The Edge of the World

Named Best Foreign Film by the New York Film Critics, this breathtakingly photographed 1937 drama was Michael Powell's first film as sole writer and director, and, in his words, "the turning point of my life in art." The Edge of the World anticipates John Ford's How Green Was My Valley with its atmospheric sense of place and community and its elegiac look at the demise of a way of life for the sheepherders and fishermen on a remote, windswept island off the coast of Scotland, where the residents are at the mercy of both the natural elements and encroaching trawlers. Here, young men are defying their elders, leaving the island for better opportunities on the mainland, which is the plan of young Robbie Manson (Eric Berry), whose sister Ruth (Belle Chrystall) is engaged to his best friend, Andrew Gray (Niall MacGinnis). Andrew disagrees with Robbie's "every man for himself" attitude, as does Robbie's outraged father (John Laurie) who disavows his son. Andrew and Robbie agree to follow an ancient local tradition to race to the top of the island's thousand-foot cliffs to determine whether they will stay or go. Rarely seen, and often in only severely abridged versions, The Edge of the World has been rescued from obscurity with this stunning DVD, which also contains "Return to the Edge of the World" (a 1978 BBC presentation in which Powell returned to the filming location of Foula with members of the original cast and crew), and Powell's 1943 wartime short "An Airman's Letter to His Mother," narrated by John Gielgud. In addition, a rich commentary track features Powell biographer Ian Christie, Daniel Day-Lewis (reading from Powell's book 200,000 Feet on Foula), and Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell, the Oscar-winning editor of Raging Bull (who was introduced to Powell by Martin Scorsese; they were married in 1984, and he passed away in 1990). Highly recommended. (D. Liebenson)