The Wicker Man - 1973
Directed by Robin Hardy
Written by Anthony Shaffer
Starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Lindsay Kemp
Britt Ekland & Diane Cilento
This review contains spoilers
It's completely enthralling. Mysterious, unusual, and unlike any other film of it's time,
The Wicker Man has held the fascination of many down through the decades - a kind of horror film that shocks in it's final act, but gives a sense of unease leading up to it. It gives us a glimpse into a world many people lived in centuries past with Paganism, Druidism and the worship of the old Gods before Christianity and Islam cut swaths through people's spiritual lives in the Western world and beyond. A Wicker Man was once used to burn criminals to death inside of it's structure on anointed days, and was noted by Julius Caesar and relayed through the centuries from his personal observation. Some of my favourite recent films, from
Kill List to
Midsommar, draw their inspiration directly from
The Wicker Man, and the film's ultimate survival and restoration depended on it's inspired value as an extremely literate and quality work of cinematic art. It's principally known for it's finale, which is both frightening, and a surprise for those who come to the story without knowing what's coming.
Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) is a devout Christian and police officer who has received a strange letter relating the suspicious disappearance of a young girl on Summerisle. The island is known locally for it's fruit harvests, and as a strange place where the people there follow a kind of Celtic Paganism, and as soon as Howie lands he's introduced to various oddities - not the least of which are the bawdy, but seemingly ritualistic songs and music everyone partakes in. The daughter of innkeeper/landlord Alder MacGregor (Lindsay Kemp) is the beautiful Willow MacGregor (Britt Ekland) and is worshipped as if Aphrodite, introducing all the young men to love. When Howie meets up with the powerful leader of the island, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) he learns of it's history, renunciation of Christianity, and attitudes towards the Christian God - at odds with Howie's personal beliefs. He begins to suspect that the missing girl is tied up with a planned sacrifice due to failing crops on the island, and sets out to surreptitiously join their May Day parade to rescue her from an awful fate.
It's a straightforward story, and much of the film deals with the conflict Howie finds himself embroiled in every time he crosses paths with a strange custom that he finds offensive. Men and women copulate freely in fields, and people in the island's tavern sing lude songs about Willow in front of her father and herself - who both enjoy them. He overhears children being taught that the Maypole the boys are dancing around specifically represents a penis, and notices that churches and graveyards have been deconsecrated and abandoned. Young women dance naked around fires while chanting fertility rites, and one young girl must hold a frog in her mouth to aide in her recovery from a sore throat. This is all deeply distressing to him, and his firm believe that only Jesus Christ can be the saviour of mankind. Most of all he harbors a deeply held suspicion that Rowan Morrison has been murdered, but later comes to the conclusion she's about to be sacrificed. All of this is represented in fascinating ways, and this is specifically aided by the fact that the film is presented very much as a musical - the songs all neatly fitting the narrative. At times spooky, at others either lurid or forthright, it eventually presents a compelling case for Paganism as a religion that is closer to nature than other more modern ones.
The film started life as an idea that crystallized through discussions around a number of figures eventually involved with it's production, including Christopher Lee, who wanted to get away from his more regular Hammer Horror roles, screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, who had read an interesting novel involving the concept of Paganism in David Pinner's Ritual and prospective film director Robin Hardy, looking for a first project. Hardy was in contact with British Lion head, and film producer, Peter Snell, who was also interested in the idea. Pinner's Ritual, as a whole, seemed unsuitable for being translated film-wise as it was and adapted, but the idea of a devout Christian policeman investigating the work of Pagans and a missing girl was what brought Shaffer's story about. It was a project that Lee, Shaffer, Hardy and Snell worked closely on together and all felt passionate about, especially after Shaffer delivered a screenplay that was obviously an exceptional piece of work - something to truly be excited about. Unfortunately, the conception was to lead to an especially painful birth - as is the movie business.
British Lion as a financial entity was going through convulsions, and they needed
The Wicker Man immediately - with a minimum of funds, and to be shot on location in Scotland in October instead of the Spring it's set in. Freezing temperatures and cloudy weather had to be translated into fine weather, no matter the hardship on the actors and the production as a whole, which needed to transport in fake trees in blossom. The difficult, rushed and uncomfortable shoot was bad enough, but insult was added to injury once EMI had bought British Lion and a manager by the name of Michael Deeley found himself in charge. During the editing process Deeley was dismissive towards Christopher Lee, whom he found contemptable, and let it be known to him that he thought
The Wicker Man amongst the ten worst films he'd seen in his life. The studio found itself unable, and almost unwilling to sell it to one of Britain's two premier distributing chains. The initial cut of the film was shortened so it could be sold as a "second feature" on double bills - with the only version the filmmakers were content with finding itself with Roger Corman in the U.S. - who was happy to help distribute it there.
The Wicker Man is so good that it would survive all of these machinations, and even in shortened form, it's interesting and compelling enough to have made a name for itself. In the years since it's been somewhat cobbled back together into what it should have been - but regardless of that, film aficionados have loved it down through the years. I've been aware of it for a long, long time, and my practice of seeing movies as they eventually come my way delayed my first viewing until now. Unfortunately, I'd already seen the remake - and I understand even more clearly why it was so derided - having abandoned most of the interesting facets of the original film. I was pleased to discover that knowing the ending doesn't detract at all from the enjoyment I found in the film. It's far more than it's ending, which holds onto it's power. I was very surprised by the music of
The Wicker Man, composed by Paul Giovanni, as it becomes a central focus of the film. It's interwoven, not only into the reality of the film but also as part of the narrative. I really loved it, especially Willow's song, 'How Do'.
Cinematographer Harry Waxman had been working on films since the early 1930s, but his experience, while always something to be thankful for on a film shoot, also developed into an animosity for his first-time director in Robin Hardy. This, on top of everything else, created an element of disharmony and ill-feeling during the shoot. Waxman didn't like the screenplay, didn't think Hardy knew how to make films, and was generally in ill-humour - although that final shot that he captures, of the Wicker Man's head slowly collapsing to reveal the setting sun behind it is considered to be one of the greatest shots in cinema by some involved with the film. Visually, I found
The Wicker Man to be very enjoyable and astute - without any problems. Perhaps I was wrapped up in the story to an extent where clever shots didn't matter, or else the expertise of Waxman in getting what was needed gave the film what as needed to support some great performances and a superb script from Shaffer.
The original negatives to
The Wicker Man have been lost - although there is some hope that one day they will be found. Christopher Lee always maintained that they couldn't have been accidentally misplaced. I've rarely come across so much animosity, ill-feeling, arguing and disunity among filmmakers when it comes to such a classic film, but this indeed seems to be the case with
The Wicker Man. Lee initially saw a cut which had left a great part of some really well-shot and important scenes on the cutting room floor, and there are several versions which have superseded the theatrical cut, most of which run some 10 minutes longer, and includes material which enhances the narrative. Through all of this though, the quality of the film just shines through, and it seems to me that the film is literate enough to survive as it does today. I thoroughly enjoy watching it - the strange, mysterious and mystifying rites and traditions interest me. I'm carried away by the sense of ghostly conspiracy on Summerisle. I think the narrative, and passion from certain members of the cast and crew shine through.
To the end, Christopher Lee believed it was his greatest film, and Edward Woodward was similarly passionate about it. I'm not sure if the issue of whether Britt Ekland's voice (with Scottish accent) was dubbed or not has been solved, but regardless, she's as alluring as she needs to be for the film. It's unfortunate if she felt uncomfortable about her nude scenes, but for once I really feel that those scenes were critical for the film, and the scene where she's alluring the virginal Howie in a test of wills works perfectly. I very much enjoy watching the usually silent Lindsey Kemp play such an interesting role in a film. Human sacrifice is of course chilling, and the Wicker Man itself has a kind of spell it casts when you know it's significance. I actually like the connection these people have to nature, and Christopher Lee's quotation of Walt Whitman poetry when alluding to it is beautiful. So much so, that it's nearly easy to forget the violent superstition at the heart of what this film is about. Another interesting fact is that Howie's final words in the film come directly to us as a quote from Sir Walter Raleigh just before his execution.
Horror is often hard to classify -
The Wicker Man contains little violence, and nothing horribly gory and gruesome happens - except for the "hand of glory", which happens to be one poor woman's severed hand turned into a creepy spell-ridden candle for Howie. Many people miss the fact that this woman is first seen in the library with him, then in a casket with her hand missing, and finally, the hand turns up. There are many small details that you can easily miss in the film, and it surprises me how well the production design has been managed considering how rushed the film's production was. I love small details that take time to pick up on. But in a larger aspect,
The Wicker Man is a haunting film full of the kind of atmosphere I love in my films. That atmosphere pervades everything, and comes partly from a great screenplay, partly from the performances, and mostly from what has been brought to bear from those rituals of old. Behind the ideas this film brings forward is a real history many of our ancestors took part in. I very much agree with those who bestow the greatest praise on it, from Eli Roth to Ben Wheatley and Ari Aster, who have used it's inspiration to create the horror that has continued to enliven my cinematic pursuits.