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And so to the late, great Edward Woodward himself, who inspires great confidence as Sergeant Howie, a man whose unfettered dogged persistence defies all who stand before him in his pursuit of answers.
A key scene in understanding Howie comes when, upon visiting the school house, he is shocked to discover the school mistress (played by Diane Cilento, a former Mrs. Sean Connery and widow of screenwriter Anthony Schaffer) teaching her young class the phallic importance of the maypole. Approaching an empty desk he assumes to belong to Rowan Morrison (the missing girl at the centre of the mystery) he is surprised to discover a small beetle tied to a piece of string running endless circles around a small nail with no apparent meaning or purpose. “The little old beetle goes ’round and ’round.”, a fellow classmate explains, “Always the same way, y’see, until it ends up right up tight to the nail. Poor old thing!”. “’Poor old thing’?”, exclaims Howie incredulously, “Then why in God’s name do you do it, girl?” And why, in God’s name, DOES he do it?
“The Wicker Man” thus places the audience into Howie’s shoes and, although his strictly puritanical outlook on life often makes it difficult to sympathize with him, we nonetheless feel safe in the hope that he has the power of divine righteousness on his side. But, like Howie, we also suspect that there’s something far darker at the core of the community, and it’s not until the final moments that that dark truth is revealed to us. And in an age when twist endings are ten a penny and audiences savvy to a bit of narrative rug pulling it speaks volumes that the finale of “The Wicker Man” continues to shock me with each and every subsequent viewing, leaving me shaken, silent and in complete awe as the end credits roll.
If rumour is to be believed the leadrole of Sergeant Howie was initially offered to Peter Cushing who eventually turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. And perhaps, in retrospect, that was a blessing as despite being an icon to many I don’t feel Cushing could have afforded the role the same degree of humanity as Woodward did, for whilst Lee and Pitt add a certain sense of foreboding gravitas to the film and suggest a darker undercurrent to the narrative to cast such an iconic horror actor in the lead role would, I feel, have been a grave mistake.
And how can we possibly fail to mention the music? Written by the late Paul Giovanni, who sadly died of AIDS in 1990, the soundtrack was recorded by Magnet, a band formed by the film’s Associate Music Director Gary Carpenter for the sole purpose of the film. Standout tracks would undoubtedly be the seductively soothing rhythms of “Gently Johnny” and the hauntingly beautiful strains of “Willow’s Song”. Elsewhere, Christopher Lee provides his unforgettably deep vocals for “The Tinker of Rye”, “Corn Rigs” offers an arrangement of Robert Burns’ “Rigs Of Barley” and “The Landlord’s Daughter” provides a beer-swillingly bawdy singalong.
Widely considered to be a major influence on the neofolk and psych folk genres the soundtrack is not only a vital component of the film’s overall majesty but can easily stand apart as a superb folk album in its own right, incorporating elements of folk, Celtic, and other sounds to craft an unforgettable musical experience. It’s a wonderful blend of guitar, piano, recorders, lyre, and other acoustic instruments, rich in tone and beautifully played, and one that lends the film a great sense of character.
This release also includes both the original 84 minute Theatrical Cut alongside the 99 minute Director’s Cut that restores a futher 15 minutes to an already stunning film to produce what is quite possibly an even more superior film to the original. Granted, the additional scenes are of an extremely poor quality but they add a great deal more substance to the film. The main additon comes in the form of an extended prologue set on the mainland which is far more successful in setting up the character of Howie as we see him receive the mysterious letter that sets the story in motion though the extended cut also adds several additional and rejigged scenes that stretch the story over two nights and add a far more chronological sense of logic to proceedings.
But that’s all by the by … simply put, “The Wicker Man” is that rarest of beasts insofar as it defies genre pigeonholing having over the years been labelled as everything from a horror film to a psychological thriller and a musical to a existential melodrama. It’s a film that pulsates with such richness, character, subtext, intelligence and mystery that come the unforgettable climax very few individuals will leave the film untouched. In a generation that has frequently seen horror become overly homogenized, packaged, franchised and all too reliant on cheap scares, gratuitous gore and CGI overkill Hardy’s film triumphantly stands head and wicker shoulders above the competition as not only one of the greatest British horror movies of all time but, quite possibly, the greatest British film of all time.
“Animals are fine, but their acceptability is limited. A little child is even better, but not NEARLY as effective as the right kind of adult”