The Brothers

The film is set on Skye yet the girl is passed to the care of a Catholic priest and everybody else seems to be Catholic. The islands of the Hebrides in 1900 were rigidly segregated religiously. Skye was a devoutly Protestant island with its inhabitants being communicants of either the Protestant Church of Scotland or the strictly Calvinist Free Church of Scotland. I do not think there would be a single Catholic priest on the island. Only the islands of Barra and South Uist were devoutly Catholic. For me this renders the whole film farcical.

This is a bleak drama of the outer Hebrides outside Scotland around 1900, when conditions of life were very basic. On the island of Skye there are two families at odds with each other since ages, and there is a vendetta mentality inherited in generation after generation. When this story begins the main family (MacRae) consists of a father (Finlay Currie) and his two mature sons, when they are entrusted with a girl (Patricia Roc) by the local priest in the lack of social security. She is an orphan but is happy to be taken care of and cooperate, and there is no trouble, until a son of the rival family starts courting her. There the complications start mounting. There are some really wonderful scenes here that actually makes this film a classic for making original life in this remote world real on the screen - everything here is perfectly realistic and almost over-convincing. Superstition, old legends, second sight, amazing traditions are all blended together to make this unforgettable film of real life as it was on the Hebrides in 1900. There is a fantastic duel being fought by rowing in a boat, the two teams vying to tire each other out. This whole scene pinpointing the clan feud is actually the highlight of the film. Of course, the two brothers can't have a lovely woman living among them without both of them going lovesick in one way or another, especially as she is also courted by the family of enemies. The cinematography is a feast for the eyes all the way through, so is the highly dramatic music, and the acting couldn't have been performed better by more advanced professionals. The film is strongly reminding of the best Scottish films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and in fact their film, "I Know Where I Am Going" a few years later must have been highly inspired by this fabulous and unequalled gem of a film.

I have seen this film only once, around 1975, but remember it vividly. "The Brothers" is an eerie tale of tragedy in the Scottish Highlands. Set in the Isle of Skye (known as "Eilean a' Cheò/Isle of the Mist") amidst the Gaelic-speaking Celts who inhabit the island, it is full of mystery and superstition surrounding a stern old patriarch, his two sons and the Atlantic coastal community they inhabit. The ensuing tragic story of love and crime wrought by the son is worthy of Shakespeare or classic Greek plays. I was reminded of it somewhat by "The Field" with Richard Harris. If only this film were still available. Someone please re-release it!

This extraordinary film really deserves to be better known; certainly it ought to be screened somewhere, as it seems to have dropped out of public and critical consciousness. Essentially it's about Patricia Roc driving the men of a Hebridean isle to lust and murder. Hardly natural casting for Roc, who was happiest playing sweetness and light (usually in contrast to Margaret Lockwood in the Gainsborough melodramas), but she gives it her best shot. But it's the tone of the whole piece, the air of malevolence beneath bright skies and spectacular landscapes that stays in the memory. Comedian Will Fyffe has a field day as the harsh father. The aim seems to have been capture the quality of the old Scottish ballads, in their particular blending of beauty and cruelty, and the film makes this overt with its references to the ballad of 'The Great Silke of Skule Skerry'. It also boasts one of the strangest modes of execution you will ever see - but you have to try and seek out the film to find out what. Someone should programme it in a double bill with 'I Know Where I'm Going'.

This is a stunning B&W film shot on location on the Isle of Skye (for the most part), a weird story of sibling rivalry, lust, family honor, and age-old traditions and superstitions. In 1900, an orphaned "girl" arrives on the island to be the drudge of a dour family (a father and two sons). She is lusted after by one brother, but she loves the other. Eventually she's blamed for everything that befalls the family. Basic story is set against the rugged sea coast and a series of "old stories" that are mirrored by their modern-day life.

Patricia Roc is the girl. Finlay Currie is the old father. Maxwell Reed and Duncan Macrae (in a stunning film debut) are the brothers. Will Fyffe gets good billing for a small role as the jovial captain. Andrew Crawford plays Willie, and Megs Jenkins is Angustina. Certainly some stunning scenery. The film seems somewhat lacking in narrative structure, but you'll never forget the story of the little silver fish.