JoshuaRed

The "real" Torguga you're thinking of is that little speck of land just north of Haiti.

The DVD is well worth it. Makes it wicked easy to pause the scene and find tons of cool costumes, weapons, and mistakes! There are also a few cool extras on there.

Exactly! You nailed it, W.E.! It's nauseating when you watch it thinking "Reny actually thinks we'll buy this cockamamy??" It's just Goonies with a grown up cast playing on pretend pirate ships. Again let me state for the record though, that I do own the dvd, and greatly enjoy watching it for the rousing score and cool costumes...AND to make fun of it. Usually I can spot a new error every time I watch it.

SAME thing happened to us. Doesn't take any time at all to travel the map and roll dice for jewels. Wind rules were unclear about what to do if you don't move straight in one direction. Victory rules were unclear about how the hell you actually win the game, the four of us playing finally called a draw between the Dread Pirate (think the "killer " in dart game of the same name) and 2nd place player. Probably a great game for kids used to Parcheesi, but a massive bore and let down for grown up pirates lookin' for a little more depth and strategy.

Yeah, Dread Pirate would be great for a five year old! And if I get some better rules together I'll send them your way.

I considered that same thing way back when I bought the VHS. But I decided that I was buying, watching & enjoying the movie for Walter Mathau, NOT Polanski. My rationale was that if I threw away every book, movie, cd or other product made by public figures who've abused their power and done reprehensible things, I'd have precious little left on my shelves. So, I merely try to seperate the product from the person behind it in those cases.

LOL - how about when Capn Red is about to be hung and the priest is trying to get him to confess his sins. He asks about cannibalism being a mortal sin and says "I confess guvnah, I 'ad a moind ta eat th' Frog", to which the priest says "Men hold domain over all animals. Tis no sin to eat a frog" and Red says " Beggin yer pardon, but that's th' Frog standin' alongside", as he nods over to this French shipmate nicknamed Frog. My description doesn't do the scene justice, it's hysterical!

That is GREAT news that it will be on dvd. I agree that it's woefully underrated. Mathau was simply magnificent. The plot is definitely lacking, but the costuming, scenery and action is excellent. HELL'S BELLS!!!

Beware the Dread Pirate game. My wife got it for me for Xmas. Sure, it's BEAUTIFULLY made, but it's just not much fun. It's little more than die rolling and is no deeper than say, Parcheesi or Sorry. My wife and I plan to write up our own rules for more in-depth play.

Tropico 2 is fabulous! Big time fun. Just frustrating not being able to sail off on adventures with yer pirate captains.

LOL this is quickly becoming the Wiggles thread! Ya gotta love 'em though. They are the real deal. I like them because they play honest-to-goodness music. They don't water it down the way other kids shows do. Kids and their parents know that, and respect it. They rock out just enough to keep us parents happy, but are tame enough to not scare the kids. And a few of their "Wiggly Dancers" are hot. Which keeps Daddy happy!

Yes he does indeed! The man is genius.

I'm really gonna have to give the Island a viewing. In fact I think I'll put it in my trusty Netflix qeue right now. As for Kidd buring his treasure in so elaborate a scheme as that Hawkins fellow suggested, here's why I said I was skeptical: when Kidd was depositing some of his plunder at Gardiners Island and Block Island, before being arrested by Bellomont in Boston, he wrote a letter (I think it was to Mr. Gardiner, who's farm was on the island). This letter was telling Gardiner where he had buried the stuff, in case Kidd was not able to retrieve it himself. In this letter there are no elaborate codes, clues or riddles. He merely said something to the effect of "you'll find the chest I buried on the top of the tallest hill on the island. It's near a large boulder and is marked with a small rock pile. The chest is buried about a foot deep." Bear in mind I am paraphrasing from memory. It's really an interesting note. I'll have to find it in my books so I can transcribe it here. But that's the gist of it. Very simple. After all, gold that can't be recovered doesn't do anyone any good.

I believe it was late 17th century? Anyone with more knowledge on this?

Yeah it's a little off even suggesting there's such a thing as a pirate accent. I mean they were just regular people occupying a certain space and time just as we are today, talking like what was normal to them. Granted, seamen had a language all their own, but the words were filtered through whatever each man's accent was, be it Scottish, Irish, English, Yankee, French, Spanish, African, Chinese, Portugese, Caribe, Patois, what have you. We don't say there is such a thing as a bankrobber accent today, or computer hacker accent, or motorcycle gang accent....

Our house would be giving the Wiggles, Rolie Polie Olie, Spongebob top ratings if we were a Nielsen house. Along with HBO's always stellar line up, of course. What's Tony Soprano if not the quintessential modern pyrate?

Aye! Although, I don't think it's necessarily "bad", I mean I'm not reselling the copies or anything...more like a favor among shipmates!

Heston's Treasure Island is truly first class, a real gem. In fact I'm going to dub it from VHS to DVD so I can always had a clean digital copy preserved. Why Turner Studios hasn't released it on DVD, I'll never know. If anyone is interested I'd be happy to make a DVD copy for you. Just mail me a blank DVD-R, along with a pre-paid return envelope (preferably one of those cd mailer pouches), and I'll copy it for you.

Apologies for continuing the off-topic banter, but Tyrone Power doesn't have much accent at all in the Black Swan, much like Costner in his horrid Robin Hood remake. Though Power did use some nifty jargon n' lingo. Laughton was terrific as Kidd however! Now in Pirates, Mathau's accent seems much more of a thick cockney than anything based on Newton. Equally cool though. Well, I guess this is sorta on-topic, as I did mention Kidd's name!

Ah I see. I had no idea Croce is the one opening the museum. That is very cool. He's quite a guy.

Yeah Stevenson himself wrote the poem. Drew the map too. At Syracuse University in the rare collections area of the library they have a first edition that belonged to Stevenson which is full of handwritten notes in the margins by him, pointing out errata in the typsetting that he wants fixed for future editions....I got to read through it firsthand....was amazing!

Nice! That is the best synopsis of this slightly muddled story line I have ever read. THANK YOU!!!

In Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks, he mentions that Pat Croce, owner of the Philadelphia 76ers is a huge pirate buff and bought Tew's chest at auction. Wonder if there was more than one, or if he put it back on auction?

Interesting. I guess it's taken them those 8 years to roam about the Carribean and retrieve all the other coins. Why save this one till last instead of doing it first? Poetic justice I suppose. :) Or maybe the drawer Elizabeth hid the coin in was lead lined and kept the coins magic at bay...

I bet Bartholomew Roberts woulda killed for a modern day "fanny pouch" complete with adjustable straps and velcro flap!