After much searching, I have finally tracked down a fairly rare Pirate Movie - The Light at the Edge of the World (1971) in its FULL 2 hours and 8 minutes running time!
I actually read the book originally some years ago, and its a pretty damn good tale penned by the wonderful Jules Verne. The Book has a slightly different title "The Lighthouse at the End of the World" and I have to say I enjoyed the book thoroughly.
The tale centers around lighthouse keepers near Cape Horn who are attacked by a group of Pirates. The Pirates seize control of their island, and more importantly the lighthouse, and use it to steer unsuspecting vessels onto the nearby rocks - with the plan they can loot the wrecks.
Kirk Douglas plays the surviving lighthouse keeper, with Yul Brynner as the lead pirate - I am already on a winner here personally, as they are two of my favourite Actors. Samantha Eggar is, well - Samantha Eggar (as in, she only ever plays herself). Whilst she is not one of my favourite Actresses by any means, she is acceptable in the film.
The movie is not a family friendly film, and every now and then it lapses into savage brutality - in particular, there's a savage scene in which a hostage is skinned alive by the pirates, and we see peels of skin being torn off with a hooked pike to reveal blood and raw flesh beneath. This footage is usually the first to go -as the film tends to be shown up in an incoherent, chopped up 95 minute long version, w recklessly cut down from the two hour original - and the "PC" edit is so badly cut that it barely makes any sense at all.
The movie won't be to everyone's tastes, and a lot of reviewers have been very critical of it; and (to be honest) I can see why - it can be fairly long winded and sometimes the effects can be a little wooden - but if (like me) you are a huge Pirate Movie fan, I am sure you will enjoy it.
4/5 for me at least, great fun, great actors - what more could any Pirate fan wish for.
0 comments:
Post a Comment