The Light at the Edge of the World
| The Light at the Edge of the World | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kevin Billington |
| Produced by |
Kirk Douglas Alexander Salkind Ilya Salkind Alfredo Matas |
| Written by |
Tom Rowe Rachel Billington (additional dialogue) |
| Based on |
The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Jules Verne |
| Starring |
Yul Brynner Kirk Douglas Samantha Eggar Fernando Rey Massimo Ranieri Renato Salvatori Jean-Claude Drouot Víctor Israel |
| Music by | Piero Piccioni |
| Cinematography | Cecilio Paniagua Henri Decaë |
| Edited by | Bert Bates |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $11,000,000 |
The Light at the Edge of the World is a 1971 adventure film, adapted from Jules Verne's classic 1905 adventure novel The Lighthouse at the End of the World (Le Phare du bout du monde). The plot involves piracy in the South Atlantic during the mid 19th century, with a theme of survival in extreme circumstances, and events centering on an isolated lighthouse.
Despite having a large Hollywood budget, collaboration with prestigious foreign film studios, exotic shooting locations in Europe and some of the biggest name movie stars, the movie was mainly a failure at the box office.
The year is 1865. Will Denton (Kirk Douglas) is a jaded American miner escaping a troubled past. Seeking isolation for two reasons - to mend his broken heart after a failed romance during the California Gold Rush, and also to escape punishment after he murdered a man in a gunfight - Denton tends a lonely and isolated lighthouse with a minimal crew of three men, himself included.
The lighthouse sits on a fictional rocky island adorned with many caves carved by the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean; it is however set in the geographic location of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America. Before the building of the Panama Canal, the waters off Cape Horn were perhaps the busiest and richest shipping lanes in the world (all shipping between Europe and the western coast of America had to go around the Cape) and therefore very lucrative.
Denton is contented to retreat from the world and be away from the problems of civilization, and quickly adjusts to his new supervisor, old Argentine sea dog Captain Moriz (Fernando Rey) and his youthful and innocent assistant Felipe.
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