The islanders hunt a basking shark for its oil, but they hadn't done so in generations. The filmmakers had to bring an Inuit hunter to show them how to do it as their ancestors might have.
The play "The Cripple of Inishmaan" by Martin McDonagh is a fictionalized account of the making of this film.
PROLOGUE: "The Aran Islands lie off Western Ireland. All three are small . . . wastes of rock . . . without trees . . . without soil . . ."
"In winter storms they are almost smothered by the sea . . . which, because of the peculiar shelving of the coastline, piles up into one of the most gigantic seas in the world."
"In this desperate environment the Man of Aran, because his independence is the most precious privilege he can win from life, fights for his existence, bare though it may be."
"It is a fight from which he will have no respite until the end of his indomitable days or until he meets his master --- the sea."
"In winter storms they are almost smothered by the sea . . . which, because of the peculiar shelving of the coastline, piles up into one of the most gigantic seas in the world."
"In this desperate environment the Man of Aran, because his independence is the most precious privilege he can win from life, fights for his existence, bare though it may be."
"It is a fight from which he will have no respite until the end of his indomitable days or until he meets his master --- the sea."