#14 - The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man (1973)
Directed by: Robin Hardy. Written by: Anthony Shaffer.

Plot: A police guy (Edward Woodward) goes out to an isolated isle to investigate either a murder or a disappearance (unfortunately, I am getting a lot of crossover from the shitty remake which I actually saw before this movie. Fail). He finds that all of the inhabitants of the island are pagan weirdoes and involved in human sacrifice.

Review: Ya know, it’s horribly dated but this is actually a pretty good movie. It’s one of those ones that I was expecting to be just sort of average or whatever, and lessened by the fact that I knew what the shocking ending was going to be, but it was still really good. It surprised me how good it was.

It’s bizarre and disturbing how much I enjoyed this movie. It was practically a musical for fuck sake. Like, what the hell?

It’s just that… I dunno, it never goes too far with anything. It goes along at exactly the right pace, the characters are all right, it maintains the right level of weirdness throughout. It’s all just really right.

Especially in contrast with the remake which manages to do everything wrong. Pacing, character development, casting, cinematography, script… basically everything that can go wrong did.

I thought that it was easy to sympathize with most/all of the characters in this movie. Edward Woodward is sort of intolerant towards the freaks, but you know, that’s just how he his. He’s got his own problems. And the pagan weirdoes… well, they’re kinda confused, but they’re doing what they have to do to cover their asses. Everybody is weirdly likeable.

But this is a really weird movie, on a lot of levels. I dunno, it sort of defies words. Good stuff though. Very cool. Except painfully seventies. But ya know it manages.

Can’t think of anything else to add on the subject. Oh yeah, you get to see Christopher Lee in drag, which is as disturbing as it sounds. He actually looks alarmingly like Cher. It’s scary.

Yeah, I’m trying to think of something just to pad this review out to a slightly less pitiful length. Um. Well. Britt Eckland spends, like, the whole movie naked. I think that can be counted as a plus. She is pretty sexy.

Aaaaaand… um… yeah. Pretty good movie. Okay, whatever. I really can’t think of anything else to say about it. Just watch the fucker.

Favourite Part: Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!

Other versions: Aforementioned shitty remake. Stars Nicholas Cage. Need I say more?

Sequels: None.

Click here to read my original (and equally garbled) review (June 2nd, 2007).

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