credit? (Those screenwriters' guild rules being goofy as they are.) The screenplay seems so very unlike anything else that he did at that time. A subject for further research...
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
" Having written primarily comedy screenplays for film, Hughes was delighted with the opportunity of contributing his writing skills to the adventure film."
I guess that he found out that it wasn´t his "thing" Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
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Still, give him credit for trying something different; not all writers would take the risk of stepping out of their comfort zone, successfully or not.
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aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
So true, Chris. I´m pretty sure that this movie wasn´t the easiest project for anyone involved.
Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
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