User Reviews

Very good film from Dutch director Marleen Gorris, known for her Academy Award winning film "Antonia" (best foreign film, 1995) A few people are stranded on an isolated island somewhere in the Pacific after their plane crashed. Somehow (you know when you see it) they all find out that they are the last people on earth. The people are a mix of cultural differences: a gay, a military religious fanatic, a French man, a quite sexually disturbed young man, an old woman, a dog, See it...and ONE woman. Only leaves one question: Who spends the semen, to make human kind last for another x years? In the film this question is the main theme, and, when one thinks of it, a very hard ordeal. Not only for the men, who are kindly willing to spend it, but especially for the woman. All in all, a film from a females viewpoint but with a lot of things for men AND women to think about. A MUST to see, in my humble opinion. You will be astound with what will happen to this few people. See it....It's worth while...

This is in certain ways a disturbing and potentially controversial film and I had expected to find more than one comment here. Stories about shipwrecked survivors on tropical islands tend to be presented either as romantic idylls (sea, sun and scantily clad young people, e.g. The Blue Lagoon) or as dystopics in which the island becomes a petri dish for the darkest aspects of the human psyche to seethe in (e.g. The Lord of the Flies). Sometimes man comes out on top as in the films Hell in the Pacific, or, more recently, Cast Away, that both deal with overcoming the odds and escaping the island prison, but all the actors in those films were men. Throw in a woman in the equation and everything changes.

The Last Island gives an unadulterated feminist take on the castaway motive in which the evil inherent in men gets the better of their desire to escape the island. This is a very interesting process to watch and not one you can remain neutral towards.

I've been trying to find this amazing film to watch it again. I'm surprised it didn't receive more recognition over the years. It was well made and had a very strong and interesting plot (no spoilers, ok). The acting was powerful and the characters varied and interesting.

It is one of these films you'd expect to be taught at film school, or at least some gender studies course, as the role of the woman in an apocalyptic scenario is the main topic in this case. It raises many interesting questions and makes you think about society in general. And tells you a lot about how people answered such questions in 1990 (even that in itself is something to contemplate).

It deserved a lot more I think, and I'd really like to find it and watch it again someday.