Robin Hardy-The Wicker Man-Christopher Lee,E.Woodward,B.Ekland-2DVD SPECIAL EDIT
The Wicker Man
NEW 2 DVD SET
2 DISC SPECIAL EDITION
Edward Woodward (Actor), Christopher Lee (Actor),Britt Ekland, Robin Hardy (Director)
The Wicker Man is a film about a pious Christian sergeant’s visit to a small island off the coast of Scotland called the Island of Summerisle. His name is Neil and he is there to investigate the disappearance of a girl. His investigation reveals that the island is enamored with a neo-pagan religion. They worship the sun instead of Jesus. They engage in pagan fertility rituals instead of Neil’s proud pre-marital chastity. They believe in reincarnation where the Christian canon Neil is devoted to does not. As if the islanders are telepathically connected, Neil receives absolutely no help from anyone in his investigation. He gradually puts together more and more details about the inhabitants’ practices and is suspicious of everyone.
A May Day festival approaches and Neil becomes concerned that the girl who is missing may indeed be the latest sacrifice to appease nature. But as the Island owner Lord Summerisle reveals, Neil too is a virgin and is both wise and foolish. He comes as a king representing Her Majesty’s government. He also arrives to a place of sacrifice by his own free will. The final sequence of the Wicker Man is the ultimate warning toward blind faith. Anyone who misses the point here, like the makers of the 2006 remake of the Wicker Man did, will clearly find little resolution in the end, but others willing to enjoy and exercise their imagination a little bit will have much to mull over.
The film’s music is one of its strengths and the detail of the pagan references and how they are convenient roots to many Christian traditions (i.e. Easter icons and Beltane or May Day) help to make the overall vision of the Wicker Man even more compelling. All of the elements within the film melt together and everyone working it must have understood these ideas in perspective.
Pagan fertility rituals in The Wicker Man (1973)
The funny thing about the Wicker Man is it is often referred to as a Horror film. There really isn’t anything else to call it, but it is almost too unique and exceptional to be deemed a horror film. It isn’t scary like a typical horror film is. It doesn’t elicit fear and disgust the way all other horror films have. There are no zombies, vampires, or murdering sociopaths. There are no supernatural forces and there is little blood to be spilled. It isn’t characterized by that one note creepy music or menacing Hitchcockian suspense. It doesn’t rely on knives and masked killers stalking in the night. It doesn’t even need a seemingly indestructible villain. The Wicker Man is a film that relies exclusively on its all encompassing atmosphere and it also relies on our own understandings of religion and faith. It is sunny, it is bright, it is cheerful, but for all of the wrong reasons to many of us. It is compelling all throughout. Somehow on this island paganism resurfaced and the worshippers are fiercely and irrationally devout. That point’s layers of commentary aside, the Wicker Man is very much a horror film and it is probably more intelligent than any other movies within its genre.
- Format: PAL
- Region: Region 2
- Studio: KINOWELT
- IN ENGLISH
- Dolby Digital 5.1 English DVD1: 84 MINS
- MONO DVD 2: 99 MINS (DIRECTOR'S CUT)
- theatrical trailer
- GERMAN SUBTITLES
- Code: 4006680047843
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