Though a little rough around the edges, this Santa Barbara-brewed documentary is far better than any other one-stop source for understanding the Channel Islands while soaking in their majesty. And better, West of the West is, as advertised, a human history.
The title is only invoked once, in reference to the film’s most lavishly strange sequence, a piece about the Legendary King of San Miguel Island, a story that has been milked by lots of writers, including T. C. Boyle. But there is a sense of enduring ironies and pleasures during most every segment. The mystical sense of Chumash myth — Santa Cruz as the birthplace of humankind or the forlorn Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island — all are portrayed with painstaking detail. But the obsessive power the islands have had over gringo settlers is manifest, too, with folk as diverse as rocker Joe Walsh and the would-be emperor Herbert Lester.
The film is a conglomeration of chapters rather than a sweeping narrative, and it could stand a bit of trimming; the whole section on the San Diego-sponsored re-creation of a Spanish galleon feels tangential to the story we want to see. It could use a little amplifying, too. Where is Margaret Holden Eaton, the Sea Captain’s wife, and what’s the deal with the military’s role in San Miguel or San Nicolas?