The Edge Of The World (1937)
A film by Michael Powell.
Shot over four arduous months in the wild, windswept Shetland Islands, Michael Powell’s first independent production establishes the daring techniques and experimentation that would later become familiar hallmarks of his career.
The Edge of the World tells the moving story of a remote island and it’s inhabitants, whose traditions and way of life are threatened by a rapidly industrialising world. To settle an argument over whether the islanders should give up their livelihood and move to the mainland, two childhood friends follow an ancient tradition and climb the island’s highest cliff face. The outcome shatters the island’s peace and splits the two clans apart.
Making the film proved so demanding and sensational that its 32-year-old director was moved to write a full-scale book about his obsession with the tragic grandeur of Scotland’s Outer Isles and his struggle to film it, 200,000 Feet on Foula which actor Daniel Day Lewis reads from here on this DVD. Other extra features include a commentary by film critic Ian Christie and Thelma Schoonmaker, Return to the Edge of the World (1978) in which Powell returns to the island forty years later, St.Kilda Britain’s Loneliest Isle, a travelogue film shot in 1928, and Michael Powell’s Home Movies. The film and all bonus materials feature hard-of-hearing subtitles.
