I read the book many many years ago and the film is on TCM, which we don't get in the Philippines, but there is a fuzzy copy HERE with watermark for those of you who want to see this classic story about the Irish fishermen who had the choice to evacuate or stay when a storm hit their island.
It stars Stephen Boyd and Coleeen Dewhurst as the parents.
More about the film here. on the Stephen Boyd Blog.
Stephen plays the father, Cormac Joyce, who is the apple of his son’s eye. A storm is brewing off the coast, and as the islanders flee for the mainland, Cormac is determined to stay. When he injures his hand while trying to pull his curragh ashore, his son decides to stay with his father to protect their home from the storm. The wife also stays and the weather the huge waves of the Atlantic storm together.
We have lived through five or six typhoons, including two bad ones, and the wind is horrific. Luckily we live inland and our house is built of concrete, and is on higher ground (three feet above the road), and not near the river, so the main danger is flying objects or the roof being blown off. That last one is dangerous for the old wooden traditional homes, or the flimsy houses in our area (we live downtown, not in a gated community), and years ago our chicken houses were flattened in one severe typhoon. Luckily we had just harvested the chickens, so we didn't lose any poultry, but it cost too much to rebuild especially since the relative who ran the place decided to move to the UK and join his wife, a nurse.
Usually the people near the river or on low ground are evacuated: many go to relatives or friend's houses, but some go to the Gym which is the local evacuation center up the street, on higher ground. And yes it floods, so many homes near the river are destroyed, but we only had our house flooded once, with four inches of water. Our neighbors stayed home, but asked if they could move the cars into our meeting room so the engines wouldn't be flooded.
The flooding can be fast: Once Ruby was attending a concert in Manila, and the typhoon was mild and supposed to be south of Manila, but late in the afternoon it changed course, headed north, and got stronger. The flooding was so bad that they couldn't go across the high bridge (30 feet over the river) so took refuge in a gas station/shop. And then the waters got worse, and they had to take refuge on the roof of the shop, since the current was too strong to wade to the nearest two story house fifty feet away. So they spent the night in the wind and rain, and we were worried sick because we couldn't reach her phone. By morning the flood had gone down, the winds had passed, and they contacted us so we had a neighbor pick them up with his truck.
Often the deaths in typhoons are from storm surge, floods, etc.
which is what happens in this film to the elderly neighbors who refused to leave their home. Sigh.
Ironically, the movie was filmed in Australia and played on the Hallmark Hall of Fame, which before it evolved into Romance central used to have films of classic stories as TV specials.
It is based on the short novel by Irish Writer Leonard Wibberley, who is best known for the satire The Mouse That Roared.
a short preview from You tube.
One reason I posted about this was not just that it was a good story, but because in these days when I read nonsense about living "simply" or having a carbon free lifestyle, I always shake my head in despair: Because I spent most of my life working in areas where outsiders might think were romantic happy happy indigenous types, but in reality were living a dirt poor existance where only the strong family ties and a moral system that emphasized the family before one's own desires managed to keep one alive in hard times.
and that is the theme of this short film.
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