Treasure Island has five screen versions here, from Victor Fleming’s 1934 feature to Peter Rowe’s 1999 film with Jack Palance as Long John Silver. The novel is about 68,000 words, roughly 227 minutes of reading.
The versions run between 94 and 132 minutes, so their densities cluster: 1.4 to 1.9 minutes of screen per thousand words. None is a compression in the way a Dickens adaptation is; the differences are in how much of the voyage and the stockade they keep.
Every screen version at a glance
5 versions are listed here: 4 made for cinemas and 1 for television, released between 1934 and 1999. Runtimes are the length of the version as released, taken from the Wikipedia article for each title and checked against its IMDb entry.
| Year | Version | Director | Length | Leads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 | Treasure Island — film | Victor Fleming | 105 min | Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Lionel Barrymore |
| 1950 | Treasure Island — film | Byron Haskin | 96 min | Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney |
| 1972 | Treasure Island — film | John Hough | 94 min | Orson Welles |
| 1990 | Treasure Island — television film | Fraser Clarke Heston | 132 min | Charlton Heston, Christian Bale, Oliver Reed |
| 1999 | Treasure Island — film | Peter Rowe | 98 min | Jack Palance, Kevin Zegers, Patrick Bergin |
How the versions differ
Fleming’s 1934 film runs 105 minutes with Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper and Lionel Barrymore. It was the first sound version and set the pattern for the ones that followed.
The 1950 Disney film runs 96 minutes with Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton and Basil Sydney. Newton’s Long John Silver became the model for later screen pirates, and the film is the shortest here apart from the 94-minute 1972 version.
The 1972 film runs 94 minutes with Orson Welles as Silver; the 1990 television film runs 132 minutes with Charlton Heston, Christian Bale and Oliver Reed, the longest here; the 1999 film runs 98 minutes with Jack Palance, Kevin Zegers and Patrick Bergin.
Reading time against screen time
The novel runs to about 68000 words, which is roughly 4 hours at the 300 words a minute the rest of this site uses. Every screen version fits its own reading of the story into the times below.
| Screen version | Format | Running time |
|---|---|---|
| 1934 · Treasure Island | film | 105 min |
| 1950 · Treasure Island | film | 96 min |
| 1972 · Treasure Island | film | 94 min |
| 1990 · Treasure Island | television film | 132 min |
| 1999 · Treasure Island | film | 98 min |
| The novel (1883) | 68000 words | ~4 h to read |
The 1990 film has the most screen time at 132 minutes and the highest density at about 1.9 minutes per thousand words. The 1972 film’s 94 minutes are the shortest route through the story.
Questions readers ask
Which Treasure Island film is closest to the book?
By length, the 1990 television film at 132 minutes, about 1.9 minutes of screen per thousand words of the novel. The 1934 and 1950 films run 105 and 96 minutes.
Who played Long John Silver in each version?
Wallace Beery in 1934, Robert Newton in 1950, Orson Welles in 1972, Charlton Heston in 1990 and Jack Palance in 1999.
How long does the novel take to read?
About 68,000 words, roughly 227 minutes at 300 words a minute. The shortest screen version here is 94 minutes, the longest 132.
The novel itself is on editions.ink as a free ebook: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, with EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB downloads. The full list of filmed classics covers 13 books, and the rest of the catalogue sits under classic fiction.
Other books on screen
- The Hound of the Baskervilles on screen — 4 versions from 1939 to 2002
- Oliver Twist on screen — 4 versions from 1948 to 2005
- A Christmas Carol on screen — 5 versions from 1938 to 2009