Friday 3 June 2011

Burning belief

The Wicker Man (1973)

Today we have a British cult classic staring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland. When a young girl goes missing from a pagan community living on a remote Scottish island a policeman from the main land comes in to investigate.

It is hard to pigeon hole this film, it is often listed as a horror film but does not really belong in that genre. The film is more of a mystery involving the game between the locals and the outsider policeman as well as a culture clash between the local paganism and the policeman's devout Christianity. It is really interesting to see the culture clash that would presumably have been acted out nearly a thousand years previously when Christianity came to England but in a modern setting.

What is also important to note is that there is more than one cut of this film knocking about and the longer ones make much more sense and fill in some blanks from the original release. The ending of the film is one of the best in British cinema and certainly has some striking images. There are also some really good performances from the cast although there are some question marks over how much of Britt Eklands performance is actually her own as her dialogue and singing were dubbed while some of her dancing is a body double.

4/5 miles better than the American remake.

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