A film I half-saw in my childhood, my mother cruelly refusing to let me stay up after my bedtime; my last memory was the sword fight between the two Durie brothers, until earlier this week when, as an old man, I was spontaneously moved to look it up & satisfy my cinematic curiosity. The whole thing is on Youtube, quite low quality but no alternative (paid or unpaid). It’s a surprisingly sound film, and even though I generally dislike films over 2 hours (it’s 150 minutes) it fairly zipped by with a lean, purposeful script and great acting, the filmic girth handled with far greater aplomb than as is the case with most modern productions.

There is a 1950s version with Errol Flynn but I wanted to finish the one I half-saw as a child, so resolutely ignored the earlier production. I might, however, read the Robert Louis Stevenson book on which it is based (published in 1889 – a momentous year for European history). I vaguely remembered the film as the tale of two Scottish brothers in tartan, fighting with swords until my mother shrieked “naughty boy! bedtime! now!” Naturally there is some sword fighting in tartan, but much more. The dynamic character interactions & development remind me of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, Michael York’s James Durie even resembling Ryan O’Neal to some degree:

And as with Barry Lyndon the character of Jamie Durie develops from a likeable young rogue to a psychopath who is increasingly, and with some justification, likened to the Devil. He has a particularly slimy smile, the kind women and Leftists find attractive; it is charming but Michael York manages to shade it into a predatory glitter which one could label The Paedo Smirk.

Reminiscent of Dick Tremayne from Twin Peaks, a department store manager, very American with his dead eyes and fixed grin:

and of course the billionaire paedophile (((Jeffrey Epstein))):

York’s performance here is great; the various Jamies plausibly merge, so in retrospect you can see how the charming, energetic young man of the opening is the calculating, vindictive psychopath of the latter years; he was always a monster, and one could see the predatory light in his eyes, from time to time:

His younger brother, the far more staid, prosaic Henry, is played by Richard Thomas, and from the start they demonstrate a natural antagonism and rivalry.

I seem to remember, as a wee young bairn, admiring York’s psychopathic Alpha Jamie, but as a doughty & gouty old shopkeeper my sympathies were quickly drawn more to his younger brother Henry. It’s the kind of film one could watch in the heinous light of Anonymous Conservative’s r/k dichotomy, Jamie as the r-selected reckless impulsive psychopath, the much more prosaic brother Henry as a proto-k. At first, the audience would likely find Henry boring and timorous – even though he volunteers for war – but the genius of the film is, as with Barry Lyndon, the evolution of character.

After Jamie goes to war he becomes a Lyndon-style gambler and thief and vile scoundrel, charismatic for sure, but then I’ve met at least one psychopath who was every bit as mesmerising, every bit as untrustworthy & beshitten of character. And the more conservative, cautious Henry becomes a man as he recognises his responsibilities in his elder brother’s absence.

Jamie’s return – when he needs money (the usual home-coming impulse of such prodigal psychopaths) – spurs both men further into their nature, Jamie becoming a creature of spite & vengeance against his more down-to-earth, essentially sane brother, hating him purely because he isn’t a wastrel; and Henry forced to deeds of violence, very much against the grain of his over-civilised soul, though he’s also too much the opposite of his brother to fully embrace the inner barbarian, too much the stable younger brother to simply kill his nemesis.

There is much to enjoy here, for example an excellent pre-Bond Timothy Dalton as an Irish scoundrel who tries to rob Jamie and ends up partnering with him in deeds of villainy, and who could forget Brian Blessed as the perpetually drunken pirate Captain Teach:

It would make an excellent companion piece to Barry Lyndon. I wanted to include a 1984 Master of Ballantrae trailer but couldn’t find a single one on Youtube, so here’s a not-really-related but great & short video commentary on a great Barry Lyndon scene, by the greatly-bearded Apollonian Germ:

Anyone who enjoyed Lyndon for the script and character would, I hazard, enjoy the 1984 Master of Ballantrae also.