Change Your Image
richard-1407
Reviews
Screen Two: Shadow on the Earth (1988)
Why do people marry people they don't like?...
I saw this when it was first broadcast and (unusually for me) had the presence of mind to commit it to videotape. It's one of those little gems that inexplicably stays with you and although the tape is extremely worn now I never tire of watching this. Set in a working class community in Scotland at the end of the 1950s it is a beautiful examination of idiotic adult divisions, social, religious, political and sexual, as seen through the eyes of Billy, an incredulous but obviously intelligent small boy. Billy and his somewhat less sensitive chums seem to pick up the multi-faceted bigotry, anger and paranoia of the surrounding grown-ups and distill this cocktail into their fear of a local shy and light-averse albino man, who they gradually convince themselves, is an alien from outer space. There are many endearing and poignant scenes in this film, and many to laugh at, not only for those of us who happen to have been young working class children at that time, but also perhaps because it (everso gently) prods us to think about some of our own irrational attitudes that, despite a liberal education, may yet linger on. The climax, especially Billy's final line, is worth the wait. I don't know if the author ever had any other work filmed - I'd love to be enlightened. Bring this out on DVD - whoever you are!