Loved this. You're so right about the Puffin Books/Folklore Myths & Legends thing. It influenced an entire generation, courtesy of the local library: a diet of Reader's Digest folklore, time-travel, hauntings, things witchy and dodgy stuff from Frazer's Golden Bough. I have two copies of FM & L- of course I do, bought from a second-hand book shop for three quid a piece. The prices today! I've seen the book change hands for hundreds.
It says something about the impact of the book but it is one of the few things I have hung onto from childhood - I still have the copy I 'borrowed' from the school library.
Fabulous. I suppose there’s a double fruity pun there with Rowan Morrison, given rowan berries (and their mythological significance in Irish lore). The wheat stalks on the kettle stopped me dead: I hadn’t pictured such a thing for more than 40 years but OH MY GOD YES.
I’ll be honest, I love The Wicker Man and thinks it’s a bona fide classic, hence my celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2023 for CulturAll:
That's a terrific piece - your point about how the film balances our sympathies between the islanders and Howie is really key, I think - as well as the sinisterness underlying the folklore that has become seen as childish. Also I didn't know that link to 'Don't Look Now' - I'm so glad two of my favourite films are linked that way
Thank you, that’s kind. The hobbyhorse scares the bejesus out of me. I love the way everyone involved was willing to turn the “otherness” up to 11; actually, not purely “otherness“ but uncanniness as well because in some ways it’s so humdrum and familiar and ordinary. And that’s genuinely frightening.
Excellent review. No I wouldn't show it to the kids, but hope they discover it for themselves. Strange how the 60's British hippy "folk-ways" (mostly about naming your van Gandalf and getting as much sex as possible) had soured by the 70s, more chaotic and likely to involve drug dealing and scary dogs. The hidden and then open violence of The Wicker Man reflects that change? (or just a return to reality after the Flower People fantasies, it probably wasn't pleasant in the real old days if you were eg the village idiot or an outsider, after the harvest failed).
Hah! I suspect your last point is key. Getting back to nature is incredibly appealing until you remember that nature doesn't have ibuprofen or central heating.
Great piece. And you're spot on about Howie - he's a fundamentally decent Christian, but a deeply unpleasant guy to be around. Out of the Unholy Trinity, this is the one I keep coming back to, mostly because it's got a sense of humour (largely thanks to the great Anthony Shaffer), and at times plays like a '70s sex comedy ("Confessions of a Human Sacrifice") or borderline parody of the Hammer movies (helped by the inclusion of Lee and Pitt). There's a wit to both Witchfinder and Satan's Claw, but Wicker Man is downright funny at times.
Also, bonus points must go to the "Ewar Woowar" gag. That one is evergreen.
Loved this. You're so right about the Puffin Books/Folklore Myths & Legends thing. It influenced an entire generation, courtesy of the local library: a diet of Reader's Digest folklore, time-travel, hauntings, things witchy and dodgy stuff from Frazer's Golden Bough. I have two copies of FM & L- of course I do, bought from a second-hand book shop for three quid a piece. The prices today! I've seen the book change hands for hundreds.
It says something about the impact of the book but it is one of the few things I have hung onto from childhood - I still have the copy I 'borrowed' from the school library.
Fabulous. I suppose there’s a double fruity pun there with Rowan Morrison, given rowan berries (and their mythological significance in Irish lore). The wheat stalks on the kettle stopped me dead: I hadn’t pictured such a thing for more than 40 years but OH MY GOD YES.
I’ll be honest, I love The Wicker Man and thinks it’s a bona fide classic, hence my celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2023 for CulturAll:
https://culturall.io/the-wicker-man-at-50-a-weird-masterpiece/
That's a terrific piece - your point about how the film balances our sympathies between the islanders and Howie is really key, I think - as well as the sinisterness underlying the folklore that has become seen as childish. Also I didn't know that link to 'Don't Look Now' - I'm so glad two of my favourite films are linked that way
Thank you, that’s kind. The hobbyhorse scares the bejesus out of me. I love the way everyone involved was willing to turn the “otherness” up to 11; actually, not purely “otherness“ but uncanniness as well because in some ways it’s so humdrum and familiar and ordinary. And that’s genuinely frightening.
Excellent review. No I wouldn't show it to the kids, but hope they discover it for themselves. Strange how the 60's British hippy "folk-ways" (mostly about naming your van Gandalf and getting as much sex as possible) had soured by the 70s, more chaotic and likely to involve drug dealing and scary dogs. The hidden and then open violence of The Wicker Man reflects that change? (or just a return to reality after the Flower People fantasies, it probably wasn't pleasant in the real old days if you were eg the village idiot or an outsider, after the harvest failed).
Hah! I suspect your last point is key. Getting back to nature is incredibly appealing until you remember that nature doesn't have ibuprofen or central heating.
Great piece. And you're spot on about Howie - he's a fundamentally decent Christian, but a deeply unpleasant guy to be around. Out of the Unholy Trinity, this is the one I keep coming back to, mostly because it's got a sense of humour (largely thanks to the great Anthony Shaffer), and at times plays like a '70s sex comedy ("Confessions of a Human Sacrifice") or borderline parody of the Hammer movies (helped by the inclusion of Lee and Pitt). There's a wit to both Witchfinder and Satan's Claw, but Wicker Man is downright funny at times.
Also, bonus points must go to the "Ewar Woowar" gag. That one is evergreen.