Watch The Light at the Edge of the World For Free

Just perfect...

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Blistering performances.

Having fond memories of watching this as a kid, being one of the first VHS I had gotten hold of (in the mid-1980s), I guess I'm more partial to it than would have otherwise been the case; a measure of my impatience to revisit this over the years is my having recorded it off of Italian TV, almost acquiring it as DivX and eventually coming across a copy of the Image DVD within the space of a week! Even so, reviewing the film now with an adult perspective clearly exposes its essentially flawed nature.This was a typical (and typically misguided) international venture of the time, adapted from an obscure Jules Verne tale and roping in Hollywood veterans – Kirk Douglas (who even produced!) and Yul Brynner – in an effort to drum up sufficient box-office receipts (this was yet another effort by the Salkinds, who were responsible for SANTA CLAUS[1985], another very recent re-acquaintance: by the way, I've just recorded off Italian TV, dubbed and regrettably panned-and-scanned, their star-studded version of Mark Twain's THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER [1977]). Anyway, the film's thin plot of a lighthouse keeper (Douglas, still athletic at 55) combating a band of pirates led by a bored-looking Brynner is stretched for a hefty and slow-moving 129 minutes (which is 9 longer than the official duration given on most sources!). Even if I hadn't checked this out in 20 years or so, I still recalled some of the imagery involved – such as Douglas hanging upside down from the lighthouse tower, or his showdown with Brynner (which ends in a fire)…to say nothing of those indelible (and unmistakably European) faces, some of whom I've come to know by name in the interim, of Brynner's sinister cutthroat cohorts.The rest of the cast includes Samantha Eggar (ill-at-ease as a shipwreck victim who unwittingly becomes an object of contention between the two male stars: a sure indication of how perfunctory the role was to begin with is that she's ultimately raped and murdered, with not even the hero bothering to do anything about it!), Renato Salvatori (as another survivor who befriends Douglas but, when finally caught by Brynner and his men, is painfully skinned alive!), as well as Fernando Rey and popular Italian crooner Massimo Ranieri – both of whose contribution is brief, being literally done away with as soon as the villains make their first appearance! While the film's tolerable enough as lowbrow epic adventures go, one can't really call it entertaining in view of the seediness and sadism on display; that said, the thing does become unintentionally hilarious with the clichéd flashbacks to Douglas' past as a gold-digger in the Old West, and especially the accidental slipping (almost at the cost of his life) of Brynner's wild-eyed, long-haired, right-hand man when engaged in an impromptu campy dance in drag!

Once I overlooked the slow moving action (at times) and hokey plot and dialogue, I found this movie really entertaining in a circus and carnival (freaky pirates, treasure, monkey, violence, wild colors in a rough landscape with spaghetti western flashbacks) sort of way. Seemed to really push the envelope for that time period in terms of gay and trans-gender undertones - what with the pirate captain's attachment to his butler and to his androgynous second in command (the character who paraded around in a dress and feathers and appeared much more interested in Will than in Arabella). I didn't even sense that the pirate captain was attracted to Arabella in a sexual way. Anyway,that made the movie all the more interesting and unique - although likely far removed from what Jules Verne envisioned.

A lighthouse circa Cape Horn is cared by a keepers(Fernando Rey , Massimo Ranieri, Kirk Douglas). A gang of pirates attacks the lighthouse .The pirates(Aldo Sambrell,Jean Claude Drout, Tito Garcia, among others) are fiercely commanded by Kongre(Yul Brynner). Handsome hero named Will Denton(Kirk Douglas) with only company a little monkey ,suffering misfortunes for the conditions in which unlucky is forced to exist. Denton soon realizes that the island in the base of pirates who lure ships to their doom on the rocky coast and arrange shipwrecks(appear castaways as Samantha Eggar and Renato Salvatori) for profit . Denton discovers the truth and confronts Kongre in a fight to death.This is an enjoyable adventures tale with tension, suspense, thrills and good action scenes. Some fierce hand-to hand combats and pursuits scenes will have you on the edge of your armchair. However the ending is some ridiculous, unconvincing and overblown. Spectacular landscapes shot in Spain : Cadaques and Manga Mar Menor, great location-footage of both locations, the Spaniard coast is the best thing about movie. Duo starring is frankly extraordinary. Kirk Douglas gives vigorous physical performance, he's magnificent as individualist, stubborn hero, such as ¨Spartacus, Vikings,Ulysses and 20000 leagues under the sea(also by Jules Verne)¨. Impressive Yul Brynner, as usual, playing exotic roles, such as ¨Taras Bulba, Salomon, The buccaneer and King and I ¨. The film displays a colorful cinematography by Henri Decae and Cecilio Paniagua , furthermore evocative musical score by Piero Piccioni. The picture is regularly directed by Kevin Billington. This is a highly agreeable movie and suits marvelously . I can recommend this work to everybody who enjoy good adventures and spectacular maritime outdoors, however no for small kids by violent and realistic scenes.

I read the book first, a fairly good novel by the prolific Jules Verne entitled The Lighthouse at the End of the World. I enjoyed the book sufficiently to look forward with a degree of eagerness to the film, but my anticipation was shattered once I saw the actual movie.It's a terribly dreary affair, about lighthouse keepers near to Cape Horn who are attacked by a band of pirates. The pirates seize control of their island, and more importantly their lighthouse, and use it to steer unsuspecting vessels onto the nearby rocks.Kirk Douglas plays the surviving lighthouse keeper, and Yul Brynner plays the main pirate. Both roles are under written and both stars seem ill at ease with the material they've been signed up to work with. The action is littered with distracting embarrassments, such as the scene where Kirk leaps from a cliff into the sea, but it is so obviously a dummy making the fall that it evokes laughter more than excitement.This might have been an enjoyable kids movie if treated better, but every now and then it lapses into brutality which makes it unsuitable even for the juvenile crowd. 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 is not the stuff of a childrens' flick. Furthermore, the film frequently turnd up in an incoherent, chopped up 95 minute edition, which has been cut down from the two hour original so badly that it barely makes sense at all. An interesting dilemma for the audience is whether to watch the short, illogical version, or the long, dreary one. Suffice to say, both are awful!