The Edge of the World
by Michael Powell
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DVD details
Actor: Belle Chrystall, Eric Berry, John Laurie, Kitty Kirwan, Niall MacGinnisDirector: Michael Powell
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Brian Mitchison
Cinematographer: Ernest Palmer
Producer: Michael Powell
Writer: Michael Powell
Producer: Frixos Constantine
Producer: Joe Rock
Producer: Sydney Streeter
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-12-09
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Edge of the World
DVD Review: an interesting look at life at the edge of the world
Summary: 4 Stars
The Edge of the World has outstanding cinematography and the acting is also very good. The plot moves along a bit too slow for my taste although as others have noted the scenery more than makes up for the way the film winds its way through the story line. The choreography was very well done and the quality of the print is pretty good except in a few places where it could use a little restoration.
The film begins on a Shetland island not too far from Scotland. We see a trio of explorers who come upon a tombstone at the edge of a very sharp cliff; and one of them tells the other two the story about the tombstone--and so much more. Thus the story is essentially a flashback; and this device works very well.
We first meet several principle characters: there are two family patriarchs, Peter Manson (John Laurie) and James Grey (Finlay Currie). They have a lot on their hands as the fishing and farming on the island of Hirta is slowly but surely dying. The larger fishing boats have been catching their fish; and the younger generation of the islanders is leaving to find a more prosperous way of life in Scotland or even elsewhere. There's quite a crisis when the islanders meet; and two of their sons, Robbie Manson (Eric Berry) and Andrew Grey (Niall MacGinnis) decide to settle the matter by running a race up a sharp cliff--without a safety rope. While Ruth Manson (Belle Chrystall) loves Andrew, she is also Robbie's twin sister; and she hates the idea of them running this race--she could lose both of them. However, Robbie and Andrew think that the race to the top of the cliff is the only way to settle the matter and reach a decision for all.
Unfortunately, Robbie dies when he falls off the cliff; but this doesn't settle the matter. Many islanders still want to stay although the outlook worsens when the peat begins to run out and their latest crop won't be good, either. Complications abound when Peter Manson finds out that his daughter Ruth is pregnant with an illegitimate child by Andrew. Andrew doesn't know Ruth is even pregnant; he himself has left Hirta to find work.
Will Andrew come back when he finds out that Ruth is pregnant with their child? What about Peter Manson--will he be embittered toward the Grey family after the tragic death of his son Robbie? How does Ruth feel about marrying Andrew after Robbie is killed in that race to the top of the cliff? No plot spoilers here, folks--watch and find out!
The DVD comes with a few nice features. We get a documentary entitled "Return to the Edge of the World" that runs roughly twenty-one minutes; and there's another excellent but unrelated featurette entitled "An Airman's Letter to His Mother" from the World War Two era.
The Edge of the World may not be the very best movie I ever watched; it moves too slowly for me although the cinematography is outstanding. Nevertheless, it's still quite a moving story about what life was really like for people in that part of the world at the time; and that's a big plus. I recommend this film for people interested in these themes and issues.
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Description of The Edge of the World
Add: Bonus Feature: Commentary by Academy-AwardŽ winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, film historian Ian Christie and Daniel Day-Lewis reading from Michael Powell's book on the making of the film, "200,000 Feet on Foula."Michael Powell broke with a decade of B movies with this personal project shot on the North Sea island of Foula, a magnificent, primal landscape of high, rocky inland plains and sheer cliffs jutting out of the sea like a dare. He renamed the island Hirta for this fictional story (based on the real-life evacuation of the island of St. Kilda) of an isolated community's traditional way of life slowly dying as the young men are drawn to the modern cities of the mainland. John Laurie and Finlay Currie play the two family patriarchs who struggle over the future of the island community, and Powell himself appears as the yachtsman in a framing sequence. The romantic melodrama at the heart of the tale turns on a breathtaking race up the sheer cliffs and the grudge it sparks when one of the climbers falls to his death.
The Edge of the World is more stately and still than Powell's cinematically playful and stylistically vibrant later films like The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. The proud, hard residents of the island are constantly framed against the dramatic sky, the craggy mountains, or the rolling meadows with a dire seriousness. Yet there's a poetry to his images, which are never less than gorgeous, and Powell directs with a sense of tension, urgency, and desperation that pulls at the easy pace of this harsh lifestyle. This edition also features the lovely 1941 short An Airman's Letter to His Mother (narrated by John Gielgud) and the Powells' 1978 documentary Return to the Edge of the World, a 22-minute remembrance organized around a reunion on the island of Foula. --Sean Axmaker
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