[Another review from my other half rather than myself; another one of his favourite horror films of all time, but this time it's not sci-fi. Oh, and a great huge SPOILER ALERT in case you've never come across this film before now.]
The Wicker Man was apparently Christopher Lee's pet project for some years before it got made and one can see why studios were reluctant to take a chance on the film. Relentlessly downbeat, its putative hero is an overbearing priss, its main villain is a charming nihilist, it features an extended nude dance from one of the leads (the stunning Britt Ekland in her prime) and, in the end, the bad guys win. Even coming fresh off his star turn as Dracula in numerous Hammer movies, it took Lee years to get this project off the ground.
To begin the film, Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward) receives a letter asking him to visit an island called Summerisle to search for the writer's missing daughter. Upon arriving at the island, Howie discovers, and is deeply offended by, the fact that the island is a pagan community (what kind of pagan is never addressed but seems to be a fertility/harvest god in the mould of He Who Walks Behind The Rows). Howie is appalled to discover that the children of the island are being raised in their parents' faith and disrupts the community to preach Christianity on repeated occasions. While viewers in 1973 might have sided with Howie, anyone who follows a pagan faith or has friends who do, will find him an interfering, sanctimonious busybody. Even by the standards of the time, Howie's fire-and-brimstone zealotry would have been irritating. Naturally, Howie wouldn't have blinked if the children had been being given Christian instruction but is horrified that they're being instructed in their parents' faith. In fact, Howie is as close to a fundamentalist as an early Seventies British bloke can be. It doesn't take much effort to imagine him calling for prayer in schools or denying evolution.
As the plot progresses and the missing persons case takes a much weirder turn, Howie is introduced to Sister Willow (Britt Ekland) who seems to develop a crush on Howie, at least if that nude dance means anything. He's also introduced to Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). The Lord is urbane, witty, charming. He is the very essence of the seductiveness of evil. It takes guts for a movie to have its hero be an obnoxious fundie and its villain be a charming pagan, who wears a Laura Ashley frock at one point without even batting an eye. Howie gets led around the island on a wild goose chase until it turns out that the missing girl was never missing at all. The letter was just a ruse to bring Howie to the island. Their crop failed last year so they've decided that this year, they're going to sacrifice someone to their god. A good, virginal, Christian man, to be exact, and so they've been testing Howie the whole time to make sure he fits their requirements. To do that, they have made a large wicker man (hence the title). Howie will be shoved into that structure and burned alive. And he is. There's no sudden reversal, no last minute rescue. Howie is forced into the man, is burned and dies. As said, it's deliberately downbeat. The "hero" fails and pays with his life.
While I could lay into the remake here, that's already been done by much better writers than me. [Not the bees!] Suffice to say that it not only over-complicates everything, it completely misses the point into the bargain. This version, however, does everything right. There are career-best performances from everyone. The effects, while minimal, are entirely done by hand. They really did build a wicker man and set fire to it for the climax. The only fault, and it's not really a fault, is that Howie's attitudes and his tendancy to push them at people, while grating even at the time, would make him a virtual social pariah today. As I said, that's not really a fault. There are no faults with this film. Suspenseful, engaging and unnerving in its climax, this is a film everyone should see. So go watch it.
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