The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man is a film set on an island off of the coast of Scotland, called Summerisle, Sergeant Howie is called anonymously to search for a missing girl. When he gets to the island everyone denies her existence and are very unhelpful, Howie however is determined to find out about what happened to her.

Starred

•     Edward woodward

•     Christopher lee. played lord summerisle.                New film coming “The Wicker Tree” with Robin Hardy 

•   Britt Ekland played willow. 

Production Details

•  The Wicker Man was associated with the British Lion Film Corporation which produced and distributed the film. The company were taken over by EMI, the executives disliked the film and made several cuts of it.

American Popular Film of the Time

• The Exorcist. William Friedkin. USA. 1973 This film was American and very successful in 1973, it had a much bigger budget.

Relation to Culture of the Time

Played off of societies fears at the time, meaning when it was released it mostly seemed scarier than today. Although it is still known as one of the best British horrors of all time.

In Summerisle the islanders are very open about sex, Howie sees people having sex in open areas and it seems to be a thing that is celebrated among them. Howie feels very uncomfortable with this and it alienates him further from the islanders strange beliefs. This representative of what was actually happening during the late 60s/ early 70s, many people were becoming more open about sex and religious views became much less valuable and became out dated and old fashioned. These fears are very much reflected in the film.

Sergeant Howie represents the alienation in the film, he goes to a strange, natural place and with his foreign, modern beliefs it is immediately apparent that he is an outsider. The opening sequence of the film shows an airplane flying into a natural looking island, these binary opposites symbolize the contrast in Niel being from the modern, more civilized world than Summerisle.

 Additionally...

•       The audience of this film at the time would have probably been attracted to this film if they were fans of the talent, for example, Christopher Lee was a very famous actor of the time and they might have wanted to see him in this.