To celebrate my 1,900th review for IMDB, I turn to another of my favourite films. The Isles of Scilly, which form the south-westernmost point of the British Isles, are an archipelago of small islands off the coast of Cornwall. Five of the islands, St Mary's, St Martin's, St Agnes, Tresco and Bryher are inhabited, but until the mid- 19th century there was also a small population living on a sixth island, Samson. In reality the inhabitants of Samson were evicted by Augustus Smith, the autocratic Lord Proprietor of the islands, who wanted to turn the island into a deer park, but Michael Morpurgo, the author of the children's book on which this film is based, had a much more poetic theory about how it came to be depopulated. (Morpurgo's book is called "Why the Whales Came", but this was altered slightly for the film).
Today the main industries of the Scillies are tourism and growing flowers, particularly daffodils, for the cut-flower market, but during the 1910s, when the action of this film takes place, life on the islands was hard. The inhabitants survive on fishing and small-scale subsistence agriculture. The central characters are Gracie Jenkins and Daniel Pender, two children living on the island of Bryher, who befriend a reclusive elderly man known as "the Birdman". (His real name is Mr Woodcock; in the book his Christian name was Zachariah, but this is not used in the film). The Birdman is shunned by the other inhabitants of Bryher, partly because they believe him to be mad but also because he is the last surviving native of Samson, which he left as a small boy. The people of Bryher avoid Samson, which they believe to be an accursed place, haunted by the ghosts of its former residents. When war breaks out, the Birdman comes under greater suspicion than ever, because the locals believe him to be a German spy.
Of course, the Birdman proves to be far from mad, and certainly not a spy. Indeed, he is probably the sanest person on the island. It is from him that we learn how Samson came to be cursed and why its inhabitants were forced to leave. (And in this version it was something very different from the whims of an eccentric landowner). He treats Daniel and Gracie like the children or grandchildren he never had and he in turn becomes their trusted friend and confidant. He is a talented woodcarver, and teaches his skills to the children. The crisis of the story comes when, after a storm, a narwhal is discovered stranded on the beach. The people of Bryher want to slaughter it, and other members of its pod should they come ashore, but the Birdman and the children desperately try to dissuade them.
The late Paul Scofield was one of the major names of the British acting profession, but most of his work was for the stage and he made comparatively few films. Film buffs will probably know him best for his masterly performance as Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons", but the one he gives here can stand comparison with it. Of the other adult cast members the best is probably Helen Mirren as Gracie's mother, but special mention must also be made of the enchanting Helen Pearce and Max Rennie as the two children. Another feature of the film is its strikingly beautiful photography of the islands.
The plot is a simple one, reminiscent of a folk tale. Deceptively simple, because Morpurgo is able to use it to explore some surprisingly deep themes- relationships between man and nature, relationships between the generations, the treatment of those like the Birdman who are thought to be "alien" to the mainstream of the community within which they live and the origins and nature of violence. These themes are seen to be interrelated; there are clear parallels between on the one hand the islanders' hostility towards the Birdman, partly rooted in the fact that he is originally from another island less than a mile away, and their threatened violence towards the narwhals, and on the other the mutual hostility between the British and the Germans and the violence to which it has led.
I have never really known why "When the Whales Came" is so little known; I note that it has only received thirteen earlier reviews. To my mind it is one of the great movies made during the remarkable renaissance of the British cinema industry of the 1980s, able to stand comparison with the likes of "The Elephant Man", "Chariots of Fire", "The Mission", "A Private Function" and "Shirley Valentine". Perhaps adults tend to dismiss it as "a children's film", but there is a lot here (as there is in Morpurgo's book) that deals with some very adult concerns. 10/10
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