Submitted by
Nicky Smith
13th March 1937
(anon)
The Edge of the World - this is a good film, yet it could have been
something more than that. It is the story of an island off a remote part
of Scotland; the story of a little people who find that progress and change
are driving them inexorably from their homes. Such a theme - a man's love
for the land on which he and his forefathers have lived all their lives
- cannot be anything but moving if it is treated with sincerity, and Mr
Michael Powell, who is both wrote and directed this film, is unmistakably
sincere.
In the sea and the sky and the cliff; in the waving grass; in the little
streams; and in the damp grey mists he has captured all that he could have
wished of the soul of this island, so that the film presents something
infinitely more beautiful that just a picture or rugged and beautiful scenery.
And the acting, too, is good. Not quite so good that it can fit naturally
and easily into the simple and intimate background of the island, yet moving
and as unmistakably sincere. The weakness of the film is in its failure
to establish Peter Manson as the central character.
He is symbolical of the
tradition of these islanders, of the tradition behind all those who love
their home, and though Mr John Laurie, as Peter, is stern and implacable,
and even tragic, the portrait remains incomplete. This is not to say that
the other residents are relatively unimportant. They are not. The love story
of Andrew and Ruth Manson, the death of her brother in a race with Andrew
up the cliff face, and the birth of Ruth's child after Andrew has been forced
to leave her - these are in no way superfluous, for they form as much of
the background to Peter's story as the old stone walls, the sheep, and the
wheeling gulls. But had they remained in the background the portrait of
Peter would not have been overshadowed. In the end, while the islanders
are sadly putting all their possessions into the boat which is to carry
them to the mainland, Peter goes up to the top of the cliff and falls to
his death and the island is left desolate and alone.
Peter is of the old order,
and the old order must go. The story is actually seen in retrospect through
the eyes of Andrew, who visits the island 10 years later and is lost in
the memories which the sight of empty ruined houses conjures up for him.
The audience too, will have its memories after the film is over - an old
woman sitting lonely and motionless before her cottage, staring out towards
the sea; a tiny church with its wooden benches and homely congregation;
a glimpse of the distant hills of Scotland through the mist; and an old
and fluffy dog with slowly wagging tail.
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