Luke’s List: A TV triumph from ‘Curaçao’ featuring screen stars old and new

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In the last years of his life, screen icon George C. Scott worked almost exclusively in made-for-TV movies, a format generally considered inferior to theatrical films but far more prestigious than typical broadcast fare; first cousin to that other bygone entertainment staple the miniseries.

It’s a medium that has all but vanished today, having largely given way to the original programming of Netflix, Amazon, HBO, et al., who typically favor regular shows and “limited series” (nothing “mini” about them, thank you very much).

But once upon a not-so-long-ago time, TV movies often yielded both distinctive artistic triumphs and wince-worthy cultural missteps in equal measure.

“Curaçao” — released in 1993 and alternatively titled “Deadly Currents” and (spare me) “CIA: Exiled” — is a fascinating lesser-known highlight of the oft-maligned format that sees Scott star alongside William Petersen in an authentically atmospheric tale of intrigue, mystery, deception, and murder on the titular tiny island.

The Lesser Antilles are a major drag for Petersen, a disgraced American spook exiled to the picturesque prison of the Caribbean by his superiors to languish in a menial desk job as punishment for having shot and killed a traitorous colleague under dubious circumstances. It’s a positively Kafkaesque legal limbo in which he finds himself, as he apparently can’t be criminally charged (for murky cloak-and-dagger reasons) but neither can he be fired nor entrusted with anything potentially important either.

Also, most torturous of all, he can’t return to the U.S.

Unsurprisingly, Petersen has grown bored with his responsibilities, such as they are, and his admittedly gorgeous cage. He’s suffering from a serious case of island fever, which he seeks to alleviate by keeping company with various beautiful vacationers, goading his by-the-book boss with everything from his antics to attire, and hanging out with his only friend, an ex-pat bartender and retired sea captain with a silver tongue and shady past (Scott).

Suddenly, into this stagnant-but-stable milieu come several simultaneous dangers. Petersen’s agency overlords are beginning to worry he’s a liability. Some vaguely sinister Chinese businessmen are hanging around and a group of menacing South Africans are attempting to recruit him — or maybe kill him? Scott foils a bank robbery and inadvertently becomes a celebrity, his newfound fame quickly drawing exactly the sort of attention he’s been hiding out in the Caribbean hoping to avoid. And everyone is very interested in learning what really happened to the Prince of Malta, a cargo ship Scott captained once years ago that met a mysterious, brutal end. 

Background facts and supplemental interviews about the film are scarce, but according to the Internet Movie Database “Curaçao” was shot entirely on its namesake island and, with a reputed budget of about
$7 million, was supposedly the most expensive production ever filmed there.

However, all praise aside, be forewarned: This is not an objectively great film. The budget limitations are obvious at times, some of the supporting cast are not great, and the plot temporarily devolves into hopeless murk until being resolved with ludicrous ease.

It is, however, a fun movie with a legitimately interesting main premise made infinitely more enjoyable by the evocative location and pro-grade performances by its leads, very different men at very different places in their lives during a time of great change in their shared industry.

Consider: Scott, long past his days as Kubrick collaborator and portraying Patton, would be dead in six years. He was a living Hollywood legend working once again in the medium in which his career began. But TV had grown up and gained critical respect right alongside him in the middle years of the so-called American Century. It was not a bad place for a finale, and his performance here is typically sterling.

Petersen, meanwhile, was fit and 40 and on the way up, positioned exactly between his star-making turns in modern classics like 1985’s “To Live and Die in L.A.” and “Manhunter” (1986; first on-screen appearance of Hannibal Lecter, played by Brian Cox), thriving on the small screen and destined to headline “CSI” — which kicked off one of the powerhouse franchises in modern pop culture and played no small part in bringing about the new golden age of prestige television.

And for just a moment in 1993, on a small Dutch Caribbean island, their careers intersected on the line chart of life.

“Curaçao” exists at that point, the very cusp a new era in entertainment. A cultural relic forged in the style of the past, featuring icons of both vintage and vanguard. Rough and imperfect, lacking the sheen of more modern productions, it nevertheless remains deserving of consideration.