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U.K.
/ 1973
Directed by Robin Hardy
Starring
Edward Woodward
Christopher Lee
Britt Ekland
Color / 98 Minutes / R
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC / 2-disc set)
Anchor Bay Entertainment
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"He's
dead. Can't complain —
He had his chance. And in the modern parlance...
blew it."
His
Lordship on the Christian God
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Now
back in print!
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9
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9 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Esteemed
playwright/screenwriter Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth)
wrote the script for this most unusual — and nigh
on impossible to pigeonhole — motion picture.
The
Wicker Man
is unique and unforgettable, the horror/suspense/mystery
genre taken to the level of the art film.
I've never seen anything quite like it.
Edward Woodward (Breaker
Morant)
stars as Sgt. Neil Howie, a police inspector for
Scotland's West Highlands Constabulary. He receives
an anonymous letter suggesting that a young girl,
Rowan Morrison, resident of a remote island off
the western coast, has disappeared and possibly
met with foul play. A deeply committed Christian,
Howie is in for the shock of his life when he
travels to her home — the cheerfully named Summerisle.
The island's inhabitants are pagans. Worshippers
of the old Celtic gods, the placid populace lives
in communion with nature and are quite free and
open about sexuality. Howie is offended when he
witnesses couples fornicating in a graveyard,
young women dancing naked 'round a bonfire, and
children being taught about phallic symbols by
their schoolteacher. Summerisle's only Christian
church lies in ruins; the "one true religion",
as Howie puts it, vanished from the island generations
earlier. He's even more disturbed when the islanders
he questions strangely act as if Rowan Morrison
never existed — despite mounting evidence to the
contrary. Steadfast in his duty and his faith,
Howie resists the temptations of his sensual surroundings,
determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.
The ultimate answer may shock viewers as much
as it does him.
If all this makes The Wicker
Man sound like a fairly conventional suspense
thriller with an occult angle, one couldn't be
more mistaken. Shaffer's script is
intelligent and multi-layered, rife with symbolism
and subtle irony. Music —
specifically
Celtic music — plays
a significant role in the both the story and ambiance
of the film. As song is an important element in
the lives of the islanders there are a number
of almost surreal moments when the film takes
on the trappings of a musical. (Most memorably
during the erotic nude song and dance by Britt
Ekland and her [later inserted] "butt"
double.) Singing
or not, the performances by the leads are absolutely
topnotch. Woodward is superb as the bewildered
Christian cop, a man on a mission alone in an
alien culture. Christopher Lee's Lord Summerisle
is both benevolent and sinister at the same time
— munificent benefactor
to his island's people and evasive antagonist
to the police sergeant. Lee has called this not
only the best role of his long career (it was
written with him in mind by Shaffer), but his
best performance as well. He's probably right.
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Anchor
Bay's Limited Edition of The
Wicker Man is a variation on the company's
earlier, likewise-christened product that came
in oversize tin boxes; apropos of the subject
matter, this one's fashioned of wood with the
film's logo burned into the lid. Two discs are
included, with separate chapter cards for each.
Disc
1 contains the shorter (88-minute) version of
the film, as
initially released in theaters, along
with a satisfying array of extras. These include
the original theatrical trailer and numerous TV/radio
spots. An enlightening 35-minute documentary,
The Wicker Man Enigma, chronicles the film's
production, its shamefully bungled release and
subsequent rebirth as a cult favorite. In addition
to writer Shaffer, director Hardy and producer
Peter Snell, actors Edward Woodward, Christopher
Lee and Ingrid Pitt are interviewed for their
perspectives. U.S. B-movie king Roger Corman even
makes an appearance to discuss his attempt to
gain American distribution rights. (Like most
documentaries of this nature, it gives away the
movie's ending. Do not view this before
experiencing The Wicker
Man for the first time!) There
is also an "Easter Egg" hidden on the
disc's Extras Menu, consisting of a lengthy interview
of Lee and director Robin Hardy at a Louisiana
PBS station in 1978. The video quality of this
TV footage is poor —
and the host irritatingly self-important —
but the conversation itself is interesting.
The
second disc features the "Extended"
version of the film, restoring roughly 11 minutes
of footage cut from its
theatrical release. With those cuts
certain elements of the story were chronologically
rearranged; the Extended Version
restores a more natural narrative flow with events
taking place as Shaffer originally intended. (Ekland's
nude "Siren Song" dance doesn't come
jarringly out of nowhere, taking place as it does
much later in the film.) Woodward's Sgt. Howie
is afforded more character development; Lee gets
a beautifully written soliloquy on the nature
of animals in comparison to Man. I felt this "extra"
footage —
which should not have been trimmed to begin with
—
added a great deal to the film's story and atmosphere.
Thus my "9" Movie Rating is awarded
for the Extended Version and not the Theatrical
cut on Disc 1.
Both versions are letterboxed and anamorphically
enhanced for 16x9 TVs. The additional footage
included in the Extended Version was not taken
from the same master as the theatrical cut, so
these scenes are of inferior quality —
not an ideal
situation to be sure, but quite acceptable given
the extra depth bestowed. The bulk of the film
elements employed are the best looking we've ever
seen. Only the Theatrical Version is in Dolby
5.1 stereo (which certainly enriches the films'
numerous songs), though Disc 2's mono track was
perfectly adequate.
Anchor
Bay brings The Wicker Man
to DVD in two forms —
the Limited Edition, reviewed above, and the Theatrical
Version. The latter consists of the Limited Edition's
Disc 1, packaged in a standard DVD keepcase rather
than a wooden box. Naturally, it's cheaper. Both
the Theatrical and Extended versions are also
available in separate VHS editions. Confused yet?)
9/01/01
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The Limited Edition reviewed here went OOP a couple
of years after its release. Anchor Bay is reissuing
this 2-disc set in December 2006 with a new audio
commentary featuring Woodward and Lee. (It will
not come in a wooden box.) |
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