The Wicker Man (1973)Religious zeal comes from the conviction in one's beliefs that they are doing the right thing--the only thing that matters. The Wicker Man (1973) is the story of the reclusive community off the coast of Scotland called Summerisle, and of the police officer from the mainland, Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward), who visits in search of a girl reported missing. What begins as seemingly inconvenient, amiable resistance to Howie's investigation gradually reveals that Summerisle is a place which has wholly abandoned the tenets of Christianity in favor of the pagan worship of the "old gods", a revelation which evokes indignation from the devoutly Christian Howie.
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The Wicker Man is frequently regarded as a "horror" film, although for a substantial portion of the movie it does not subscribe to the formulae or trappings of the genre. Instead, it is largely presented as a mystery, and even in this it plays by its own rules. This presentation is sly, because The Wicker Man is a movie which relies on teasing our expectations, and provoking us by painting the picture with a thematic brush of religious intolerance, and then gleeful subverting our estimations. Howie is the fulcrum in our scale of values, how we identify with the residents of Summerisle versus his own beliefs. From the start, Howie is presented as uptight and straight-laced, serious himself and serious in his appointed task. It would not be unreasonable to empathize with his frustration at the altogether obvious deceit the residents of the island show him regarding the existence of young Rowan Morrison (Geraldine Cowper). It is understandable that Howie would be shocked at the bawdy display put on for his amusement at the local tavern called The Green Man, and the reveries which happen when the sun goes down among the townsfolk in the the fields and outside his own door at the inn. But what The Wicker Man counts on is manipulating our perception that Howie is acting not out of a sense of official duty but out of personal offense when he confronts people like the schoolmistress, Miss Rose (Diane Cilento), about the pagan belief system propagated throughout the island.
Howie is presented less as a representative of the law at this point but more of a "moral policeman", an adjudicator of his faith as the law. In this, The Wicker Man subtly trains its audience to perceive Howie not as a bastion of order but more like a bigot, someone convinced of his faith and condemning that of the whole of Summerisle because it defies his tastes. He begins to abuse his power, performing illegal searches and threatening to arrest members of the community on the grounds of obstruction, his attitude becoming more obstinate as his investigation continues to bear no fruit. As if to draw an even more defined contrast, the leader of the community, called Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), is portrayed not as a hedonistic or uncouth man; on the contrary, he is conveyed to be well-educated, rational, and even kind, albeit with a degree of smugness to him about his beliefs and the beliefs of his home. But even here, to Lord Summerisle's defense, it is Howie who comes to him and literally attacks his beliefs in his own home. The Wicker Man counts on this being our response at every turn, like a savvy magician--it even opens with a title card proclaiming (with tongue-in-cheek humor) that the creators wish to thank the people of Summerisle for their assistance in depicting their religious practices. For much of The Wicker Man, like Howie, we are led on a journey, a path leading to a destination the likes of which we cannot truly see for all the performances before us, until we arrive at our ultimate conclusion.
On the surface, Summerisle appears to be a quaint, "normal" community, one whose reputation stems from its traditionally bountiful harvest, unusual given that the island is in an otherwise ill-suited climate in the northern reaches of Great Britain. Summerisle stands out as an oddity notwithstanding the people and their worship; it exists like an oasis among the harsh, primal lands, where crags jut out from the landscape like daggers. The island is so obscure that Howie must fly in by seaplane to conduct his search--frequently consulting his map in the process--and it is strange that they don't even have a traditional dock for him to put his plane, which raises the question as to how Summerisle functionally exports its crop with any degree of efficiency. Details like these are not, I suspect, a matter of continuity but to unsettle us in subtle ways, putting us in Howie's shoes and suspecting something is afoot from go. As a byproduct of Howie's search, he discovers that Summerisle was not always predisposed toward pagan practices; Lord Summerisle all but confirms this when he discloses that his grandfather came to the island in the 19th century to experiment on scientific crop-growing techniques. The faintest residue of Christianity exists in the form of the neglected church and records kept including Rowan's lineage with family members having names from the Bible. Lord Summerisle educates Howie how his grandfather--followed by his father and now him--have used the pretext of appeasing the old gods as a means to anchor the people to their commitment and adoration of nature, a belief system which thrived in the wake of Lord Summerisle's grandfather's success at transforming the lives of the residents of the island by essentially giving them food again. What Lord Summerisle all but describes is the formation of a cult, of a belief system which has flourished by his enforcement, even when the agricultural techniques of his grandfather have since faded. The people of Summerisle are wholly committed to this doctrine, and do not exhibit any discomfort in their beliefs, since all those who were of the old way have since died out. And on the surface, the residents of Summerisle do not exhibit any traits which would preclude them from functioning in Western civilization, and are even nice people, generally speaking. To cement this sense of hospitality and fellowship, The Wicker Man also boasts a cornucopia of Celtic folk music--predominantly about nature and including pagan practices--lending an easy, light feel to the film, belying the pervading unease lurking beneath the surface. What the people of Summerisle are, however, is a microcosm, a "petri dish" representing how conditioning can functionally transform an entire community into a specific way of life when removed from external influence. To them, Howie is a strange--even rude--man who barges into their home and starts barking orders. It would almost be enough to convince one that the pleasant way of life in Summerisle is the way life should be...except for the mystery of Rowan.
Recommended for: Fans of a deviously clever, psychological horror film which thrives on seducing us with an illusory plot as insidious as the serpentine whispers of the snake in the Garden of Eden. The Wicker Man is a provocative mystery, challenging our concepts of tolerance, and even more, our predilection to present ourselves as tolerant even when instinctively we should when something is or isn't evil and act accordingly.
Howie is presented less as a representative of the law at this point but more of a "moral policeman", an adjudicator of his faith as the law. In this, The Wicker Man subtly trains its audience to perceive Howie not as a bastion of order but more like a bigot, someone convinced of his faith and condemning that of the whole of Summerisle because it defies his tastes. He begins to abuse his power, performing illegal searches and threatening to arrest members of the community on the grounds of obstruction, his attitude becoming more obstinate as his investigation continues to bear no fruit. As if to draw an even more defined contrast, the leader of the community, called Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), is portrayed not as a hedonistic or uncouth man; on the contrary, he is conveyed to be well-educated, rational, and even kind, albeit with a degree of smugness to him about his beliefs and the beliefs of his home. But even here, to Lord Summerisle's defense, it is Howie who comes to him and literally attacks his beliefs in his own home. The Wicker Man counts on this being our response at every turn, like a savvy magician--it even opens with a title card proclaiming (with tongue-in-cheek humor) that the creators wish to thank the people of Summerisle for their assistance in depicting their religious practices. For much of The Wicker Man, like Howie, we are led on a journey, a path leading to a destination the likes of which we cannot truly see for all the performances before us, until we arrive at our ultimate conclusion.
On the surface, Summerisle appears to be a quaint, "normal" community, one whose reputation stems from its traditionally bountiful harvest, unusual given that the island is in an otherwise ill-suited climate in the northern reaches of Great Britain. Summerisle stands out as an oddity notwithstanding the people and their worship; it exists like an oasis among the harsh, primal lands, where crags jut out from the landscape like daggers. The island is so obscure that Howie must fly in by seaplane to conduct his search--frequently consulting his map in the process--and it is strange that they don't even have a traditional dock for him to put his plane, which raises the question as to how Summerisle functionally exports its crop with any degree of efficiency. Details like these are not, I suspect, a matter of continuity but to unsettle us in subtle ways, putting us in Howie's shoes and suspecting something is afoot from go. As a byproduct of Howie's search, he discovers that Summerisle was not always predisposed toward pagan practices; Lord Summerisle all but confirms this when he discloses that his grandfather came to the island in the 19th century to experiment on scientific crop-growing techniques. The faintest residue of Christianity exists in the form of the neglected church and records kept including Rowan's lineage with family members having names from the Bible. Lord Summerisle educates Howie how his grandfather--followed by his father and now him--have used the pretext of appeasing the old gods as a means to anchor the people to their commitment and adoration of nature, a belief system which thrived in the wake of Lord Summerisle's grandfather's success at transforming the lives of the residents of the island by essentially giving them food again. What Lord Summerisle all but describes is the formation of a cult, of a belief system which has flourished by his enforcement, even when the agricultural techniques of his grandfather have since faded. The people of Summerisle are wholly committed to this doctrine, and do not exhibit any discomfort in their beliefs, since all those who were of the old way have since died out. And on the surface, the residents of Summerisle do not exhibit any traits which would preclude them from functioning in Western civilization, and are even nice people, generally speaking. To cement this sense of hospitality and fellowship, The Wicker Man also boasts a cornucopia of Celtic folk music--predominantly about nature and including pagan practices--lending an easy, light feel to the film, belying the pervading unease lurking beneath the surface. What the people of Summerisle are, however, is a microcosm, a "petri dish" representing how conditioning can functionally transform an entire community into a specific way of life when removed from external influence. To them, Howie is a strange--even rude--man who barges into their home and starts barking orders. It would almost be enough to convince one that the pleasant way of life in Summerisle is the way life should be...except for the mystery of Rowan.
Recommended for: Fans of a deviously clever, psychological horror film which thrives on seducing us with an illusory plot as insidious as the serpentine whispers of the snake in the Garden of Eden. The Wicker Man is a provocative mystery, challenging our concepts of tolerance, and even more, our predilection to present ourselves as tolerant even when instinctively we should when something is or isn't evil and act accordingly.