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Click above to purchase "The Wicker Man: Limited
Edition" at amazon.com
The Wicker Man
Limited Edition
review by Anthony D.
Studio: Anchor Bay
Running Time: 88 minutes (Theatrical Version); 99
minutes (Extended Version)
Starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt
Eckland, Ingrid Pitt, Diane Cilento
Written by Anthony Shaffer
Directed by Robin Hardy
Retail Price: $39.95
Features: Documentary, Talent Bios, Radio Spots, TV
Spot, Theatrical Trailer
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Surround, English Closed
Captions, Chapter Search, Two Disc Set
"The time has come to keep your appointment with
the wicker man."
Has Christopher Lee ever spoken a more chilling line in
his vast career?
"The Wicker Man," who is he? What is he? Is he Lord
Summerisle, who presides with an ancient religion over a
small Scottish Village? Or, is he the virginal Police
Sergeant Howie, who has been mysteriously summoned to this
strange Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of
a young schoolgirl? As written by the brilliant Anthony
Shaffer ("Sleuth," "Death on the Nile") the identity of the
title's creature is a well-kept secret until the very final
frames of this extraordinary film, hailed by Cinefantastique
magazine as "The 'Citizen Kane' of horror films."
Sergeant Howie receives an anonymous letter asking him to
pursue a missing person's case on the island community of
Summerisle. It would seem that a young girl, Rowan Morrison,
has disappeared without a trace. When Howie arrives at
Summerisle, a town not unlike Bodega Bay in Hitchcock's "The
Birds," the mystery takes an astonishing turn as not a
single villager will admit to ever knowing Rowan Morrison;
not even her own mother, Mae! Mae is the postmistress, and
general store manager, whose daughter also denies the
existence of having a sister named Rowan, however, the
watercolor painting she is working on is of a March hare
named, "Rowan."
But stranger events await Sergeant Howie when he checks
into "The Green Man Inn," populated by an irregular crowd of
regulars who can sing a salty chanty about "The Landlord's
Daughter," as readily as downing a pint of ale. Here, the
landlord's daughter is the sultry and sexy, Willow, who
offers up canned goods for dinner, despite the fact that
Summerisle is well-known for its fabulous fresh fruits and
vegetables.
Willow also welcomes the charms of naive young men, as
that evening progresses, and a sinister man appears outside
of her window. This, we will come to learn, is the one and
only Lord Summerisle, who has with him a young man ripe for
Willow's brand of bedding. As a ribald song is sung by the
tavern's denizens, Willow takes the boy on the journey to
manhood, while Lord S. quotes poetry to a pair of snails.
Admittedly, it is a scene that is not only creepy, but could
be risible in the hands of a lesser actor than Christopher
Lee, and this is the moment when I knew that "The Wicker
Man" was a special film the first time I encountered it,
many years ago. This strange, haunting scene with the bawdy
ballad, combined with the lifeforce of Lee and all that had
transpired up until that point, tells the viewer that "The
Wicker Man" is not going to be a traditional horror film.
Sergeant Howie's investigation continues through the May
Day rituals in all their rustic pagan glory. A visit to the
schoolhouse finds the youngsters engaged in learning the
phallic symbolism associated with May Day and all its
fertility rituals. The pious Christian is distressed by the
schoolmarm's undiluted, not to mention, unconventional
lesson plans. The schoolmistress, as well as her young
charges, insist that Rowan Morrison never existed, nor had
she ever been a student in the classroom. An empty desk,
turn up nothing but a beetle; sadistically tied up to a
nail. Upon seeing the teacher's ledger of students, Howie
surprisingly finds the name of Rowan Morrison. Found out,
the teacher confesses that Rowan has passed on. She is not
dead, according to the religion of the island, but Howie
believes that her grave might indeed hold the answers to the
mysteries he has encountered so far, but to exhume the body,
Howie must first receive the permission of Lord Summerisle
himself.
At a lush, verdant estate (hardly the type of castle one
would expect to find on the Scottish Coast), Lord Summerisle
warmly welcomes Sergeant Howie, although the latter is
aghast but that the schoolmarm is on the grounds teaching
"parthenogenesis" to nubile naked maidens. (Parthenogenesis
is of course the pagan ritual which has its Christian
counterpart in Immaculate Conception). Like the
schoolmistress, the lord is hospitable but distant. He
graciously consents to Howie's request to exhume the grave
of Rowan Morrison, not a consecrated site, since that church
has not been use for Christian purposes for many, many
years. Within the grave, Howie makes a startling discovery:
the body of a March hare! It would seem that Rowan Morrison
is not dead after all. Howie's discovery is brushed off by
the lord, who chides him with a warning that he'd best be
leaving the island, so as not to be offended by the pagan
rituals which will take place the next day, pagan rituals
which will allow the crops of fruits and vegetables (all
alien to Scottish territory) to grow and prosper.
Returning to The Green Man, Howie finds it difficult to
sleep, as his neighbor Willow is singing a siren song,
unlike us however, he is not able to see the seductive nude
dance which accompanies her tune.
Early the next morning, Howie puts all the evidence he
has unwittingly garnered together, and realizes that Rowan
Morrison is being held prisoner somewhere on the island, and
is to be sacrificed to the pagan gods at the end of the May
Day festivities. Unable to leave the island, (his airplane
has been tampered with), Howie takes action by knocking the
festivities' Fool unconscious and assuming his masked
identity. The parade is led through the streets of town by
none other than Lord Summerisle in his hermaphroditic robes
and wig. (Christopher Lee, by the way, does not make an
attractive woman).
Upon reaching a cliffside, Rowan is discovered, as Howie
suspected, chained outside of a cave. Valiantly, but ever
too easily, Howie rescues the hapless maiden from her
certain doom, only to realize that he has been bamboozled,
once again.
In a fiery finale, unforgettable once seen, everyone
finds their own answers to what they have been searching
for: Lord Summerisle has his affirmation that the crops will
be bountiful; Howie finds the answers to his prayers; as the
sun sets on the dancing revelers.
What a film! I can hardly contain my absolute pleasure
knowing that "The Wicker Man" has finally reached the
digital format (in two distinct packages) for another
generation to explore and discovery its mysteries as well as
its mayhem. Strictly speaking, "The Wicker Man" is NOT a
horror film, though horrible events take place, but owing to
the contributions of Hammer Horror film regulars such as
Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pitt, has acquired a reputation
for being a film which falls into the horror genre. Anchor
Bay's incredible package, nicely sold in a "Limited Edition"
wooden box, gives new life to this major cult film with its
Original Extended Version (running 102 minutes) as well as
the heavily truncated Theatrical Version. Unfortunately,
however, only the Theatrical Version is available outside of
the deluxe boxed set; which is the only disservice Anchor
Bay has done to "The Wicker Man." (The loss of eleven
minutes of footage, and re-arranging of scenes, nearly makes
the film incomprehensible). When it is all said and done,
"The Wicker Man" has already earned a place in cinematic
lore, and proven itself worthy of the careful reconstruction
which Anchor Bay has bestowed upon it.
I had expected that the Extended Version would be far
worse that it actually is. For reasons explained in the
Special Features, all of the scenes which had been cut for
the Theatrical Version have been inserted from a one-inch
telecine analog master, rather than from a negative; and it
is with these scenes that the film's age is highly evident.
Although the inserts vary in degree, the Extended Version is
still the preferred disc, without these scenes, the
Theatrical Version feels rushed and incomplete. Having said
this about the Extended Version, let's focus now on the
actual video presentation, which is pretty darned good,
considering all that "The Wicker Man" has gone through. To
reiterate the fact that "The Wicker Man" should not be
thought of as merely another entry in the horror catalogue,
director Robin Hardy begins by reversing the usual horror
conceit of darkness versus light, for in "The Wicker Man,"
the darkness holds clues as well as answers, while the
daylight is where the real "horrors" take place. Sergeant
Howie finally puts all the pieces of the puzzle together in
a darkened room, with only the aid of his flashlight. This
is more firmly implanted in the viewer's mind with the
Extended Version, wherein Sergeant Howie's stay on the
island lasts longer than one day and one night; in the
Theatrical Version, the time has been compressed so that all
the activity takes place within a supposed twenty-four hour
period. "The Wicker Man" looks very much like the 1973 film
that it is: a little on the soft-focused side, with natural
coloring throughout. As such, the detail which the DVD
offers is very well done: fabric density, pastel flowers and
nearly accurate fleshtones. Reds are definitely stable, and
the greens are indeed quite lush, as Lord Summerisle's
incredible estate is explored. The contrast level is right
on the mark, and though the blacks are not always as deep as
they could be, I really cannot fault the transfer. Both
features, however, are enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions.
As for the sound, I found some wondrous surprises within:
for the first time, I could understand every single syllable
of the nearly constant song score, "The Landlord's Daughter"
is as bawdy and ribald song as you're likely to find in a
Scottish pub. And while the Extended Version only contains a
Chace digital stereo track, it suffices. Both versions,
however, contain the performance of Britt Eckland, whom it
seems was mostly looped in at a later time. (Could Britt's
entire performance have really been that bad?) The
remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 track is contained only on the
Theatrical Version, and it is a quite an achievement, though
never reference quality. This track does expand the music to
a great advantage, and truth be told is a far cleaner listen
than the Extended Version. The Closed Captioning, on both,
is astonishingly accurate.
All of the Extra Features, including a valuable Easter
Egg, are encoded onto the Theatrical Version. A truly nifty
Theatrical Trailer leads off with the promise of telling a
tale to chill the bone, over an electric guitar based score,
the brief preview manages to hold the mystery of "The Wicker
Man" back, concentrating entirely on the supposed missing
person's case. The full frame TV Spot, in shoddy shape,
benefits only from a sonorous voice promising a fable of the
Ancient gods. Also included are four one-minute Radio Spots,
as well as ten thirty second spots: these spots play up "The
Wicker Man" as "the most controversial film of the decade."
These are narrated by the same gentleman who narrated the TV
Spot, but they also include thought-provoking dialogue from
the film itself. The text Talent Bios are limited to
Director Robin Hardy, Writer Anthony Shaffer, and Stars
Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. As with the Bios on
other Anchor Bay titles, these are very well-produced, and
written bios.
Saving the best for last, we come across a brand spanking
new documentary feature, whose thirty minute running length
manages to pack in everything you need to know about "The
Wicker Man Enigma." Complete with new interviews, as well as
behind the scenes footage, the documentary features nearly
everyone connected with the production, with the still alive
Britt Eckland being conspicuously absent. Of course we learn
in the documentary that in her most famous film scene, a
buttocks double was used, and that her then-husband Rod
Stewart objected highly to her even being in the film. But,
ultimately, the tale that the documentary tells vividly is
that of the release, or non-release, of "The Wicker Man."
How it bounded from one film distrubution company to
another, to Roger Corman's American International Pictures
and beyond is a story every bit as compelling as the film
itself. Personally, I was forcing back tears when I learned
of the fate of the original camera negative of "The Wicker
Man," as I am sure most film fanatics will do as well.
Finally, in a public forum, I can share one of my
all-time favorite films with a wider audience. I have
consistently shared this movie with friends ever since I
first obtained a videotape of it sometime ago. Like me, they
were entranced by its beauty, riddled by its mystery and
haunted, ultimately by its superior film making. "The Wicker
Man" is a very special film, and Anchor Bay has delivered a
stunning package, the wood scent alone is worth the price,
complete with two radically different versions of the film,
and a vast array of extras that are to die for. A true cult
film that manages to live up to its reputation, I am proud
that I was one of the first in line to see "The Wicker Man"
in theaters, and to now, be one of the first, though
hopefully not the last, to heartily endorse the subsequent
DVD release.
 (4.5/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (4/5 - Theatrical Version,
3.5 Extended Version)
 (3.5/5 - Theatrical
Version, 3 - Extended Version)
 (3/5)
(4/5,
NOT an average)
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