source: Kidnapped

Moviecut—Kidnapped

Kidnapped

This is my favourite version of the Kidnapped novel. Michael Caine is excellent as is all the cast. The film takes the viewer from the Jacobite battlefields of 1745 to Edinburgh Castle with a chase adventure in between. A good story. Lots of action (the fight in the sailing ship round house is particularly well done). Plus more. A well put together film

As a history lesson about the Jacobite Rebellion this fails, but as a movie for the whole family it's entertaining and a good cast makes it fun to watch. Michael Caine is Alan Breck, determined that the Stuarts should have retained the throne of England, who befriends young David Balfour (Lawrence Douglas) and sets off on a journey with him to Edinburgh, sharing a variety of adventures along the way. In a limited role, Donald Pleasance added to the fun of the movie as the curmudgeonly Ebenezer Balfour (David's uncle). It was all working together quite well, I thought, until the very end of the movie, and I thought too much was left hanging with the way it concluded. So an entertaining but historically inaccurate movie ended with a bit of a letdown. 7/10

This is a well made atmospheric romp through the Scottish Highlands.Action,romance,murder,treachery and Michael Caine.Beautiful scenery and good soundtrack.I really enjoyed it.

I watched this on holiday, then got the DVD and watched it again, and from a film making point of view I was hugely impressed. the story is an adaptation of the classic novel, and it works fine, with a nice dilemma for the protagonist centred around the need for continuing a needless conflict. The cast is incredible. But for me the look of the thing was what knocked me over. The location scenes are stunningly beautiful for the most part. The reconstruction of the aftermath of Culloden was very well done. The use of Stirling Castle as Edinburgh castle was terrific. Some of the sequences (the duel in the Castle, for instance,) are reminiscent of the quality of Barry Lyndon. If I had a quibble, it's that the ending is a bit too sudden and could have done with a little more working out. But. I really enjoyed watching this - and if you're a fellow lover of the Scottish landscape, you'll enjoy it too!

After being shanghaied while trying to claim an inheritance, David Balfour falls in with outlaw Jacobite rebel, and various shenanigans ensue as wrongs are righted, hopefully. Robert Louis Stephenson's classic novel is filmed (again) very attractively. There is a good cast, some heavyweights accompanied by a collection of decent character actors. And at the heart, we have David Balfour played by Lawrence Douglas, an actor with 18 minor TV credits and 3 movies, this being the only one of any significance. He does not command the screen. But Michael Caine does, as Alan Breck, but mainly because you wonder how he thought he could get away with that accent as Scottish.

This rendition is exceptional and belongs in the movie Library of anyone who loves the classics. Michael Caine makes the movie. As Allen Breck he made the character everything I felt when I read the book. He looks and talks just as I pictured in my mind. Splendid indeed. David Balfou was drab and shy in the story and I found Lawrence Douglas to be just that. I love that this version follows the true chronicle, especially in the beginning and I felt like I was truly along with the characters in every scene. Donald Pleasence played Ebenezer Balfour brilliantly and his scenes with David are true to the original story. No other movie of Kidnapped was the same for me. Captivating as only Robert Louis Stevenson can be.

I saw this film only once the year it was released and the only thing I can actually remember about it has me chomping at the bit to see it again. It is the final scene where Allan Breck was led out into the beautiful Scotland countryside by his captors, presumably to certain execution. As he looked around at the land he loved so much in sad resignation, Mary Hopkin's sweet soprano sang "For all my days upon the earth, for mountains high and valleys green, for mist that rolls in from the sea, I thank you Lord for sharing this with me." I'm sure I've remembered only the gist of the song, but I also remember some serious goosebumps and teary eyes during that scene.