I love this movie so much

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

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

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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!

The Light At The Edge of the World marks Kirk Douglas's second filming of a Jules Verne novel. The first of course was one of his most popular films 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. But this film is far more serious and has far more adult themes than Walt Disney's film aimed for the kid trade.This was the last novel Jules Verne had published during his lifetime and it's a story of survival against almost impossible odds. In the original novel Kirk Douglas's character was named Vasquez which certainly was more in keeping with someone assigned to lighthouse duty on Cape Horn. But in giving Douglas's character an Anglo name it better explains his presence on the island and it certainly is in keeping with the international tradition of Jules Verne's writings.Cape Horn is one of the loneliest parts of the globe and the geography of the southern tip of South America. Look on a map of the many islands and rocks in that part of the globe and imagine how rough the sea is because it has only limited space. It's not without reason that sailors in all cultures say that no one is really a true sailor until they've made a voyage crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in that area. Remember also this is 1865 as Yul Brynner identifies the year and the Panama Canal had not been built.Which makes the lighthouse at Cape Horn an international concern which was something that is ever present in Jules Verne's writings. But then as now there are malevolent forces in the world and they are in this story Yul Brynner and his pirate crew.On one desultory like any other down there, Yul Brynner's ship docks at the island and kills lighthouse keeper Fernando Rey and his young assistant Massimo Ranieri. By sheer dumb luck Douglas is not at the lighthouse when this happens, but he becomes a hunted man by Brynner and his pirate crew who want to set up headquarters there and use the light to pile up as many wrecks as they can plunder. Also they want to eliminate Douglas who's now the only witness to their crimes.I did like this film very much both when first seeing it in the theater and now on VHS. One thing of interest I found here is that there is no ambiguity, no shadings of character. Kirk Douglas is a good guy and Yul Brynner a bad one, no one is going to walk away thinking anything else. In fact Yul Brynner's pirate captain Jonathan Kongre is the most unredeemable villain we've seen on screen since Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance.Definitely fans of Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner and Jules Verne should earmark this film for their collection.

One of my favorite films of all-time. Unusual because the pirates depicted in this movie are all too real. None of the romanticizing Errol Flynn or Jack Sparrow stuff. These pirates were shockingly ruthless and a real sense of danger permeates the film. Yul Brynner and Kirk Douglas bring intensity to their roles. Brynner as the egotistic sociopath who is the leader of the cutthroats and Douglas as a man who must deal with a desperate situation in a fight for survival. Samantha Eggar as a woman with flawed instincts for her own preservation evokes frustration and pity. From the brutal opening scenes, the message is clear that these pirates don't play. A sense of urgency then takes over until the final outcome. A great movie!

Remove yourself from the Kirk Douglass aspects of the casting. It is essential to your enjoying the film. There is a beautiful young woman playing double roles - and in the photos from the 1800's, I can't believe how smooth and white her skin is. Also, there is an excellent degrading of the film stock which chills the mind if you like faded greys and yellows as I do. This film is played on TNT from time to time so see it.