TV REVIEW : Hestons Sail for ‘Treasure Island’

The latest (and, at 131 minutes, not counting commercials, longest) filmed version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”--premiering at 5 p.m. today and repeating at 8 p.m. on the TNT cable network--would seem to have vanity production stamped all over it. Starring as the one-legged pirate Long John Silver, one of the hammiest roles known to man or beast, is Charlton Heston, and making a directorial debut with this presumably big-budget action-adventure is one Fraser C. Heston, who also wrote and produced. Yo ho ho and a bottle of nepotism!

The surprise, then, is that the younger Heston has turned in a directorial bow that is both respectable and fun, if occasionally lacking the tension necessary to sustain the running time. And the elder Heston, following in the filmic footsteps of Wallace Beery, Robert Newton and Orson Welles, dons sun-scorched makeup, curls his lips in and chews the island scenery for all it’s worth; this time, at least, he’s doing the right thing.

If at times the production actually seems to be taking itself just a bit too seriously--unlike the famous Disney version--with its pretty pictorialism and graphic violence, it’s largely up to Heston’s Silver to risk flirting with high camp and send it over the top every now and then. Way over the top in the first half-hour are wheezing Oliver Reed and murderous Christopher Lee, both killed off before the ship ever sets sail; these two overact so gustily that when Heston turns up, his performance seems almost naturalistic.

The action is once more seen through the eyes of brave young Jim Hawkins, who almost single-handedly averts a pirate mutiny that threatens an 18th-Century expedition to an unmanned island laden with stolen loot. Christian Bale (grown up a bit from “Empire of the Sun”) is a good, believably enterprising choice for Jim; Julian Glover also shows up in a rare good-guy role as Dr. Livesy.

Even as an admittedly long sit, both children and adults with a taste for period-piece escapism should be sufficiently amused not to commandeer the set’s remote control.

The TV movie will be shown again Saturday, Feb. 1 and Feb. 24.