The Wicker Man (1973)
Universal DVD (region 4)

INTRODUCTION

The troubled post-production history of this remarkable British genre-defying movie has contributed as much to its cult reputation as the merits of the film itself. 

Although praised by select critics on its original release, the film was rarely seen and almost never in the version intended by its director, Robin Hardy (in an astonishing debut feature).  When Hardy’s final cut was presented to the studio, the new management had little faith in the movie and saw to it that it was trimmed by about 15 minutes and dumped into “low-end” British theatres without much fanfare.  Taken up by a tax shelter group in America, who merely held it, the film then virtually disappeared from world view.  With such a prolonged absence, its reputation started to grow and it became a talking point – considered the unseen masterpiece of British cinema.  Soon, the people seeking it out were no longer confined to the fantasy-horror core cult fans but comprised film students, historians and even academics familiar with its reputation alone.  However, all that was available for the curious were the various truncated versions; until some American enthusiasts managed to track down a complete release print.  From this they were able to reconstruct the film and then finally re-release it.  The re-release was something of a cinematic event, the re-discovery of a lost classic.  Indeed, this director’s cut has restored to cinema one of its unique treasures.

SYNOPSIS

Edward Woodward plays a strictly religious, chaste and staunchly moral Scottish police officer who one day receives an anonymous note concerning a possible missing girl on the remote Scottish island of Summerisle. 

A proud, dogmatic and arrogant man, he goes to this isolated island to investigate, piloting a small plane.  Once there, he finds that the locals still practice the pagan religion and worship the Old Gods.  His Christian sensibility is offended by the teachings, practices and what he considers the anti-Christian eroticism around him and he is increasingly resentful, even conflicted when this usually asexual man begins to feel erotic stirrings for a local barmaid (Britt Ekland), stirrings which deeply threaten his established faith.  He continues to investigate and begins to suspect that the villagers are lying when they say they have not seen or heard of the girl.  When he notices a missing photograph from the pub / rooming house, he begins to suspect some sort of a cover-up.  Finally, he confronts Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) who explains to him the religious nature of the populace and their preparation for the upcoming May Day celebrations.  Further outraged by this paganism, he does some research and slowly starts to suspect that the girl may have some horrible role to play in these upcoming celebrations, perhaps she may even be intended as some kind of human sacrifice.

CRITICAL COMMENTARY

The Wicker Man is a complex juxtaposition of religious faiths, exploring their fallibility and relativism.  Christianity is repeatedly contrasted to paganism: hence, the myths of martyrdom, sacrifice and resurrection are common threads in what is a clash of beliefs in a world perhaps even forsaken by both God and the Old Gods. 

Woodward plays a repressed puritan full of Christian arrogance, prepared to laud the superiority he feels is innately his by some kind of divine right.  What he cannot comprehend, and is unnervingly put forward, is the sheer jovial optimism that these people seem to share – full of song, celebration and sexual openness.  What is eerie, however, making for a sly eroticism through the movie, is the stress they place on natural (sexual) regeneration as almost an obsessive part of the communal make-up.  This eventually leads Woodward to believe that they are capable of abhorrent actions.  Is it just his Christian fear-of-sex bias or is there something more sinister behind these seemingly cheerful people?  The film cleverly thus makes their pagan happiness most disconcerting and as the film proceeds it plays with the possibility that this seemingly harmless if unusual lifestyle may indeed hide a greater malevolence that the film considers a legacy both of human nature and of religious belief.  This doubt is brilliantly sustained through the movie, as Woodward himself is unsure of what he discovers.

The film’s extra-ordinary ending represents the innate madness of religion as exposed via the depiction of Woodward as a proud, arrogant and essentially fearless man who is forced to confront suspicion, moral revulsion and even fear on spiritual, psychological and physical levels. 

Unknown to him, he is constantly watched by pagan eyes, the hint of something more at work than his sense of Christian superiority (and naïve ignorance) will even admit possible.  This un-erotic man is forced to confront his own repressed feelings but is in a sense doomed by his beliefs, forced into a final devastating reckoning with his own fate where he must draw on his reserves of faith to reconcile horrific circumstances.  His faith is repeatedly contrasted with pagan beliefs, making for a most subversive attack on Christianity: the film essentially showing that neither religion has a greater validity than the other – as it is belief alone that validates, justifies and rationalizes each.  Each religion has its own communal rituals, places of worship, and beliefs in sacrifice and the afterlife but Christianity is held almost wanting both for its inability to reconcile the spirit and the flesh and for its conceited denial of the sexual regeneration inherent in paganism.  The film thus expertly toys with the theme of religious absurdity, whilst remaining frighteningly plausible.  Although not a horror film per se, it is both horrifying and thought-provoking.

DVD DETAILS:

Vision

The 16:9 enhanced widescreen transfer is possibly the best this film will get unless the supposedly lost original negative is ever found.  Quality is always clear, although varies from sequence to sequence.  The restored version was assembled from the release print and a 1 inch telecine master, the differences resulting in the uneven look.  This may be unavoidable, although it does indicate just how much was removed from the film’s theatrical version.  The restored footage develops Woodward’s character and the movie’s eroticism.  The film uses its eroticism as a religious criticism, an assault on morality as it has evolved since Christianity replaced paganism.  There is a motif of looking and a sense of effortless openness in camera style, though juxtaposed with constant notions of constriction as Woodward seems ever more entrapped by place and belief.  Often hand-held, it has a raw authenticity.  The pagan dances have a genuine beauty and wonder – the idea of a malevolent innocence has rarely been as perfectly achieved visually as in The Wicker Man.  The judicious use of slow-motion adds to the longing accompanying Woodward’s outrage.  Much is made of the absence of Lee (whose first appearance in the director’s cut differs from that in the theatrical version).  Ekland’s nude dance, with Woodward in an adjoining room – separated by an unbreakable wall – is a slyly erotic scene of the irreconcilability of their respective faiths and desires.

Sound

Special Features

There are many extra features on this special 2-disc Collector’s Edition.  Included as a second disc is the original theatrical release of the film, allowing the viewer to see just how much of the film was butchered and how much thematically was lost in such actions.  For instance, the film as intended takes place over two nights but for the theatrical version was re-edited for one night.  As extra features on this second disc are the original theatrical trailer, an interview with Lee and director Robin Hardy taken from American television when the film was restored and re-released, and an informative documentary featurette entitled “The Wicker Man Enigma”.  This documentary examines the origins of the film, the attitude to the religious conflict in the movie, the historical importance of the film in

British cinema and talks of the film as about the role of sacrifice.  Interesting mention is made of the design of the wicker man itself and of the research involved in bringing this movie convincingly to the screen. It also explores the role of music in the film and how its use was arrived at, and outlines the studio problems that led to the film being drastically re-edited into the various versions distributed over time.  It also outlines the lengthy and dedicated process that led to the film being fully restored, and it is clear from this that many people, not only the filmmakers, had a passion for this truly astonishing movie. 

Although these special features provide valuable and ample background with which to properly gage the movie, another feature of additional interest is found on the first disc of the Director’s Cut in the form a moderated commentary track by Woodward, Lee and Hardy as they reflect upon and discuss the origins of the story, its deliberate differences from the then-popular Hammer horror movies in particular (many of which also starred Lee and had indeed contributed to his iconic status within the horror genre), and the revival of interest in paganism and its practices.  In addition, there is more information offered about the film’s many different versions and what was removed from the director’s initial plan.  They also outline the theme of sacrifice in religion and culture pertaining to the movie, the role of music in the film’s tone, the location and casting process, the calculating eroticism and the film’s exploration of the nature of conspiracy.  The film is also mentioned in terms of its gamesmanship approach to narrative and cinematic means of manipulation and there is a brief mention of the once-penned sequel (which perhaps thankfully was never made into a film, although it would undoubtedly make a most interesting read).  They also talk in depth about the ambiguities and themes raised in that most remarkable ending and how it relates to the religious conflict running throughout the movie.  The commentary is always insightful.

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