This is beautifully filmed with some real highlights. The seas off the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland can be awesomely stormy and you will probably never see more impressive footage of such as in this film. There is a fantastic sequence of a two-day battle to catch a Basking Shark and the final scenes of three fishermen in a currach on the stormy sea trying to make it to shore are hair-raising. The many shots of spectacular cloud formations over slivers of land are enough to make an Ansel Adams envious.
The theme of man fighting the elements in a harsh environment just to survive is hit pretty hard. The family depicted is indeed living a primitive existence. They carry seaweed in baskets on their backs up steep cliffs to compost for soil to plant their potatoes; they patch their canvas-hulled currachs with rags and tar; they spear sharks for meat and oil.
By watching the extras on the DVD you learn that "Man of Aran" is actually a historical reenactment of what things might have been like in a bygone era - and a highly romanticized reenactment at that. By the time "Man of Aran" was made, 1934, the people on the Aran Islands had not hunted sharks for decades; the seaweed was carried on mules; there were well-to-do islanders who owned large acreages of fertile soil; cattle were sent to market by forcing them to swim to ships anchored hundreds of yards off shore. And director Flaherty processed all of his film on the island, so things could not have been all that primitive.
I can think that this movie influenced subsequent work. In "The Field," a key plot element is having Richard Harris do back-breaking seaweed hauls up steep cliffs, and Bergman's famous black figures silhouetted against the sky in "The Seventh Seal" are derivative of similar images in "Man of Aran."
I felt duped by this being called a documentary, but, be that as it may, I found "Man of Aran" well worth watching for what it is.
The theme of man fighting the elements in a harsh environment just to survive is hit pretty hard. The family depicted is indeed living a primitive existence. They carry seaweed in baskets on their backs up steep cliffs to compost for soil to plant their potatoes; they patch their canvas-hulled currachs with rags and tar; they spear sharks for meat and oil.
By watching the extras on the DVD you learn that "Man of Aran" is actually a historical reenactment of what things might have been like in a bygone era - and a highly romanticized reenactment at that. By the time "Man of Aran" was made, 1934, the people on the Aran Islands had not hunted sharks for decades; the seaweed was carried on mules; there were well-to-do islanders who owned large acreages of fertile soil; cattle were sent to market by forcing them to swim to ships anchored hundreds of yards off shore. And director Flaherty processed all of his film on the island, so things could not have been all that primitive.
I can think that this movie influenced subsequent work. In "The Field," a key plot element is having Richard Harris do back-breaking seaweed hauls up steep cliffs, and Bergman's famous black figures silhouetted against the sky in "The Seventh Seal" are derivative of similar images in "Man of Aran."
I felt duped by this being called a documentary, but, be that as it may, I found "Man of Aran" well worth watching for what it is.