"My name's Ian Christie and I'll be your guide through this commentary on the film that Michael Powell considered his first really independent production." "I'm joined by Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell, Michael's widow, who was with him during the years of his rediscovery by new generations of film enthusiasts and film makers, including Martin Scorsese, one of Powell and Pressburger's greatest admirers." "Thelma has worked for over 20 years as Scorsese's editor, so she'll be bringing her practised eye to bear on some sequences from a film that's now nearly 70 years old." "We're also delighted to have as a guest Daniel Day-Lewis, who'll be reading from Michael Powell's remarkable book originally called 200,000 Feet On Foula, which was published to coincide with the film's release in 1938." "Powell had the idea for the film as far back as 1930, when he read about the final evacuation of the Hebridean island of St Kilda, off the northwest of Scotland." "Now, on a different island," "Foula, up in the Shetlands, he was about to bring it to life." "Michael Powell played the visiting yachtsman himself, along with his future wife, Frankie Reidy." "And their yacht was borrowed from the actual owner of the island, Alastair Holborn." "He decided that they should play these parts to keep the budget down and not to have any more superfluous people on what would be a difficult location shoot." "It was particularly difficult because they weren't able to shoot on the original island of St Kilda." "The owner of St Kilda had decided it was going to be a bird sanctuary, so he didn't want a film crew invading the island." "(Daniel Day-Lewis as Michael Powell) All this was my doing." "From Elstree to Foula, over 800 miles of land and sea, many people's lives were being transformed because seven years ago I had read a paragraph in a Sunday newspaper." "A little interest item stuck in my head and became a story." "Because of that idea, 24 intelligent men, who had never been very far away from a pavement, were going to be dropped down on an extremely isolated island, there to live and work for five months." "(Dialogue) Your book was right when it was published, Mr Graham." "But you were wrong when you said nothing changes on these islands." "There is not a living soul now on Hirta." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) The island itself is very isolated from the mainland, way out in the Atlantic, really probably the last part of the United Kingdom." "It's interesting how, early on, with these images of an eagle about to pounce on a young lamb, how Michael Powell lays down the rigorous and dangerous life of an island." "(Dialogue) Got it." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Michael Powell began in silent movies and in those days there was an enormous amount of experimentation with film making and here is one example of the kind of thing that he would have learned, I think, in those silent days." "Instead of doing a very complicated optical, as we would call it today, where you take two pieces of film, shot on different occasions, and then superimpose them over each other," "I'm pretty sure this is one of the sequences that he told me he actually did in the camera." "Imagine how difficult this is:" "First he filmed Niall MacGinnis, standing in position, almost reacting to the people who are going by him and he probably exposed that at about 50%." "Then the film was rolled back in the camera to..." "They would have noted how long that shot was and rolled the film back in the camera and started exposing the sequence of the members of the island long-departed passing past him." "And it's an incredibly beautiful image and extremely difficult to achieve." "You have to have forethought and know how to frame things and how to tell the actors how to look, where their eyeline should be." "Eyeline is very important in movies." "Not something audiences think about, but for a director it's very important where the actor is looking." "And they, of course, are looking at Niall MacGinnis and reacting to him as he is reacting to them in his memories." "The film is really a poem about an island." "Here, a beautiful poetic moment." "At the bottom of this gravestone, the very evocative words:" ""Gone over."" "Kind of thing you would never see in probably any other cemetery." "Look at this image." "I mean, you have no idea how difficult it is to get a camera into position to take shots like this which evoke the extraordinary physical state of the island, these sharp cliffs just rising out of the sea." " What's wrong, Andrew?" " The hills of Scotland." "It's a rare thing to see them from Hirta." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Here you see some sequences shot in the studio:" "The sequences of Powell and his wife." "You can sort of tell by the soft focus of the background, which is done to fool the eye, when you're trying to match into a shot as dramatic as these cliffs that have been raised up out of the sea by violent earthquakes." "(Dialogue) Ten years ago, you'd have seen all the folk on their way to the kirk." "The men in black, and the women neat and bonny, and young John Eisbister standing by the gate." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Another incredibly poetic moment here." "Um, beautiful, beautiful shot of a bell ringing." "Maybe it was done the same way the previous shot was, which is, they would have shot the bell at a 50% exposure, then rewound the film, taken the bell down, put up a piece of rope," "a frayed piece of rope, signifying that the island is no longer occupied, and shot again, at 50% exposure, getting this beautiful, simple image indicating so much about the death of an island." "(Bell rings)" "(Christie) As the islanders make their way across the landscape towards the church, which is the focal point of their existence, really, a communal existence, we see Kitty Kirwan, the oldest actress involved in this extraordinary production," "who plays the Mansons' grandmother." "She wasn't only the oldest actor in the film, she was also the one who had to wait longest to shoot her few scenes." "(Day-Lewis) At last we arrived at Loban, and in 8 hours made 40 shots, completing the entire Sunday sequence at the croft, with all the pictorial angles and also every one of Kitty Kirwan's scenes," "for which she had been patiently waiting 12 weeks." "12 weeks on the island for one day's work." "She has the north wind to thank for that hectic day, which started with her listening to church bells and finished with her dead on the grass." "Kitty was sent for by cable as soon as we had fixed our schedule." "She was told to hurry." "She caught the night express, grabbed a plane at Aberdeen, raced across Shetland in a car, jumped onto the waiting Vedra and arrived at Rock city in 27 hours from Rock studio." "An all-time record." "Not bad for an 80-year-old." "All her first scenes were with John Laurie." "The Vedra passed the mail boat taking him out with his fractured collarbone." "We broke the news to Kitty." "She settled down for the longest wait an actress has had in history." "(Christie) The kirk, or the church, played a central part in the islanders' life." "And in this form of Presbyterianism you could judge the quality of the service by the length of the sermon." "It's also an occasion, of course, when the social hierarchy of the island is on display, where everyone's dressed up in their Sunday best and where the heads of the two important families, the Grays and the Mansons, meet each other." "There's a little bit of tussling for status." "John Laurie is the laird's representative, as he reminds Finlay Currie, who's the church elder." "There's clearly some competition between these two pillars of the community." "They're both very interesting actors." "Finlay Currie, a much older actor, who had been on stage, had only started to work in film, in fact, in the early 1930s." "He'd made very few films." "He'd appeared in The Good Companions and Orders Is Orders before he made Edge Of The World." "He would go on to have a very distinguished career in films like Great Expectations." "John Laurie was already a distinguished film actor and had Shakespearean experience and was quite a catch, as far as Powell was concerned, for this very important part." "(Dialogue) ...for ever and ever." "Amen." "(Christie) As we watch this church sequence, it's astonishing, almost impossible, to believe that it was actually shot in a derelict building which had no roof." "(Dialogue) He makes me down to lie." " (Tuning fork hums)" " La, la..." "la-la." "(AII sing) The Lord's my shepherd" "I'II... (Christie) The actors were under incredible difficulty." "None of this is conveyed in the church sequence as we see it." "Here's how Michael Powell described it in his book." "(Day-Lewis) The high spot of the southwest location was the church." "There were three physical changes which had to be managed." "These were, firstly, the derelict building in the prologue, with weed-grown yard, buried gravestones, battered roof and forlorn belfry, and a fragment of frayed rope where the bell once hung." "Secondly, the church in the story, trim and neat, a path worn by the years from the gate to the door, the bell clanging as Gerald pulled the rope and the row of dogs sitting peacefully by their rail." "Finally, the interior of the church, sans belfry, sans roof, sans ceiling, and especially, sans warmth." "It is hard to believe that the whole church interior was shot in half a gale." "It was as cold as Christmas." "When making close-ups of Hamish, Finlay and John, we had to place oil stoves all around them to warm their patch of glacial air so that their breath should not show." "Alastair, Bobby Isbister and Sid worked the reflectors, roosting on the rafters in the full force of the wind." "They had to nail their reflectors down." "Themselves, they froze to their seats." "The orange cellophane on the doors and windows crackled like a bush fire as the gusts caught it." "The clouds sailed over at such a pace that we never had more than two minutes of sunlight." "On three days, we had to drop everything, all rush out and make fast tarpaulins before a squall hit us." "The actors were beyond all praise." "They had to be ready, like racehorses, to get off to a quick start, and cram as much action into a short period as possible." "(Dialogue) Some of us, at certain times have been inclined to limit the power of the gospel by supposing that only certain sinners by supposing that only certain sinners obtain the grace of God." "Grand sermon, John." "One hour and 15 minutes." "Let them beat that in Edinburgh if they can." "And mind ye, every sentence sound theology." "We'll check the lists and load the boats after the Sabbath's over." "Aye." "It's high tide an hour after midnight." "Aye, that's, er, very convenient." "(Christie) Michael Powell found casting the three young principals for the film quite difficult." "It was crucially important that they did have the sort of presence that he needed for this very simple story." "They had to breathe humanity and give it a kind of emotional credibility." "He chose, for the character of Ruth Manson, Belle Chrystall, and for Robbie Manson, her brother, Eric Berry." "And for the figure of Andrew Gray, Niall MacGinnis." "In the book he published after the film, he explained the kind of reasoning that went into these choices and how, in a sense, one choice influenced the others." "(Day-Lewis) When I saw Belle," "I could have kicked myself for having wasted so much time." "I knew what a grand actress she was and in looks she was ideal." "A fine young face, with deep eyes and a broad forehead, the hair sweeping naturally off it." "A sensitive mouth, a head set cleanly on good shoulders and a strong, supple figure." "Everyone knows how splendid she was in Hindle Wakes and I had also made a test of her for a part at Warner's." "She only failed to get it because of the very qualities of strength and confidence which made her ideal for Ruth." "My mind was made up at once." "Eric Berry was unusual." "He was tall and dark and his eyes were intolerant." "He was not quite tough enough for an islander but he was an actor, that was evident." "It was important that Robbie should have charm and intelligence and Berry had both." "I could not quite make up my mind about him, perhaps because I had not yet found Andrew." "Niall MacGinnis came from Dublin." "He had shown great promise in a secondary part in Turn Of The Tide." "He had also done good work in several pictures since then." "I went to see his agent, Bill O'Brien." "He had big plans for MacGinnis, but when he heard a description of the part, he sent him to see me." "I was going to dinner with Frankie and we waited at my flat for him." "He came in at last, looking earnestly about him, his face half scowl, half shy smile." "He looked rather as if he had parked his caravan outside and as soon as he had seen me he would be off into the sunset, with a hey nonny nonny and a wind on the heath." "An actor like this was unusual." "He talked in a liquid Irish voice, and was rather given to long, dark stares and Celtic silences." "He carefully concealed his sense of humour, but could not hide the poetry in his voice and in his movements." "In looks and personality, he was a complete contrast to Berry." "I decided on them both at the same instant." "(Dialogue) Then you'll have it." " You're leaving the island?" " Aye." " Short-handed as we are?" " Aye." " Does anybody know?" " Only you two." " When are you going to tell Peter?" " Tomorrow." " The boat parliament?" " Aye." "Ah, Robbie, man, you've gone over to the other side." "Before I went away, I would have said the same as you." "But the world's changed, it's bigger, it's easier to get at." "Before, we were no worse off than anyone else." "Now we're living in an old world." "I've got a turn for machinery, I can do things with it." "Why should I give it up?" "What can Polly and I hope for if I drag her back here?" "Ah, Robbie, you're too clever for me." "You go your way and I'll go mine." " Aye, but can't you see..." " That's final." "If you want to run away because the work's too hard, or your fancy..." "Leave her out of it!" " I'd be glad to." " I'm as good a man as you are." "(Christie) One idea that Powell wanted to develop in the film was the balance in the islanders' lives between the hard grind of survival and an almost mystical sense of oneness with nature." "This is a very remote community, it's steeped in tradition and included in the traditions is a belief that, for instance, being able to see the hills of Scotland is a sign of ill omen." "Something dangerous, alarming, threatening is going to happen." "So it's warning us and it's setting a different tone in the film." "We know that this life that we've been introduced to will have a shadow cast over it." "Meanwhile, there's an urgent matter to discuss." "And again, another aspect of the traditional life of the island, which Powell had picked up from his research, was the idea of the boat parliament, where all the men of the island get together, close to the scene of their primary activity, fishing," "and they have a parliament, a basic... council, where they sit and discuss the most important issues." "And here the most important issue is whether to continue on the island or to accept that their traditional way of life will have to end and that they have to seek evacuation." "(Dialogue) Year by year, the population's shrinking." "(Christie) The background to this debate and the dilemma facing the islanders was the impact of new technology on their lives." "The steam trawlers that we see later were already scarring the northern seas, with their otter boards dragging over the sea bed and damaging the next spawn of fish." "By contrast, the islanders' traditional rowing boats had been replaced by small power-driven boats that practised drifter fishing, using fine nets kept up by air-filled floats to catch herring." "According to the regulations, trawlers were supposed to observe a three-mile limit around the islands." "But, inevitably, they often didn't." "Already, in the 1930s, the traditional livelihood of the island fishermen was under threat." "Catches were low and unpredictable and the trawler fleets took a lot of the blame." "Powell argued in his book that the issue wasn't really so black and white." "He noted that the trawlermen performed many acts of kindness for the islanders." "But in the end they were driven by the profit motive." "This would inevitably destroy the fragile island economy." "He sums it up in the book like this:" ""The conquest of nature by civilisation is a fine theme and always printed in big capitals, but what good is civilisation, if it drives a strong, hardy, independent people back from the outposts to live in towns?"" "(Dialogue)... you spoke for half the island when you're not two days back from the very boats that have ruined us!" "Three months' work and £63 to show for it." "Shillings is what I'd be showing if I'd stayed on Hirta." " Och, you're no son o' mine." " Don't take it so hard, Peter, man." "The boy's just said what had to be said." "Men we must have, and where are we going to get them?" "Oh, this tale o' Robbie's has been in my mind for a long while." "Now, if we was to petition the Government, there's little doubt we'd get free transportation... (Christie) The decision about the future of the island is going to be made not by a vote, in this parliament," "but by a contest:" "The prowess of two rival champions, the two sons of the two families, who take opposing views." "Robbie and Andrew will race, following tradition, to the top of the cliff and whoever wins, that will be the community's decision." " I can see no objection." " Down to the boats!" "Come on, then!" "(Christie) Making a film like this, on an incredibly remote island, was very, very difficult." "There was no possibility of flying anything in." "It was difficult even to get supplies and personnel in by boat, because Foula had a very difficult harbour." "So everything that they needed had to be brought and anything that had to be brought in later or any emergency that occurred on the island necessitated a difficult and quite dangerous trip to Lerwick." "This was film making absolutely on the edge." "(Dialogue) I'll lose you both!" "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Of course, for film makers, the fact that you can't see your dailies is terrifying." "Today we wouldn't even consider it." "You can electronically send images to the top of Everest probably today." "My assistants in the editing room and I always joke about the message that Michael Powell received from the studio in London after the dailies had been..." "the first dailies had been developed:" ""Picture invisible, sound inaudible." "Is this intentional?"" "(Laughs) And we just love that because it just captures the absolutely terrifying feeling it must've been to get that message." "Michael always told that story with great humour because he saw the humour in it, as always." "This film, for Michael Powell, was as if it was his first-born." "He had a passionate love for it which he never lost until the end of his days." "In fact, he was so moved, about 60 years after this film was made, maybe 55, when he showed it at the Santa Fe film festival and got a standing ovation, it meant so much to him," "partly because he'd been disappointed in how the film was first received." "He stayed in touch with the islanders." "He fell in love with all the islanders, of course, and he stayed in touch with them for the rest of his life." "They exchanged letters, Christmas cards, phone calls and he made sure that the film was shown to the islanders who had participated in it." "(Dialogue) Have you chosen your route yet?" "Aye." "Up the east side, then straight along, up by the channel." "The old way we went egg hunting." "Remember there's no rope this time." "I'm no likely to forget." "I'm for the south face, then over the Devil's Elbow." " Longer, but I'll make better time." " You'll have to." " It's a grand treat for the folk." " Are you ready?" "When you get to the burn... (Christie) The challenge in this sequence is to convey more than just a race or a climb." "It has to be something elemental." "It's very interesting how important the elements are in it." "We're very, very conscious of rock, sea, water, light." "Er, it becomes a truly elemental sequence." "Looking at this sequence of the cliff climb, this is where the film joins another, quite important, current in '30s film making." "It started in Germany at the end of the '20s, the mountain films, which Leni Reifenstahl made her name in." "And Emeric Pressburger, who still had not met Michael Powell, they'd be introduced very shortly afterwards, was working, just about this time, on a film called The Challenge, about the first ascent of the Matterhorn." "The mountain film, in various forms, was becoming quite important and this is one of the most startling, picturesque and dramatic contributions to the '30s mountain film." "It's even more so when we realise that Niall MacGinnis and Eric Berry had to do their own climbing." "And even if the close-ups were done under, perhaps, reasonably controlled conditions, a shot like this is truly breathtaking." "Getting the shots of the anxious watchers in the boats was very difficult indeed:" "They weren't shot at the same time." "As the days, weeks, went by," "Powell was getting increasingly worried about finding the right conditions to shoot the men in the boats, which was essential for the construction of this scene." "It wasn't until they'd left Foula and returned to Lerwick that he managed in one epic day to shoot almost all these images, knowing that they would intercut and produce this remarkable sequence." "He tells in his book just how difficult and how dangerous the final section of Eric Berry's climb was." "This really was putting an actor at risk." "(Day-Lewis) Eric had to climb up through the waterfall." "I decided this was not spectacular enough." "Sid organised a dam crew and at the word "Camera!" they let a ton or two of water over the top." "We all got wet, but the scene undoubtedly had more punch, especially when small boulders came over into Eric's open mouth." "The rest of the climb was shot on various locations between Hoevdi and the Sneck." "The method was simpler than it looks." "On bad days," "I scrambled around and found nasty spots that were effective on the screen." "Eventually we all arrived there, I demonstrated the climb," "Niall said to himself "Where he can go, I can."" "Eric, fortunately, was short-sighted and I do not believe to this day that he knows half of what he did." "The only thing that put him off was the surf below him." "To his eyes, without glasses, it was a dizzy white gulf, full of noises, far below." "He was not far wrong, either." "(Christie) This sequence of grinding is one of those moments in the film where the ethnographic aspect of it, showing the islanders' lives and what they do, also has a symbolic force, because we do get a strong sense, watching this great stone turning," "of, if you like, the turning of life in the island after the tragic death of Robbie." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) The image of wheat being ground here is a very strong theme in Michael Powell's life." "In his autobiography, he does a paean of praise to the mills that he saw in his childhood in Kent." "I've always felt that, uh... one of the reasons he's such a wonderful director, understands people so deeply, is because he was lucky enough to be brought up on a farm, where he experienced all levels of humanity," "and always had an extremely strong connection to the earth." "(Water ripples)" "(Dialogue) James and Andrew of Burns," "I bid you to the funeral of Robbie Manson, tomorrow, at 12." "We will come." "Jessie and Jean of Grisengarth." "I bid you to prepare for the funeral of Robbie Manson, tomorrow, at 12." "(Christie) The repetition of this solemn phrase has an interesting ritual quality." "It reminds us, in a strange way, of something Biblical, where a character goes from point to point, repeating the same phrase." "Again, it reminds us of the elemental nature of the islanders' lives, the fact that they're all bound together in sickness, health and death." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) This sequence is really so stunning, partially because a simple fact of life on an island, which is there were no telephones," "and probably mail was only delivered maybe to the harbour, and everyone went down to meet the mail boat, so therefore you had to go yourself and announce it." "And out of that comes this terribly moving moment of Peter Manson and his daughter verbally announcing the day and time of his funeral." "Hovan, hovan, hovan eerie" "Scorsese and I have always loved this funeral sequence, the editing of some very beautiful shots and then the combination, obviously, of the music and the images is so important." "The beautiful idea that the coffin is carried on oars which, for those of us who are not islanders, is stunning." "And then this moment when the oars are raised just sends chills through you." "Again, beautiful up-angle across the waving vegetation, to be used again after another strong shot of the boots marching on the... on the wooden causeway." "The up-angle underneath the coffin revealing Peter Manson, so movingly." "Again, repetition of the same shot here, probably because the editor felt it would be stronger to have that and then cut to this reverse shot of the men carrying the coffin." "(Christie) There is a real sense of the physicality of standing in the driving rain at a funeral." "In that sense it looks forward to the importance of footage like this in Italian neorealism, in the 1940s." "That's exactly the kind of feel of working men having to stand in the rain that we get very strongly from the Italian films of the late '40s." "Here we have it, a very rare and interesting example, in British cinema, as early as 1937." "(Day-Lewis) As the last, sad shot of the funeral fades away, the audience is suddenly transported to a different world." "The sun gleams on the sea, there are distant cries and the bleat of sheep and rapid movements of tiny figures." "It is the perfect contrast." "(Whooping and bleating)" "(Whooping continues)" "Hardly have the audience seen enough of the sheep-run sequence, but enough to see that every soul on the island is busily engaged, when they are switched to the meeting of the two lovers, a tranquil, glowing scene among running waters and yellow iris." "Another contrast, but a part of the run." "(Whooping)" "The sheep run has now a definite purpose." "It changes the tempo at the proper moment." "It creates unique atmosphere." "It provides a shield for the meeting of the lovers, by its contrast of busy action with complete calm." "It is no longer only pictorial and instructive, it is dramatic, and a necessary part of the film." "This was done by cutting the two episodes together." "I brought back from Foula two good but sharply different sequences, one dramatic, the other documentary." "A casual observer, an unskilled technician, a bad cutter, would have recommended cutting the run to a minimum or losing it altogether." ""No time for a lot of sheep, they've seen sheep before."" "A cutter of genius, like Derek Twist, conceives the idea of combining the two sequences." "(Dialogue) A hard man, you mean." "Oh, no worse than you all are." "You said yourself he won't hear my name spoken since Robbie died." " You canna blame him for that." " No?" "Will I speak to him?" "He'll never let us marry... now." "(Christie) One of the delightful details in Powell's book about the making of the film is the fact that many of the exterior sequences were shot to the accompaniment of a wind-up gramophone, which Powell carried around with him, usually playing Smetana's Moldau," "and he asks us to imagine that, just out of shot, is this figure prancing around, carrying a battered gramophone, with an almost worn-out record." "It's one of those little details that gives you a different view of what you're seeing on the screen." "Powell doesn't suggest this would've been a better accompaniment than the wonderful music that Bill Williamson put together at very short notice and very economically for him." "(Dialogue) Oh, Ruth, I'm sorry." "(Horn)" "(Christie) A blast of smoke from the chimney of the ship marks, perhaps ironically, the end of the lovemaking sequence between Andrew and Ruth but it also introduces the next episode, which is the visit of the laird to inspect his property." "Again we're reminded, er, very strongly that these are tough economic facts of life." "The islands survive only if they're profitable." "The islanders have to prove that they're viable." "And they have to prove to the owners of the islands..." "We are in a..." "not exactly feudal situation, but something very far removed from the experience of most modern city dwellers." "And it was the non-viability of St Kilda which had led to its evacuation, back in 1930." "This was a continuing story and Powell found, as he travelled round Scotland and met historians and geographers, that there was a lot of enthusiasm for making a film about this potential tragedy facing all of Scotland's islands." "So this is an important sequence and it meant a lot to Powell to be able to show the economic reality of islanders' lives." "He wasn't just a romantic, he was somebody who understood the difficulty of sustaining these small, remote communities." "And so the dialogue between Andrew and the laird about what the options are for him and Ruth and for the islanders in general is an important strand of the film." "It also, I suppose, reminds us of the economic background to the making of the film itself, because film making in Britain was something of a cottage industry at this time." "The Quota Act of 1929 had made it possible for many small film-production companies to come into existence, guaranteed some market for the films that they made very cheaply." "Michael Powell had cut his teeth making these so-called "quota quickies", films made for as little as £5,000 designed to fill the lower part of a double bill." "Many of those companies that came into existence disappeared almost as quickly." "In 1936, there was a big downturn in the British film industry, and there were lay-offs and closures right across the whole industry." "It was in that climate that Joe Rock, an American who'd come to England, and who was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy himself, decided to back Powell's vision of a film about the island." "It was a brave thing to do." "He was a man, Powell said, with a passion for adventure location films and if he hadn't had that passion they'd never have got started." "Ironically, by the time the film was completed," "Joe Rock's company was actually in bankruptcy." "But the film had been made and did eventually get released." "(Dialogue) James...?" "Aye, it's all right, it's all there." "Here, mind that box." "They're eggs." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) The point of view always very strong here, the camera always placed looking down into the boat, the way someone would if they were about to leave and on the dock, or the strong angle up from the boat," "the point of view of the person who's leaving." "Again, it would be much easier not to shoot with the camera in the boat." "You can imagine how difficult that is." "The amount of space is very little, but a director who really knows what he's doing will decide to do that, no matter what the difficulty." "The next sequence in the film, of Ruth standing on the cliff side, mourning the loss of Andrew, is one of the most amazing sequences in the film." "Scorsese and I, when we first saw the restored version, and discovered this beautiful piece of film making, were just staggered." "I don't know whether Michael shot this sequence in the camera." "I doubt it." "I think, probably, he had this very dramatic up-angle of Ruth and a beautiful shot that pans from Ruth down to the ocean, and this beautiful, beautiful superimposition which gives you the feeling of her desperation and thoughts of suicide." "(Christie) The movement of the film is between segments of drama and segments that show us the life of the islanders and this is another of those..." "everyday life on Foula." "We're seeing the harvesting." "There's the turning of the seasons because it has underlying seasonal structure." "And seasons are very important on the island, not only the brief growing season, but then, of course, the onset of the winter and the storms and the heavy seas, which make communication impossible." "So these two dimensions are woven together." "This is the peat cutting, which is another feature of spring." "Although Powell was often quite dismissive of documentary film making, this wasn't because he undervalued the documentary aspect of film." "Not at all." "I think what he objected to was the way documentary was being put on a pedestal, especially in Britain in the 1930s." "It was as if the rest of film making didn't matter, it was only commercial, only storytelling." "The documentaries of John Grierson and the young film makers around him were being put forward as Britain's only truly creative cinema." "Obviously, that would've been red rag to a bull as far as Powell was concerned." "And in fact, I think we can see Edge Of The World as belonging to a real movement that was sweeping the world." "It was a movement to document the lives of communities that were disintegrating and that would no longer exist." "You can see it happening in France, in Holland, where Joris Yvens was working, and Yvens then went to America and made films about rural America." "And Pare Lorentz made two extraordinary films just around this time, in America," "The Plough That Broke The Plains and The River, both films inspired by Roosevelt's New Deal and the Farm Security Administration." "Films that tried to show the kind of forces of nature that people were up against who lived in the country and by the banks of the great rivers." "Edge Of The World clearly belongs to that great desire of the '30s to use cinema to show, predominantly, city dwellers the kind of, erm, struggles that those who lived by the sea or on the land faced." "As the seasons turn," "Ruth is now desperate to make contact with Andrew, because their coming together has resulted in a pregnancy." "And she knows that she's going to give birth to Andrew's child but she has no way of reaching him, except through this extraordinary primitive and yet poetic means, the letter boat." "It could almost come out of a film set in the South Seas." "It's an invention, as far as we know, on Powell's part." "It isn't necessarily how any of the islanders did communicate." "But it fulfils a poetic function, because it's sending a small boat out into the storm-tossed ocean, with only the possibility that it might reach Andrew." "It's the melodramatic function of the film, its melodramatic dimension:" "The woman waiting by the sea for news of the father of her child." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Working on a film like this creates lifelong bonds and Michael Powell remained very close to some of the crew who worked on this film." "All of the crew, really, who kept reappearing in his life, working on his films for many years to come." "One of the difficulties of shooting on the island was that medical emergencies were rather scary." "And John Seabourne, who was very important to Michael during the shoot, had to be taken off the island." "But it was a great loss to Michael." "He described John Seabourne at this time as a storyteller, right-hand, cutter, assistant, actor and dance director." "I guess that might be referring to the little dance sequence for the celebration of the birth of the baby." "John Seabourne was supposed to edit the film, but because of his illness was unable to and Derek Twist then took over." "(Dialogue) Is this true?" "Yes." "Andrew Gray's child?" "Yes." "And you can't take that from me." "Poor lassie." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Beautiful piece of acting here by John Laurie, changing from the stern, stern father" "into a sympathetic human being." "I've always loved this sequence." "A very long pan from the sea over the blowing vegetation," "to reveal the baby." "Beautiful way to segue into the birth of the child." "The use of light and the faces of the islanders in this sequence are beautifully done." "Again the humour." "Always in Michael Powell films, the unexpected humour." "The women all knitting away for the only child who's been born on the island probably in years!" "Always trying to find moments when the wind is blowing people's hair, or the sun is highlighting their faces in a very evocative way." "And then again, the blowing of the smoke from the wind, the powerful mountain behind and the music, again the music." "...brought you a dream, my dear" "List' to the curlew... (Christie) This sequence is among the most successful in terms of lighting." "It's a point where the balance between natural light and, I imagine, the use of reflectors achieves a very sophisticated, very ethereal quality." "It's an evening light, and it's beautifully caught, that, knowing how difficult the making of the film was, is quite miraculous." "This quality of light is often known by cameramen as the magic hour." "It involves shooting just at that point where the lengthening shadows don't interfere with getting a decent image." "Jack Cardiff, the great cameraman who later worked with Powell and Pressburger, titled his autobiography Magic Hour and talks about it there." "Powell would often seek these qualities of lighting and in his later Scottish film I Know Where I'm Going there are also some magical uses of the gloaming, the twilight effect." "(Reel)" "This is the point where the whole community comes together." "The wounds between the families seem to be healed by the arrival of the child." "At last, we see the community dancing, singing, playing together, and the camera captures this sense of community, because it moves." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) A few times during the shooting, they were able to lay down track in order to do a classic tracking shot, as one would see probably more of if they had been in a less inhospitable environment." "And you'll see that here, as Finlay Currie moves among the dancers." "Here's the tracking shot." "Difficult because of the roughness of the land, but they must have figured out a way to smooth out the track." "But you see very little of that in this film because of the difficulties of the shooting." "(Music and clapping)" "(Christie) There's also a real sense of background here, too." "Again, something unusual, we have..." "dramatic scene in the foreground and, behind it, the whole sense of different groups and pairings." "It's a shot full of depth and infused with a sense of community." "In Lerwick..." "this is the outside world, this is really the first time we've been off the island." "There's something quite evocative about it to our eyes, because it looks almost picturesque." "But I think what it's meant to stand for, in this context, is something industrial." "It's alien, it's very different, the opposite of Foula." "These great barrels, all piled up, speak of a busy, bustling port." "Lerwick was very important for the production of the film." "It was the nearest base where they could go and watch rushes in a cinema." "It was the only thing that enabled the production to keep going." "On the 26th October, a date which Michael Powell remembers vividly, there was sunshine nowhere in the entire United Kingdom, except in Lerwick." "That sunshine enabled them to do a mighty day's shooting and salvaged the film, in terms of getting all the narrative shots they needed." "(Wind howls)" "(Dialogue) One of them'll be picked up." "Aye, if they're not blown too far south." "Nah." "This wind'll take them right among the fishing fleet." "(Christie) Lerwick is the base for the steam-driven fishing boats which are industrialising fishing." "And of course this is one of the big issues of this period." "John Grierson made a film called Drifters, which dealt with the new challenges to traditional fishing methods, back in 1929." "And fishing and its industrialisation was very much on the agenda right through the '30s." "So when we see Andrew signing up with the skipper and we see that black trail of smoke behind, this is something which would've been quite evocative for most of the film's original audience." "It's even more evocative for us today, as we face the end of fishing from the Scottish islands." "It's quite remarkable to see the density of trawlers moored in Lerwick, back in 1936." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) Bill Paton, a solid Shetlander, whom Michael Powell discovered on this film, and who would then become Michael's right-hand during the rest of his filming career was born and raised in this town." "(Dialogue) He was." "I'm glad to meet one of his folks, so to speak." "I'm glad I met you, Skipper." " I've a letter for you." " You have?" "Aye." "One of these little mail boats." "I picked him up last Wednesday off Sunborough Head." " Where is it?" " Back at the "damn trawler"." "(Both chuckle)" "(Christie) It's thanks to mechanised fishing that Andrew will be able to respond to the message, because while the primitive means of sending mail in a tiny boat is pure chance, it's only with an engine behind him" "that Andrew will be able to get to Foula in time to hopefully save his and Ruth's child." "So we see the ship being stoked." "This is really like an image from one of those" "Grierson documentaries of the 1930s." "We could almost be in a film like Coal Face, or one of the other, one of the many fishing films made at this time." "It's interesting how Powell manages to drop into a documentary idiom and then move out of it when the drama of the film needs to be reasserted." "When we see in these images the beginnings of the great storm which forms the second climax of the film..." "They're very picturesque, they're beautiful." "This is one of the great nature sequences, really as fine as anything in a French or a Russian film, in its rhythmic use of different textures, different kinds of movement, as the wind begins to rise." "In fact, what the film makers were going through was much more terrifying and even more elemental because a real storm blew up, they were cut off for some weeks on Foula." "The wind rose and for ten days it blew." "(Wind whistles)" "(Day-Lewis) The wind shifted slowly but steadily into the south, and as steadily started to blow with increasing force, until, by the 10th of October, the Geo, the shells of Hellabrick, the Ness and the cliffs themselves" "had vanished into the grey sound and fury of a full gale from the southwest." "It blew until the mess hut shook and heaved beneath our feet." "We expected to see it torn to pieces." "It blew the water out of Mill Loch and up into the air." "A whirling water spout, 300 feet high." "It blew the camera off its legs, with Skeets on top and Carl underneath." "It blew until at night sleep was impossible, while every hut tugged and strained at its mooring ropes, the roofs vibrating like drums, steel guys humming and twanging, and each gust tearing at the boards beside our heads." "The yacht in the Voe heeled over until her keel showed through the flurry." "Alastair got to her with a rescue party, who made fast a cable with a braking strain of a ton and a half round her mast." "It snapped in two minutes." "The wireless mast was blown down, the stone dyke behind the schoolhouse was blown over." "Frankie, venturing out with me to see Mill Loch water spout, stepped beyond the house and was picked up by a flann, hurled 40 feet and rolled head over heels down the hill." "I had to go after her on my hands and knees and crawl back to safety with her bumping and laughing behind me." "By the fourth day, there were no fresh vegetables." "By the fifth day, no fresh meat except caddie mutton, which means one joint per person to make a square meal." "By the sixth day, no cigarettes left but Woodbines." "On the seventh, not even Woodbines." "On the eighth, we had to beg from the island's winter store of peat." "On the ninth, a famine of all that makes life worth living stared us in the face." "On the tenth, we began to consider seriously a plan of rationing, and Ernie, discovering a packet of 20 Players in his oilskin, was nearly lynched." "The concert, long planned by Finlay, to show the islanders what they missed at Walls had to be cancelled." "It was impossible to hear anybody speak in the mess hut." "The racket was appalling." "Tongues of flame, three feet long, shooting out of the stove, limited our space." "It was a bitter blow." "Maud was to have sung You Are My Honeysuckle, I Am The Bee, and Syd, by request, Trees." "On the 11th day, the gale began to drop." "Our spirits rose accordingly." "We sallied out with Belle and the pony." "We had to keep in the brae or in the lee of a croft:" "The wind was still strong enough to hold a small reflector high on the side of a wall without any need of hands." "And the Hoevdi was still breaking." "But there was likely to be a lull before the next gale." "We no longer had to wonder how 25 people over the normal population were possibly to be fed for another week." "Or perhaps six weeks." "(Christie) As the real storm raged and made the film makers feel that they might never see the mainland again, and they heroically continued to try to film during it, they were getting, unbeknownst to them," "fantastic advance publicity for the film." "The Daily Mail ran a headline:" "Film Party Marooned On Storm-swept Island;" "Wireless SOS For Supplies." "As Michael Powell suggests in the book, there was a hideous photograph of Belle Chrystall, looking coy and blonde, to illustrate that sequence." "Powell had originally intended to shoot this dramatic scene of the doctor operating on the sick baby in the cabin of the film's supply ship, the Vedra, as part of his philosophy of making the whole film on location." "But with all the pressure to complete the exteriors and bad weather closing in, there was no time." "Indeed, we might wonder how authentic the real thing would have looked if he'd carried through the original plan." "In the end, a cabin set was built in the London studio." "(Dialogue) This way, Doctor." "(Christie) The larger point being made in this scene is that in a medical emergency, as in this case of diphtheria, the big trawlers could make a vital difference." "So it's really part of showing us that the issue isn't simply a choice between traditional ways and new-fangled ways which are all bad." "In fact, the story really turns on the trawler coming to the rescue." "(Dialogue) I've got you both safe now, and you're not going back." "(Christie) The baby's life is saved but the island's life is not." "And at this point the film rejoins the real-life story which first inspired Michael Powell:" "The evacuation of St Kilda." "This is the end of the island community." "From this point onwards, they're going to become mainlanders." "It's a very poignant moment, the moment which originally inspired Powell to think of making this film." "And he shoots it with a kind of statuesque nobility which is as powerful as anything in the great European cinemas of the previous decade." "We think of Russian cinema, French cinema in the late '20s, which had dealt with some of these themes." "Here, at last, British cinema has its own epic of the land." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) In the superimposition sequence, they had to freeze the shot of John Laurie in order to get enough footage so that they could put the extended montage of the images of the island over it." "It's kind of the thing probably only a film maker would notice, but again, Michael Powell sells it, he dares you to even notice it, actually." "(Christie) What we see during the evacuation scene is in fact the lifeline that made the filming possible:" "An old steamer called the Vedra, which was captained by Vernon Sewell, one of the staunch team that Powell assembled around him, all as committed as he was to making this adventure result in a film." "Vernon Sewell had knocked around doing many jobs in the film industry and he was also quite a sailor." "He went on to make a film which Powell produced, now working with Pressburger:" "The Silver Fleet." "Then he had a later career directing some remarkable Gothic horror movies with titles like The Blood Beast Terror and Curse Of The Crimson Altar." "As Powell makes clear in his book, without Sewell's commitment and the sense of improvisation and fun, just pulling together as a team, this film would never have been made, given the odds stacked against it." "What we see here, in the evacuation scenes, are some of the logistical problems that the film's makers faced when they were actually shooting." "(Dialogue) James, man, I'm away up the Kame." "One of they daft collectors offered me five pounds for a guillemot's egg." "I know just where it is." "(Christie) As we move into the final sequence, we're moving back into melodrama, because the figure of Peter Manson, who has lost his son, is not a figure who is going to move into the future." "He belongs too much to the island." "He opposed his son's wish to leave and now he's going to make a gesture which will lead to his own death." "He claims that he's going to go and find an egg because one of the economic features of island life was that islanders were often commissioned to find rare eggs for egg collectors and he thinks he should make some money before he leaves." "But the larger movement of the film, the sense of its tragic conclusion, means that he's going to his death as we see him head up this lonely road." "It's an astonishing shot:" "As this tiny figure disappears, his dog breaks free, and races after him." "Michael Powell knew, as he finished his film, that there was no guarantee that the film would achieve any kind of immortality," "although it had meant so much to him and the team who made it." "And he wrote at the end of his book, a book written to ensure that the film reached a wider public, about an old cook in their family, who had the perfect answer to those who wanted the last word." "(Day-Lewis) We once had an old cook, a great hand at elaborate pastries." "I watched her in the kitchen putting the final touches to a huge pie." "Vine leaves, scrolls and curly bits of pastry, all brushed over with a feather dipped in yolk of egg." "A final flourish and "There, Master Michael."" ""A pie fit for a king," she said." "Then, as she slid it into a hot oven, the disillusionment of a true artist swept over her and I heard her mutter darkly "And then you eats it, and it's all done."" "If her audience praised her work, she beamed." "If they were indifferent, she would say scornfully" ""Not a bit of good cooking for some folks."" "She is still making pies and I am still making films, but for a long time, none can be so near my heart as The Edge Of The World." "I wish I were as sure of its perfection as the old cook was of her pies." "At any rate, like her, I can always have the last word." "(Schoonmaker-Powell) These days, when viewers are used to computer-generated images of astonishing locations and beings interacting with those locations, in a way you could never actually shoot, it's hard to remember how difficult every shot taken on this island was." "Here you see over and over and over again the camera placed in the most difficult places." "And if you weren't a director with such determination and, uh, passion, you might have tried to shoot things a different way." "One reason this film meant so much to Michael Powell is because it was a gamble he took on doing what he really had always wanted to be in films for, which is to make a film that came from his heart:" "What we would call an "art film" today!" "I don't think he would like that term." "He had been trapped for so long, making quota quickies in the British film industry for seven long years, films that he really did not care for, because they were remakes of American films, some of them." "Some have very interesting things in them, he cut his teeth on them, but he always was reserved in his judgement about them." "I think that was because he didn't feel that they were ideas that he had originated, subjects that were close to his heart." "And that is why this film was his great breakthrough." "An enormous gamble, and it paid off, because Alexander Korda saw the film and, based on the remarkable nature of the filming in extreme conditions, hired Michael Powell and kept him from going to America." "(Dialogue) Oh, Peter!" "(Christie) The powerful elemental images carry the melodrama." "Peter has to die to mark the island's death." "And what we see is remarkably close to how Powell originally conceived the scene in his script." "(Day-Lewis) With his stave and old rope, he goes on up the cliffs and the only eye to see him go is his dog's, who follows far behind." "Up past his old croft he strides, up past the last gate, up onto the moor and the great cliffs." "With his stave and his rope, he goes over." "His rope is frayed." "He does not seem to see it." "Down and down he goes, while his dog peers after him and whines anxiously." "He finds the rare egg, but he never brings it back to the upper air." "James, hunting in the mist, calls his friend's name, the dog barks and barks." "A dull rumble from the cliffs and a broken end of rope are the last of Peter Manson." " Peter!" " (Echoes) Peter!" " Peter Manson!" " (Echoes) Peter Manson!" "Sing in hope, let's find the breeze" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Subtitles by Jenefer Davys Intelfax Media Access" "Sing in hope and sing we merrily" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Through this pure and cruel experience" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "The waves on yonder shore" "Have come, have come from the far-off seas" "Rising, turning, waves are churning" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Rising, turning, waves are churning" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Stand by, we're putting in." "Mr Graham, sir, I would not advise more than a temporary visit." "Oh, I think we'll risk it." "It looks deserted." "Yes." "Funny, doesn't say anything about it here." "Your book was right when it was published, Mr Graham." "But you were wrong when you said nothing changes on these islands." "There's not a living soul now on Hirta." "The sea birds were its first owners and now the sea birds have it for their own again." "Hirta's the old name for the island, isn't it?" "(Mr Graham) Do you know what it means, Andrew?" "It means... death." "Got it." "Andrew!" "Send the boat back!" "(Faint voice) Andrew Gray..." "Does it mean gone over there?" "Many died that way, hunting for eggs or after the sheep." "Sooner or later a rope frayed or a foot slipped." "It became a word for death on the island." " It's a nasty-Iooking place." " Aye." "It is." " What's wrong, Andrew?" " The hills of Scotland." "It's a rare thing to see them from Hirta." " The old men used to say..." " What?" "That it meant bad luck to see the hills." "And it's true." "I've only seen them once before." "There were three of us then..." "It's the Sabbath today." "And a fine summer morning." "Ten years ago, you'd have seen all the folk on their way to the kirk." "The men in black, and the women neat and bonny, and young John Eisbister standing by the gate." "The bell would be ringing." "(Bell continues to ring)" " You better hurry!" " Aye!" "I will, I will!" "There, Mother." "The sunshine will do your rheumatism good." "And you'll hear the singing fine." "We'll sing extra loud, Grandmother." "At least, Father and I will." "I canna answer for Robbie." "I could drown your treble before I left and I still have the same lungs." "And the same good opinion of yourself!" "Now." "(Bell continues to ring)" " Good morning, John." " Morning, Robbie." " Good morning." " Good morning." "You needna grin all over your face every time you see Andrew Gray." "Morning, Andrew." "See the bonny dress Robbie's brought me?" "All the way back from Aberdeen!" " Oh-ho." "Silk." " Aye." "Makes me feel awful sinful." "If you talk like that, I'll take it back." "You try and get it!" "Will you sit by me in the kirk, Ruth?" "And me in a silk dress?" "Do you not think people will talk?" " Good morning, Peter." " Good morning, James." "I'm glad to see that Robbie's back." "We'll need his help with the fishing." "I was thinking he'd be more useful with the sheep running." "As postmaster and captain of the boat," "I have a better eye to our finances than you." "I would remind ye I am responsible to the laird for the sheep." "I need no reminder." "I found the market for our tweeds in Edinburgh." " Nobody's denying it, man." " And as the elder of the kirk..." "You may have noticed, James Gray, that the bell has stopped ringing, and you're delaying us all with this godless discussion on the Sabbath." "...the power and the glory, for ever and ever." "Amen." "Let us worship the Lord by singing to his praise in Psalm number 23." "Tune:" "Wiltshire." "The Lord's my shepherd I'll not want" "He makes me down to lie." " (Tuning fork hums)" " La, la..." "la-la." "(AII sing) The Lord's my shepherd" "I'll not want" "He makes me down to lie" "In pastures green he leadeth me The quiet waters by." "In pastures green" "He leadeth me" "The quiet waters by" ""He said, Thus saith the Lord," "Because the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hands and ye shall know that I am the Lord."" "I Kings 20:28." "Brethren, let not the heathen shame you." "The Syrians had already been defeated in battle by such an imperial force of Israelites whom they despised that they thought there was something supernatural about it and ascribed their defeat to the God of Israel." "Now, if the Lord has brought prosperity to you or if you have enjoyed success in Christian service, take heed that you do not lift up your head on high." "For, kindred, the tendency of the human heart towards pride is very strong, but we must always remember that we are nothing more than tools in the hands of the Lord." "We have been nothing more than the scythes in the hands of God if we reap the corn, nothing more than the nets if we have brought the fish to shore." "So, let us learn from the sins..." "Sin is limiting the power of the gospel." "Some of us, at certain times, have been inclined to limit the power of the gospel by supposing that only certain sinners by supposing that only certain sinners obtain the grace of God." "Grand sermon, John." "One hour and 15 minutes." "Let them beat that in Edinburgh if they can." "And mind ye, every sentence sound theology." "We'll check the lists and load the boats after the Sabbath's over." "Aye." "It's high tide an hour after midnight." "Aye, that's, er, very convenient." "Away you go and take a walk wi' Ruth." "And remember it's the Sabbath." "Behind me, Satan." "Oh, Robbie, is she really sweet?" "She is, Ruth." "Then I dinna feel so bad about Andrew." "You know, I've been feeling awful guilty and all the time you've been stealing a march on me." "Polly." "Polly Manson." "Mmm." "I don't know whether I like it or not." "Whether you do or you don't, she's gonna be your sister-in-law." "And tomorrow, Father'll know it." "When parliament meets tomorrow, I'm going to speak out." " He'll be awful angry." " I'm not a child any more." "There are others who think like me, James Gray for one." " Andrew doesn't." " Oh, Andrew." "And what's wrong with Andrew?" "There'll be a deal wrong with his neck if he doesna take care." "Andrew!" "Tell him to get down!" "Get down!" "You're frightening Ruth!" "That was a sudden idea." "It looked like it." "In the old days, you had to show your courage to win a wife." "I said to myself "Andrew, my lad, you're as good as they are and Ruth has got to be sure of you."" "Remember it's the Sabbath!" "That's what Father said, and I'm no likely to forget it." "But if a man can't put his arm round his girl without John Knox turning in his grave, then the world's full of sinners." "Here's good luck for us." "We don't need any." "What were you two talking about?" " You." " Oh?" "That's natural enough." "Oh, you're not the only one." "Robbie's got a bonnet full of bees." "You're one, I'm the other, but the busiest of the lot is the girl from Norway." "Robbie!" "I'm glad." "Why don't you bring her over?" "I'm not bringing her back to Hirta, now or ever." "But I hope you and she and Ruth will be good friends and... neighbours." " What do you mean?" " Just that." " I like plain speech." " Then you'll have it." " You're leaving the island?" " Aye." " Short-handed as we are?" " Aye." " Does anybody know?" " Only you two." " When are you going to tell Peter?" " Tomorrow." " The boat parliament?" " Aye." "Ah, Robbie, man, you've gone over to the other side." "Before I went away, I would have said the same as you." "But the world's changed, it's bigger, it's easier to get at." "Before, we were no worse off than anyone else." "Now we're living in an old world." "I've got a turn for machinery, I can do things with it." "Why should I give it up?" "What can Polly and I hope for if I drag her back here?" "Ah, Robbie, you're too clever for me." "You go your way and I'll go mine." " Aye, but can't you see..." " That's final." "If you want to run away because the work's too hard, or your fancy..." " Leave her out of it!" " I'd be glad to." "I'm as good a man as you." "I could always beat you on the cliffs." " You're a stone lighter." " Oh, that's nothing." "Do you see Wester Hoevdi?" "To climb Wester Hoevdi without a rope was another of the old trials." "Well, what do you say?" " (Andrew) Shall we make it a race?" " Aye." "Look." "The hills of Scotland." "I forbid it." "A mad race like this can settle nothing." "I'll not speak here of the defiance in which I've been set by my own son." "I want you to speak of it." "This affects every man on the island." "You keep silent." "The boy's right, Peter Manson." "We're dealing with a question each one of us has got to face squarely." "It's your homes, your families and your future lives." " Am I no right?" " (Murmurs of assent)" "I'm no trying to read my elders any lesson." "A man must think for himself." "For hundreds of years now, this parliament has met every working morn." "But in a thousand years, it's never faced the problem we face." "Year by year, the population's shrinking." "Look what happened to Mingulay and St Kilda, islands barren now that once supported people." "What happened in the Hebrides will happen here." "You canna fight against it, you canna stop it." "As I see it, it's..." "it's every man for himself." "That's all I have to say." "And I came back here to say it." "Well, as you all know, I'm no great hand at public speaking." "Except in kirk, John!" "Thank you, James." "Even then, it takes me a week to make up my sermons." "But Robbie here makes out a very good case." "And he says we can't fight it." "Can't fight?" "You mean you won't fight, some of ye!" "Look out there." "Trawlers sweeping the sea wi' their nets, loading their boats wi' fish that belong to us island men, ruining the new spawn wi' their damned otter boards." "Three-mile limit." "What does it mean to them?" "A dint in the head with a lump of coal is all you get if you warn them." "What's the good of it?" "Restrictions, that's what we want, that's what we'll pray for." "The damn fools are ruining their own game, as well as ours." "They've swept the shore as bare as this hand, you have to steam further out, that means more coal, then where's the profit?" "Fight." "Man, I've fought them and the like all my life." "I've kept a roof over my croft, brought my children up decently." "And then to have you, Robbie, tell me it's each man for himself, and act as though you spoke for half the island, when you're not two days back from working for the boats that ruined us!" "Three months' work and £63 to show for it!" "Shillings is what I'd be showing if I'd stayed on Hirta." " Och, you're no son o' mine!" " Don't take it so hard, Peter, man." "The boy's just said what had to be said." "Men we must have, and where are we going to get them?" "Oh, this tale o' Robbie's has been in my mind for a long while." "Now, if we was to petition the Government, there's little doubt we'd get free transportation and a grant o' land." "I would remind you, James Gray, that that is for the laird to decide." "And it's within my province..." "We'll respect everybody." "This seems a simple enough matter." "We've agreed to race to the top, and race we will." "Let the man who gets there first have the way of it." "If parliament sat for a thousand years, they wouldn't decide better." "Well, it may be so, Andrew, but I don't approve." "No, it's too risky." " Do you no think so, Peter?" " I can see no objection." "Well, then, down to the boats." "Come on, then." " Peter." " What is it?" "You're letting the two boys risk certain death." "A word from you would stop this race." "I've climbed the Hoevdi three times." " But with a rope." " Aye." "Don't go, either of you!" "It's a mad way to settle it!" " It's the only way!" " Can't you discuss it?" " We tried that." " It's no good, Ruth." "You'll both be killed." "I felt it when we saw the mountains in the sky." "And the sun went in the clouds." "I'll lose you both!" "And yesterday I was so happy." " There's nae time to waste." " Heave away, there!" "All together!" "I can't stop them, Granny." "They're going to climb." "They won't listen to me." "Have you chosen your route yet?" "Aye." "Up the east side, then straight along, up by the channel." "The old way we went egg hunting." "Remember there's no rope this time." "I'm no likely to forget." "I'm for the south face, then over the Devil's Elbow." " Longer, but I'll make better time." " You'll have to." " It's a grand treat for the folk." " Are you ready?" "When you get to the burn take the right channel." "The left's shorter but it's no good, you'd never get back." "Don't forget." "They're both good lads and they're doing fine." "Good lad, Andrew!" "He's out of the Devil's Elbow!" "Robbie's taking the left channel!" "It's no possible!" "In!" "Andrew!" "I can't..." "Father!" "That's enough!" "James and Andrew of Burns," "I bid you to the funeral of Robbie Manson, tomorrow, at 12." "We will come." "Jessie and Jean of Grisengarth." "I bid you to prepare for the funeral of Robbie Manson, tomorrow, at 12." "Magnus of Quenester." "I bid you to prepare for the funeral of Robbie Manson, tomorrow, at 12." "I bid you to the funeral of Robbie Manson, tomorrow, at 12." "Tomorrow, at 12..." "Tomorrow, at 12... (Faint) Tomorrow, at 12..." "(Glen Lyon Lament)" "O, waly up the bank" "Waly down the brae" "Waly by yon riverside" "We were wont to gae" "Hovan, hovan, hovan eerie" "Hovan, hovan, O" "Hovan, hovan, hovan eerie" "Hovan, hovan, O" "Hovan, hovan, hovan eerie" "Hovan, hovan, O" "Hovan, hovan, hovan eerie" "Hovan, hovan, O" "(Islanders whoop)" "(Sheep bleat)" "(Whooping)" "(Bleating)" "I love you, Andrew." "I love you, Ruth." "Father's a hard man to understand." " A hard man, you mean." " No worse than you all are." "You said yourself he won't hear my name spoken since Robbie died." " You canna blame him for that." " No?" "Will I speak to him?" "He'll never let us marry... now." "But we don't need his permission." "Do we?" "You know we do." "And if he won't give it?" "Then we'll just have to wait." "I've waited long enough." "We're too few to bear a grudge long." "Not a day passes that I don't cross your path or you mine." "Do you and your father want to drive me off the island?" "Do you think I don't care about Robbie?" "Do you think I'd forget that he was your twin brother and my best friend?" "We were to be married today, Ruth." " (Sobs)" " Maybe you've forgotten that." "Oh, Ruth, I'm sorry." "(Sound of boat approaching)" " James." " Aye?" "You'll be speaking to him?" "Mm?" "About Peter and Andrew Gray?" "Aye, I will that." " Is the laird there?" " I canna see him." "That's him." "Aye." "And he was only 24, poor laddie." "Very hard on Peter to lose them both." "Aye." "And he's not the sort of man to share his troubles with people." "166 yards of wheat." "Correct." "600 pounds of wool." "The boy and the girl both feel it very deeply." "It's always worse for those that are left." "Aye." "Well, with the exception of the jerseys, that'll be all." "I'll away in and finish my reports." "It's three months are gone and nobody can do anything with the man." "I'm thinking that for as long as he sees me every day, he can't help hating me for what I've done." "There's no reasoning with him." "I'm best out of the way." "But she'll only do as he wishes." "It's natural enough." "She's all he's got left." "I'll see what I can do." "You won't move him." "I've been talking to your son, James." "He's anxious to go with me to the mainland." "But that's just..." "Oh, aye." "Thought the lad had that on his mind." "He'll be a sad loss to the island." "I've always helped you in every way I can." "You have that, Mr Dunbar." "But if all your young people leave, you'll find it hard to carry on." "It'll be a thousand pities if Andrew goes." "He's worth two of any ordinary men." "I make the total the same as yourself, James." "Oh." "Excuse me, Mr Dunbar, I have the sheep to see to." "James...?" "Aye, it's all right, it's all there." "Here, mind that box, they're eggs." "Take care of yourself, son." "Goodbye, Laird." "Not much heft in them yet, John." "It's the salt spray that blows over early in the year." "It'll be a poor harvest." "It will." "And the peat's giving out." "I'm back to my old workings now." "And we canna do without the peat." "Nah." "The plain fact is, Robbie was right, poor boy." "We'll win through this winter but never another." "Peter'll just have to face the facts." "You know, James, someone'll just have to speak to Peter." "Mm-hm." "Have you any idea where he is?" "He'll be away after the sheep on the cliffs." "Is this true?" "Yes." "Andrew Gray's child?" "Yes." "And you can't take that from me." "Poor lassie." "Poor wee lassie." "(Dream Angus)" "Can ye no hush your weepin', oh?" "A' the wee lambs are sleepin', oh" "Birdies are nestling', nestling' thegether" "Dream Angus is hirplin' o'er the heather" "Dreams to sell, fine dreams to sell" "Angus is here wi' dreams to sell" "Hush ye, my baby, and sleep without fear" "Dream Angus has brought you a dream, my dear" "List' to the curlew cryin', oh" "Fainter the echoes dying', oh" "Even the birds and beasties are sleepin'" "But my bonny bairn is weeping', weepin'" "Dreams to sell, fine dreams to sell" "Angus is here wi' dreams to sell" "(Reel)" "(Whooping)" "He'll be here with the summer, my dear." "Aye, we'll soon be able to send the letters out now." "If only I could tell him now." " Looks empty in the evenings." " Yes." " Looking for work?" " I might be." " I need a hand." " You do?" "Aye." "Two pound a week and share." " Where's your boat, Skipper?" " Over yonder by Victoria Pier." "Well, do you want the job?" "Not on a damn trawler!" " Oh, particular, are you, lad?" " Whom I work for." "Oh, well, then I'll no keep you." "One of them'll be picked up." "Aye, if they're not blown too far south." "Nah." "This wind'll take them right among the fishing fleet." "Harbour Master, have you seen Skipper McFee anywhere?" "McFee?" "Oh, aye." "That's his boat o'er yonder." "Hello!" "Have ye a full crew?" "(Horns)" "I'm looking for you, lad." " Andrew Gray, isn't it?" " Yes." " From Hirta?" " Yes." "Robbie Manson was my engineer." " Robbie?" "!" " Aye, a good boy." "He was." "I'm glad to meet one of his folks, so to speak." "I'm glad I met you, Skipper." " I've a letter for you." " You have?" "Aye." "One of these little mail boats." "I picked him up last Wednesday off Sunborough Head." " Where is it?" " Back at the "damn trawler"." "(Both chuckle)" " From a lassie?" " Yeah." " She'll be looking for ye." " Aye." "It's too far to swim, lad." "We're leaving tonight." "Do you still feel particular?" "Cos there's no reason why we shouldna shoot trawl off Hirta." "(Waves crash)" "(Wind whistles)" "(Seagulls caw)" "She canna breathe." "Would it be the croup?" "We don't know." "If only we'd got a bigger boat, we could get to the mainland." "(Softly) Aye." "This gale may blow for a week." " Can you make out her name?" " No, I canna see it." "You must be brave, Ruth." "It's diphtheria." "Then there's only one chance." "I haven't the skill to do an operation." "If only we'd got the wireless, we could send for help." "Is there no hope at all?" "None if we can't get her to a doctor." "Away up and get Ruth and the wean." "Right." "Andrew!" "(Horn)" "This way, Doctor." "Here's your bag, Doctor." "Up there." "Skipper..." "Fetch a kettle of boiling water!" " A kettle of boiling water." " A kettle of boiling water, quick." " I have it here." " That's great, man." "Well?" "Operate." "I've got you both safe now, and you're not going back." "They'll all be on by noon." "Aye." "What are we going to do about the cats?" "I'm afraid we'll just have to leave them." "I suppose they'll manage to make a living in the cliffs." "It's the poor dogs I'm worried about." "They're no good as sheepdogs." "Who's to pay for taking them?" "Aye, and then there's the licences." "They'd better be drowned." "Maybe when we get to the mainland somebody might buy them." "Are you willing to risk that out of your own pocket?" "For I'm not." "James, man, I'm away up the Kame." "One of they daft collectors offered me five pounds for a guillemot's egg." "I know just where it is." "Come on, come on!" "Here!" "Here, James Andrew!" "Here, man." "Tie up this dog." "Tell them to drown him with the others." "(Yelps)" "(Bleating)" "(Horn)" "(Barks)" "(Barks)" "(Dog barks)" "Oh, Peter!" "Peter!" "(Dog barks)" "Oh, Peter!" "(Dog barks)" "Come here, lad!" " Peter!" " (Echoes) Peter!" " Peter Manson!" " (Echoes) Peter Manson!" "(Chasing The Breeze)" "Sing in hope, let's find the breeze" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Ho-ro, chasing the breeze" "Subtitles by Hannah Pope Intelfax Media Access"