Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

forgottennmantra This is a magnificent portrait not only of a dying way of life (dying in 1934 and still dying) but a portrait of the human struggle to find life in the most desolate of places. The photography is magnificent, the pacing is perfect and the piece transcends culture and even the very idea of "documentary" film. But this is true of all of Flaherty's films. Flaherty wasn't a documentarian. He didn't purport to be a disinterested observer (whatever that is). He staged his films, this has never been in dispute and he never made any attempts to hide the fact. He referred to films he made as "travel films", a phrase common in the 1930s. Make no mistake this film is a piece of art.

FADrury I rented this from Netflix recently. Visually, this picture is stunning. Some of the finest filming of the sea I've ever seen. The minimalist story really isn't much, just an attempt to provide some excuse for various actions in the film. This film is really not a documentary at all. One of the special features on the DVD is a short film called "Making the Myth" (or something like that), which is all about how the film was made, how Flaherty scripted various scenes, etc. As noted in the a previous review, the entire shark scene was something Flaherty pushed, recognizing that shark hunting sells. However, according to "Making the Myth," basking shark hunting had gone out over 50 years earlier. Apparently Flaherty also thought that, if he got people hunting the sharks for his move, they might start it up again as a local industry. We found a good portion of the dialogue almost unintelligible. Especially at the start, we thought they we speaking Gaelic! Still, the dialogue is really unnecessary. Flaherty uses old fashioned dialogue cards, like in a silent film, to explain what's coming up. Overall, this was a very interesting film to watch. Since it's just over an hour long, it's a good one to see when you have some time but don't want to commit to any "Major Movie Event!"

Zen Bones If you were to ask passers-by on the street if they'd be interested in seeing a 1934 documentary about the harsh day-to-day existence of a tiny community living on a remote island off the coast of Ireland -- well, you'd be standing there all day before you could find someone who'd say, "sure!". Which is really a disappointment because they don't know what they're missing!Think of every poem you've read about the sea and man's relation to it and you might get a clue as to the depths of feeling that this film has. It's like Hemingway, Pablo Neruda and W.B. Yeats all rolled into one. It's extremely simplistic, just shots of how a small family fishes, hauls seaweed for fertilizer (there is no soil on the island) and dodges waves so high that its foam sprays above the cliff-tops. Not to mention an incredible sequence where five fishermen try to catch and kill a shark that is a good deal larger than their boat!What's most exhilarating about this film is that while you're watching it, you can't help but think that these people are crazy to choose to live in such a desolate and difficult place, but then you try to imagine them elsewhere and you know that they are as much a part of that environment as the stubborn sea-worn cliffs are. After even thirty minutes of the film, the roar of the ocean and the cries of the gulls fill your head to such an extreme that you know that such people could live no where else. This film is reminiscent of Roberto Rossellini's film, "Stromboli" about the inhabitants of a small village on a volcanic island. There are a few brief pockets of sentimentality due to the score, but the filmmakers thankfully left out the music during all of the film's most important scenes. Overall what you have is an incredible cinematic experience that makes you think and imagine what it would be like to live a life where every day is a struggle with the elements of nature and a fight for survival, yet filled with the deepest awe and respect for nature and for living.

Glaschu An amazing document and well worth seeing.It is strange to watch a classic documentary film on this brave community and not get a single chance to hear them speak one word in their own language (Irish Gaelic). The voice-overs were all in English, for the audience of course. But we would not have been harmed by even a smattering of dialog in Irish.I also missed seeing a little more of domestic life. What did they eat, how did they cook, what was their religious life like? We see only the sea, the source of their existence, but not much of what they did beyond it.