The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man is a cult 1973 British film combining thriller, existential, horror and musical genres, directed by Robin Hardy and written by Anthony Shaffer. The film stars Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland. Paul Giovanni composed the soundtrack.

In 2004 the magazine Total Film named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time. It also won the 1978 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. A scene from this film was #45 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

A remake of the film was released in 2006; see The Wicker Man (2006 film).

Plot

Sergeant Neil Howie (Woodward), of the fictitious West Highlands Constabulary, is sent an anonymous letter recommending that he investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle. He flies out to the island and during his investigations discovers that the entire population follows a neo-pagan cult under the island's owner Lord Summerisle (Lee), believing in re-incarnation, worshipping the sun and engaging in fertility rituals and sexual magic in order to appease immanent natural forces.

Howie, an extremely devout and conservative Christian, is increasingly shocked by the islanders' behaviour; yet, he is attracted and repelled by the alluring and sexual Willow (Ekland), the daughter of the landlord of the inn where he is staying. He receives no assistance in his search from the islanders, who initially deny Morrison exists and then say that she recently died. Howie persists and uncovers evidence suggesting the girl was a victim, or perhaps is soon to be a victim, of human sacrifice. Delving deeper into the island's culture, he disguises himself as Punch, a principal character of the May Day festival, to uncover the details of the ceremony as it is acted out. The islanders are not fooled and at the end of the festival it is revealed that the girl is alive and unhurt; the letter was part of a ploy to bring Howie to the island for him to be the sacrifice, which they believe will restore the fertility of their orchards.

As Howie is seized by the islanders, Lord Summerisle drolly notes that the sacrifice will be especially effective since Howie, although engaged, is like Punch a virgin; is simultaneously wise and a fool; comes as a king (a representative of Her Majesty's government); and comes to the place of sacrifice of his own free will. Howie admonishes Lord Summerisle that if his sacrifice does not work, the next year the islanders will have no choice but to sacrifice their king, Lord Summerisle. Summerisle appears certain that sacrificing Howie will work. Howie is forced into the belly of a large hollow wicker statue of a man, which is set on fire. In the final shot of the film, the islanders surround the burning wicker man and sing the Middle English folk-song "Sumer Is Icumen In" while the terrified Howie shouts out Psalm 23 and implores divine vengeance on the island and its inhabitants.

Background/Production

Christopher Lee was well known as a Hammer Films regular, in particular playing Dracula in a series of successful films. At the time, Lee was looking to expand his acting horizons, and collaborated with British Lion head Peter Snell and playwright Anthony Shaffer (already well known for Sleuth) to develop a film based on the novel Ritual by David Pinner. Though the book was all but completely abandoned, the idea of an idealistic confrontation between a modern Christian and a remote, pagan community continued to intrigue Shaffer, who performed painstaking research on the topic. Brainstorming with director Robin Hardy, the film was conceived as presenting the pagan elements objectively and accurately, accompanied by authentic music and a believable, contemporary setting.

After Michael York and David Hemmings turned down the role of the policeman,^[1] television actor Edward Woodward was cast. In Britain he was already familiar as the TV spy Callan, a role he played from 1967 to 1972. He later gained international attention portraying the title character in the 1980 Australian film Breaker Morant. (American audiences probably know Woodward best for his role in the 1980s CBS TV series The Equalizer.)

Diane Cilento was lured out of semi-retirement after Shaffer saw her on the stage^[1] to play the town's schoolmistress, and Ingrid Pitt (another British horror film veteran) was cast as the town librarian and registrar. Britt Ekland was cast as the innkeeper's lascivious daughter (perhaps for box office appeal), though her singing and possibly all her dialogue was redubbed by Annie Ross^[2], and some of her nude dancing was performed by a double.

The film was produced at a time of crisis in the British film industry. The studio in charge of production, British Lion Films, was in financial trouble and was bought out by millionaire businessman John Bentley. To convince the unions that he was not about to asset-strip the company, Bentley needed to get a film into production quickly. This meant that The Wicker Man, a film set during early summer, was actually filmed in October: artificial leaves and blossoms had to be glued to trees in many scenes. The production was kept on a tight budget.^[1] Christopher Lee was extremely keen to get the film made; he and others worked on the production without pay.^[3] While filming took place, British Lion was taken over by EMI Films.

Release and restored versions

By the time of the film's completion the studio had been bought out by EMI, and British Lion was now run by Michael Deeley. Hardy subsequently had to remove approximately 20 minutes of scenes on the mainland, early investigations, and (to Lee's disappointment) some of Lord Summerisle's initial meeting with Howie.^[1] A copy of the finished, 99 minute film^[2] was sent to American film producer Roger Corman in Hollywood to make a judgement of how to market the film in the USA. Corman recommended an additional 13 minutes be cut from the film. (Corman did not acquire US release rights, and eventually Warner Bros. test-marketed the film in drive-ins.) In Britain, the film was ordered cut to roughly 87 minutes, with some narrative restructuring, and released as the "B" picture on a double bill with Don't Look Now. Despite Lee's claims that the cuts had butchered the film's continuity, he urged local critics to see the film. The Wicker Man met with moderate success and won first prize in the 1974 Festival of Fantastic Films in Paris, but largely slipped into obscurity. (However, the American film magazine, Cinefantastique devoted a commemorative issue to the film in 1977 - the praise that the film is "the Citizen Kane of horror movies" has been attributed to this issue.)[1]

In the mid-Seventies, Hardy made inquiries about the film, hoping to restore it to his original vision. Along with Lee and Shaffer, Hardy searched for his original cut or raw footage. Both of these appeared to have been lost. He remembered that a copy of the film, prior to Deeley's cuts, was sent to Roger Corman; it turned out that Corman still had a copy, possibly the only existing print of Hardy's version. The US rights had been sold by Warner Bros. to a small firm called Abraxas, run by film buff Stirling Smith and critic John Simon. Stirling agreed to an American re-release of Hardy's reconstructed version. Hardy restored the narrative structure, some of the erotic elements which had been excised, and a very brief pre-title segment of Howie on the mainland (appearing at a church with his fiancée). The 96 minute restored version was released January, 1979,^[1] again to critical acclaim. Strangely, the original full-length film was available in the US on VHS home video from Media Home Entertainment (and later, Magnum) during the 1980s and 1990s. This video included additional, early scenes in Howie's police station that Hardy had left out of the 1979 version.

In 2001 the film's new worldwide rights owners, Canal+, began an effort to release the full-length film. Corman's full-length film copy had been lost, but a 1" Telecine transfer existed. With this copy, missing elements were combined with film elements from the previous versions. (In particular, additional scenes of Howie on the mainland were restored, showing the chaste bachelor to be the object of gossip at his police station, and establishing his rigidly devout posture.) The DVD "Extended version" released by Canal+ (with Anchor Bay Entertainment handling US DVD distribution) is this hybrid cut, considered the longest and closest version to Hardy's original, 99 minute cut of the film.^[1][2] A two-disc limited edition set was sold with both the shortened, theatrical release version and the newly restored extended version, and a retrospective documentary, The Wicker Man Enigma.^[4]

Soundtrack

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Composed, arranged and recorded by Paul Giovanni and Magnet, the soundtrack contains folk songs performed by characters in the film (including some by members of the cast). For example, Lesley Mackie, who plays the character of Daisy in the film, sings the opening song, and various others in the CD Soundtrack. The songs were arranged in such a way as to hint at a pre-Christian pagan European culture and vary between traditional songs, original Giovanni compositions and even nursery rhyme in "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep". This mix of songs contributes to the film's atmosphere, contrasting rabble-rousing songs that depict the island's community like "The Landlord's Daughter" and the child-sung "Maypole" with the sinister "Fire Leap" and the erotic "Willow's Song" before culminating in the islanders' chilling rendition of the profane Middle English "Sumer Is Icumen In".

The opening music and "Corn Rigs" are arrangements of the Robert Burns ballads "The Highland Widow's Lament" and "Rigs O' Barley'", respectively. The instrumental parts of the score are based on traditional English, Scottish, and Irish tunes such as "Miri it is", the strathspey "Robertson's Rant" jig, and "Drowsy Maggie" reel. "Chop Chop" is based on the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". "Procession" is an instrumental arrangement of the Child Ballad "Willie o Winsbury".

Some of the songs have been covered by contemporary artists, such as the Mediæval Bæbes, Doves and Sneaker Pimps.

The soundtrack was unavailable until a 1998 release on Trunk Records of a mono album dubbed from the shorter original cut of the film (hence missing the song "Gently Johnny"). This was due to disappearance of master tapes (long thought buried under the British M3 motorway) and it was not until 2002 that Silva Screen Records released a stereo version taken from the original master tapes that included the songs missing from the first release.

A live performance of the soundtrack at the 30th annual Brosella Folk Festival in Brussels, on 8 July 2006, underlined the cult status of the film and its music. The organisers were looking for something to mark three decades of the festival and as such, for the final act of the evening, they assembled "The Wicker Band". This ensemble included many eminent performers from the thriving Flemish folk-rock scene, as well as the singer Jacqui McShee, founding member and continual reviver of the 1960s folk-jazz band Pentangle, and fellow ex-Pentangle member Danny Thompson. The band performed music from the film, plus a few selected songs from the folk and singer-songwriter repertoire that seemed to fit the mood before, shortly after midnight, the director's cut of the film was shown on a giant screen.

• An instrumental version of "Willow's Song" is also available from the record label's website [2].

Trivia and cultural references

• Anchor Bay Entertainment released a limited edition wooden box of The Wicker Man. 50,000 2 disk sets were made, and 20 super rare boxes were signed by Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward, Screenplay writer Anthony Shaffer, Producer Peter Snell and Director Robin Hardy.
• The words spoken by Lord Summerisle while watching two snails mating (not in the 87 minute cut) is a corrupted quotation from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
• The film is almost entirely filmed in the Scottish location of Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway. Culzean Castle and its grounds were used for much of the shooting.

• The dying prayer of Sergeant Howie is taken from the words of Sir Walter Raleigh on the scaffold.
• The DVD commentary track states that studio executives suggested a more "upbeat" ending to the film, in which a sudden rain puts the flames of the wicker man out and spares Howie's life.

• Summerisle is fictitious, but there is a real group of Scottish islands called the Summer Isles. It might additionally be based on the island of St. Kilda, roughly 64 km northwest of the Outer Hebrides. Now administered by Harris, the last thirty-six inhabitants were evacuated, at their own request, in 1930 (due to economic hardship and other factors). Last, but not least; it could also be a reference to the Summerlands, the equivalent of heaven in Theosophical and neo-pagan belief systems.
• Scottish band Summerisle is named after the island featured in the film.
• English band Pulp released a song named "Wickerman" on their 2001 album We Love Life. It featured a sample from "Willow's Song".
• In 2000, heavy metal band Iron Maiden had a top ten hit in the UK with a song entitled "The Wicker Man" with lyrics by their lead singer, Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson previously recorded a different song with an almost identical title, "Wicker Man", in his solo career which was eventually released on The Best of Bruce Dickinson in 2001. This song made direct references to the themes of pagan worship in the movie, whereas the Iron Maiden version does not, and the repeat title was not Dickinson's own choice.
• Early 90s indie band The Mock Turtles featured a song entitled "Wicker Man" on their 1990 debut album, Turtle Soup.
• English band Candidate made a 2002 album, Nuada, inspired by The Wicker Man.
• The Wicker Man is shown in the background on TV in Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave.
• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, a festival called "Wickerman Festival" (in homage to the film) is held in the Undead capital of Undercity in the month of October.
• Siouxsie & the Banshees song "Blow the House Down" contains direct references to The Wicker Man.
• Britt Ekland offended the local citizens of the town where the film was shot when she commented to newspapers that it was the most dismal place she had ever been to in her life. Many years later Ekland stated that she was unhappy while making the film, and she apologised for her remarks.
• A body double was used for Britt Ekland in the seduction scene, without her knowledge. The double arrived by car as Ekland was driven away from the set after the day's filming. The two actresses can quite clearly be seen to be different from the way they move to the scene's music.
• In the final scene, Woodward was urinated on by the goat in the compartment above him.
• The Wicker Man is featured in Andy Riley's The Book of Bunny Suicides.
• Seafood (band) covered Willow's Song on their third full-length album, As The Cry Flows.
• Isobel Campbell covered Willow's Song on Milkwhite Sheets.
• The video to "Goodbye" by The Coral features a homage to the final scenes of "The Wicker Man".
• The Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! episode, "Season of the Skull" is a parody of "The Wicker Man".
• This film was #45 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Remakes

Main article: The Wicker Man (2006 film)

An American remake, starring Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and directed by Neil LaBute was released on 1 September, 2006. Robin Hardy expressed concern about the remake.[3] Subsequent to its release, Hardy simply described it as a different film rather than a remake.[4] Hardy is working on a re-imagining of The Wicker Man, which has previously gone under the working titles May Day and Riding the Laddie and is now referred to as Cowboys for Christ. First announced in April 2000, filming on the project has been delayed but is currently scheduled for March 2007. Hardy has already published this story as a novel. It follows two young American evangelical Christians who travel to Scotland; like Woodward's character in The Wicker Man, the two Americans are virgins who encounter a pagan laird and his followers.

References

Template:Wikiquote

• Brown, Allan (2000). Inside The Wicker Man: The Morbid Ingenuities. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-283-06355-6.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} The various versions of The wicker Man. Steve Philips. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Mark Kermode. Some Wicker This Way Comes. Channel4. Retrieved on 2006-12-10. “Mark Kermode goes deeper than anyone has ever gone before into the myths of The Wicker Man”
3. ^ The Wicker Man (Trivia) at the Internet Movie Database
4. ^ The Wicker Man Enigma 2001 documentary on the film's production and various releases. at the Internet Movie Database

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