Rescue From Gilligan's Island

There is another company that has released this movie on DVD complete with the theme songs and credits. If you are going to buy you would be better to give this one a miss, and look for the other DVD. It too is avail on Amazon.

The spirit and flavor of the TV show are maintained as Gilligan and his fellow castaways are captured on this film lenth version of what happened 15 years later. Consistently the captain chides his "little buddy" about one mishap after another, but in many cases, Gilligan's misdirected efforts turn a curse into a blessing as things work out. The professor ascertains that a tsunami is on the way, so with grit and determination the castaways plan ahead so they can survive the storm.

Skipping ahead in the storyline, they're rescued through one of Gilligan's errors, i.e., starting a fire in a hazardous situation. Upon returning to civlization, they see how much the world has changed and how intimate their island bonding had become. They all get together for a Christmas party on the Minnow II and oddly enough they get lost at sea again. Would you belive it, they end up on the same island as before! What are the odds! It's great laughs and a fun nostaglic look at classic TV through a medium that allows an extended storyline.

Fifteen years after that three-hour tour and not much has changed on Gilligan's Island. Gilligan and the Skipper are still too dumb to realize that if they built another hut, the Skipper wouldn't have to listen to Gilligan's snoring all night. The Howells are still wealthy and clueless. The Professor is still building wacky stuff out of coconuts and Mary Ann is still cramming her hinder into those eye-wateringly tight shorts.

Of course, there is one change. The movie star is now played by Judith Baldwin instead of Tina Louise, which means that she now looks completely different to and is over ten years younger than the real Ginger. Oh well, I was always a Mary Ann man myself.

Let's begin at the beginning. For starters, anyone with ears will notice that the Digiview Productions version of this TV movie ships without the opening and closing theme song. Not that the credits are missing, they're run accompanied by a dignified silence. Presumably Digiview didn't have the rights to the distinctive Gilligan's Island music, even though they tend to release films that are public domain.

I have read about something like this concerning the status of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 episodes. Just because a film has fallen into public domain, it doesn't follow that the whole movie is now free for all. It's possible that after the film company's rights have expired, individual copyrights then revert to the original creators. So while no one may exclusively own the entire film, pieces of it may now be owned by different individuals or companies (i.e. the rights to music, the ownership of the title, etc). This is why you will sometimes see films on MST3k with the original title and opening/closing credits lopped off and a new title and material shoved in their places.

I have no idea if that's what happened in this case, but I thought it was interesting enough to share.

In any event, Gilligan discovers an odd metal disc washed up on the beach. Using this, the Professor fixes his barometer just in time to discover a major tsunami is headed for the island. (I know barometers and tsunamis don't work that way. Don't tell me; tell the Professor.) Facing certain destruction, the castaways decide to tie all their huts together to form a large boat and let the tidal wave sweep them into the shipping lanes. For added safety, they each decide to tie themselves to poles inside the boat while the storm is raging. If anyone reading this has any bizarre bondage fantasy involving any Gilligan's Island character, then this is definitely your DVD. (Shame on you!)

The scheme works, and the former castaways find themselves back among civilization. They each go their separate ways, although they come to discover that life off the island isn't as rewarding as they thought it would be. Indeed at one point, the Professor tries to tie their various misadventures in modern life to the Seven Deadly Sins, but I'm fairly certain that they don't. Of course, I wasn't expecting much from any biblical allusions in RESCUE FROM GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.

I won't give away the exact details of the ending. But given that there were several follow-on TV movies featuring the words "Gilligan's Island" in the title, you shouldn't be totally surprised by the conclusion.

Meanwhile while all that other stuff is going on, it turns out that the metal disc Gilligan found had fallen off of a Soviet spy satellite (complete with recycled Star Trek sound effects). Obviously, this means that two bungling agents must stalk Gilligan to recover their equipment. This subplot springs from nowhere and at the end, to nowhere it returns.

For better or worse, this is exactly like the TV show. All it lacks is a laugh track. Of course, it looks as though it had about the same amount of money spent on it as the original. One assumes the boat scenes were filmed in Sherwood Schwartz's bathtub.

The similarity to the TV series is probably why I liked it. You know exactly what kind of corny, stupid jokes you're going to get. Gilligan is going to do something stupid. The Skipper is going to sit on something freshly painted. The Skipper is going to smack Gilligan with his hat. I had worried that a show that worked better in small doses would be too ridiculous when stretched to 90 minutes, but surprisingly a quick pace prevents this.

There are also some good gags based on everything that the crew missed while on the island. Skipper laments skipping the era of the mini-skirt. The castaways are baffled by the identities of President Carter, President Ford and Mr. Watergate.

My guess is that this was intended at the time to bring the Gilligan's Island of the past into the present to wring out some nostalgia for times gone by. There are a lot of cracks at "modern" day practices: movies are dirtier than Ginger is expecting, the Professor's university is now more interested in money than academics. But to the viewer of today, it just looks like the filmmakers dropping 60s icons into clichés of the 70s. To the 21st century viewer, they are not back in "today", they are just in a different set of pop culture references.

The picture and sound quality on the Digiview Productions release are acceptable, if not actually good. But I'm guessing that if you're trying to impress your friends and enemies with your giant plasma screen and glorious surround sound speakers, this wouldn't be the movie you'd pop into your system anyway.

I doubt there's anyone reading this who doesn't already know if they'd like the movie or not. So, in summation, all I have to say is: "It's Gilligan's Island." Those three words will determine your enjoyment level.

I would not recommend this DVD to my worst enemy.

The quality of the video is horrible. It's like you're watching it through a white bed sheet.
The sound is lousy too........... as a matter of fact, for some strange reason the Gilligan theme song had been edited out... No kidding, in the title credit sequence and the ending titles sequence all you see is video, BUT NO AUDIO.... completely silent.

To tell you the truth, even for a buck it cost too much for this trash.

Save your dollar, peoples