Offbeat work which pits a pious family against a bench of violent weirdoes on an Island .The main problem for the virtuous ones is that they shall not kill or hurt anyone.In 1956,the Quakers in William Wyler's wonderful classic "Friendly persuasion " had the same problems.The best part is the first one,with the family's arrival,the father's death and the omnipresence of biblical references.But as soon as James Mason 's character shows himself a fierce pirate,but a big-hearted one,the plot peters out,and it's nothing but routine action movie.The mother is akin to Grace Kelly's character in Fred Zinneman's "high moon"(1952),and like her,she will have to do what she 's very loath to.The main characters have backgrounds that could have provided many other movies with a subject.All this does not hang together well and ,all in all, it remains a poor man's "friendly persuasion"
Review of Hero's Island
