The film was slammed by critics and I think it bombed, but, like most things, there's good and bad.
For me, one of the worst aspects was the decision to film it in the Far East – the islands look absolutely nothing like the Caribbean, where it is supposedly set – so I assume someone fancied a subsidised holiday out there.
On the plus side:
- High production values give you a great imagining of Port Royal – before it was destroyed by earthquake in the 1690s. It was described by contemporaries as having very tall buildings built along a narrow isthmus.
- Patrick Malahide as the laconically cynical English Governor (the seated tea-drinking gentleman on the left) gives a superb performance with well-scripted lines. It was a joy to watch him.
- The score is superb – it is pure gold in terms of a Hollywood Swashbuckling score in the best traditions of the genre, and well worth a listen through.
I really enjoyed the 1670-1680s setting and the efforts with the costumes. Why the film turns out to be dull and unconvincing I am not quite sure, but I've never felt the need for a second viewing.
For figures, I expect you want pre-Malburians, any nation really. In 20mm that would be Les Higgins. In 1/72nd plastics Mars have some late Seventeenth Century Spanish Infantry (just paint them red – the uniforms were generic). Interestingly, the Spanish Colonial troops do not seem to have worn a uniform at this period (civilian dress with military accoutrements, feathers and sashes).
Most colonies in the Americas had some form of militia, but also Independent Companies of Regulars, and I guess the Governor would call on the latter in the sort of scenario your film depicts. Traditionally in the Eighteenth Century the Independent Companies are depicted with green facings, but I am not when this practice may have started.
Jamaica also had regular regiments (where your film is set) stationed out there on tours of duty, this was certainly the case at times of war or crisis, when the sugar planters virtually squealed for Westminster to send them extra protection. This was certainly true by the early 1700s. Don't forget, the British government tended to consider the sugar islands in the West Indies as far more valuable than the colonies on the North American Eastern seaboard.
Osprey Men-at-Arms no. 366 – Colonial American Troops 1610-1774, Vol. 1 – has an illustration of an English Regular Musketeer, of Jeffery's Regiment, as serving in Virginia, 1676-78, at plate C3. I suggest this is the sort of thing to go for.
In Jamaica the colonists had to contend the Maroons from time to time, as well as Spanish Garda Costa and, of course, Pirates, even in times of peace. Truly it was said that there was no peace beyond 'the line'.