Thought those colonizing ‘spice’ miners in DUNE faced difficult living conditions? They wouldn’t last a day by the tempest-tossed cliffs, wind-swept rock surface & oceanic fury of the Aran Isles off the Irish coast. And this a real place! Or nearly so. That’s because pioneering documentarian Robert J. Flaherty was more interested in fancy than fact; catching legendary lifestyles whether or not they were still being practiced. Even casting his players on looks (his screen families assembled from a pool of locals) and then reenacting events using multiple takes & angles as needed to get his poetic ideas about ethnography across. Globetrotting the world to find the next tribal customs to capture for the big screen, his films magnificent fabrications. Closer to studio films, but made on actual locations. Holding out for a truthful essence of some iconic civilization, not what you’d find in a modern documentary. From ‘Eskimo’ to Pacific Islander to all-American boyhood in the swamps of Louisiana, Flaherty didn’t catch reality, but curated it. And this look at incredibly harsh living conditions and family life on one of the Aran Islands is probably the best introduction to his style; whatever you choose to call it.* Whether struggling to bring in boats without crashing onto rocks, hauling rare soil & seaweed up the cliff-side to create plots to grow potatoes on the unyielding rock surface, or harpooning sharks the size of small whales for oil, the film is a stunning series of terrific set pieces. A mix of bravery (by the locals) and artistry (by Flaherty & crew). Lots of red filtering on the stunning cinematography (Arthur Miller did no better for John Ford) and some fascinating rapide montage for sea hunts and crash landings. You’ll see why it’s now considered a period piece and still controversial (the customs covered were all decades in the past when this was made), but still riveting, physically gorgeous, awe-inspiring stuff.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Call Flaherty ‘Father of the Illegitimate Documentary.’
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