The Light at the Edge of the World

One of the most bizarre movies I’ve seen in quite some time. It’s based on a Jules Verne novel, has a stellar cast and several spaghetti western regulars in supporting roles, it was shot in Spain and is sadistically violent.

The story is about three lighthouse keepers, stationed on a remote island off the southern tip of Argentina. The island is visited by pirates, who destroy the lighthouse and kill two of the keepers. The third one (played by Kirk Douglas) escapes, starting a guerilla war against the cutthroats, led by the megalomaniac pirate Kongre (Yul Brynner himself).

Douglas’ character Denton has a broken heart and is also trying to escape punishment for shooting a man during the California Gold rush. His troubled past is illustrated in a couple of flashbacks. With Aldo Sambrell, Victor Israel and Tito Garcia among the pirates, the spaghetti western factor is high. And yes, the film ends with a duel, but not in a town street, but in and around the lighthouse.

With the name Jules Verne in mind, censors must have thought the film would be popular among teenagers, so they cut more than ten minutes of nastiness in order to give it a PG rating. A voice over by Sean Connery was added to help viewers keeping track of things. As a result the movie was pulvarized by critics, who thought it was a ridiculously edited mess. In recent years a couple of (nearly) uncut versions have popped up, with running times of a little over two hours. Some of them still have the Connery voice over, the version I watched (running 128 minutes) didn’t.

If the cut version was a mess, the (nearly) uncut version is still far from being perfect. The first half, with the arrival of the pirates and Douglas’ sabotage works has a few suspenseful moments, but in the second half we arrive in murky waters. The film slows down considerably and crumbles towards a unconvincing finale. It also suffers from a few clumsy special effects involving dummies and miniature ships.  As for the violence: it’s quite gruesome, especially a torture scene towards the end.

Aanraders in overeenkomstige genres, volgens Boobytrap:
- Ofelas (avontuur / actie : 7)
- The Wind and the Lion (avontuur / actie : 7)
- Gli Ultimi giorni di Pompei (avontuur / actie : 6.5)
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (avontuur / actie : 6.5)
- The Hunger Games The Mockingjay part 2 (avontuur / actie : 6)

Hoe beoordeelt Boobytrap categorie avontuur eigenlijk? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hoe beoordeelt Boobytrap categorie actie eigenlijk? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10