:27:02
I decided this was not
spectacular enough.
:27:04
Sid organised a dam crew
:27:07
and at the word "Camera!" they let
a ton or two of water over the top.
:27:12
We all got wet, but the scene
undoubtedly had more punch,
:27:16
especially when small boulders
came over into Eric's open mouth.
:27:22
The rest of the climb
was shot on various locations
:27:24
between Hoevdi and the Sneck.
:27:26
The method was simpler than it looks.
On bad days,
:27:30
I scrambled around
and found nasty spots
:27:33
that were effective on the screen.
:27:35
Eventually we all arrived there,
I demonstrated the climb,
:27:39
Niall said to himself
"Where he can go, I can."
:27:43
Eric, fortunately, was short-sighted
:27:45
and I do not believe to this day
that he knows half of what he did.
:27:49
The only thing that put him off
was the surf below him.
:27:53
To his eyes, without glasses,
it was a dizzy white gulf,
:27:57
full of noises, far below.
:27:59
He was not far wrong, either.
:28:04
(Christie) This sequence of grinding
:28:07
is one of those moments in the film
where the ethnographic aspect of it,
:28:11
showing the islanders' lives
and what they do,
:28:14
also has a symbolic force,
:28:17
because we do get a strong sense,
watching this great stone turning,
:28:20
of, if you like,
the turning of life in the island
:28:25
after the tragic death of Robbie.
:28:28
(Schoonmaker-Powell)
The image of wheat being ground here
:28:31
is a very strong theme
in Michael Powell's life.
:28:35
In his autobiography,
he does a paean of praise
:28:38
to the mills that he saw
in his childhood in Kent.
:28:42
I've always felt that, uh...
:28:44
one of the reasons
he's such a wonderful director,
:28:47
understands people so deeply,
:28:49
is because he was lucky enough
to be brought up on a farm,
:28:52
where he experienced
all levels of humanity,
:28:56
and always had an extremely
strong connection to the earth.