{"id":195,"date":"2006-05-21T02:47:50","date_gmt":"2006-05-21T06:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=195"},"modified":"2018-08-22T17:55:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T21:55:10","slug":"the-wicker-man-hardy-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=195","title":{"rendered":"(Hardy 1973) The Wicker Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"06-05-21<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I hear (with a shud\u00adder of hor\u00adror) that an Amer\u00adi\u00adcan remake of this clas\u00adsic British Ham\u00admer Stu\u00addios film is in pro\u00adduc\u00adtion. Yet anoth\u00ader insult to a fine film that under\u00adwent more than its share of insults. The orig\u00adi\u00adnal was idi\u00adot\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly mar\u00adket\u00aded as a shock-hor\u00adror pic\u00adture, ensur\u00ading that the peo\u00adple who would have appre\u00adci\u00adat\u00aded it nev\u00ader saw it and the peo\u00adple who saw it hat\u00aded it. Then it was bru\u00adtal\u00adly re-cut in such a way as to make the film incom\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsi\u00adble. That hatch\u00adet-job of a print cir\u00adcu\u00adlat\u00aded for years, an embar\u00adrass\u00adment to the direc\u00adtor and the stars who per\u00adformed bril\u00adliant\u00adly in it. The direc\u00adtor even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly re-acquired the rights to it, and did his best to restore the orig\u00adi\u00adnal cut. I was present when the restored ver\u00adsion was pre\u00admiered in San Fran\u00adcis\u00adco, with the direc\u00adtor in atten\u00addance. There have been two doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtaries made about this sad chain of events, nei\u00adther of which I\u2019ve seen. If you rent the film, or see it on tele\u00advi\u00adsion, beware of the butchered print, which still circulates.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"06-05-21<\/a>The plot of The Wick\u00ader Man is unique. A police\u00adman (Edward Wood\u00adward) in the Scot\u00adtish West High\u00adlands gets a let\u00adter from a small island in the Hebrides. The island, under the influ\u00adence of a warm cur\u00adrent, is famous for export\u00ading apples. The let\u00adter asserts that an island girl has gone miss\u00ading. When the police\u00adman arrives on the island to inves\u00adti\u00adgate, he dis\u00adcov\u00aders two pecu\u00adliar things: 1) every\u00adone on the island is try\u00ading to \"06-05-21<\/a>hide some\u00adthing from him, and 2) the islanders have aban\u00addoned Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty for a revived form of ancient pagan\u00adism. We are giv\u00aden, from the begin\u00adning, a clear pic\u00adture of the policeman\u2019s char\u00adac\u00adter. He is prig\u00adgish, pious\u00adly reli\u00adgious, and a vir\u00adgin. He is utter\u00adly shocked by the hap\u00adpy-go-lucky lifestyle of the neo-pagan islanders, with their joy\u00adful sex\u00adu\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty, bawdy pub songs, and chil\u00addren danc\u00ading naked. Much of the back\u00adground is explained in his inter\u00adchanges with the island\u2019s Laird, bril\u00adliant\u00adly played by Christo\u00adpher Lee, and with the island school\u00adteacher (Diane Cilen\u00adto). The police\u00adman suf\u00adfers the ulti\u00admate temp\u00adta\u00adtion to his piety (and vir\u00adgin\u00adi\u00adty) in the form of the rav\u00adish\u00ading\u00adly beau\u00adti\u00adful tavern-keeper\u2019s daugh\u00adter (Britt Ekland), and is even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly drawn, step-by-step, into a trap that puts him into the Wick\u00ader Man. The trick of the \"06-05-21<\/a>film is to take a per\u00adson that one instant\u00adly feels con\u00adtempt for, and put him into a sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion where, even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly, you come to respect his view. I will not spoil the sto\u00adry for those who haven\u2019t seen it. Suf\u00adfice it to say that the tale reca\u00adpit\u00adu\u00adlates what must have hap\u00adpened a thou\u00adsand times in a thou\u00adsand vil\u00adlages of ancient Europe, as Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty moved into and dis\u00adplaced pagan com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adties. The pagan lore pre\u00adsent\u00aded in the film is rea\u00adson\u00adably authen\u00adtic, giv\u00aden the expla\u00adna\u00adtion that it is pre\u00adsent\u00aded as an arti\u00adfi\u00adcial revival. The celtic music played in the film is wonderful.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"06-05-21<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hear (with a shud\u00adder of hor\u00adror) that an Amer\u00adi\u00adcan remake of this clas\u00adsic British Ham\u00admer Stu\u00addios film is in pro\u00adduc\u00adtion. Yet anoth\u00ader insult to a fine film that under\u00adwent more than its share of insults. The orig\u00adi\u00adnal was idiotically \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[948,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-d-viewing","category-du-viewing-2006"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9597,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/9597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}