The Wicker Man

A

amberguillen

New member
This has always been one of my favourite films and I must have watched it over ten times.

But there's one thing that I've always seen as a fault in the plot.

It concerns the landlord / daughter giving Sgt. Howie the 'hand of glory' to knock him out when he retires for the night before May Day.

If it is to incapitate him ahead of his fate the next day then we would have to assume Lord Summerisle instructed them of knew about it.

Therefore, Summerisle is subsequently unaware on the march the next day that Howie has hijacked the landlord's Punch costume. (He tells the 'landlord' to put some effort into his part in the procession).

But of course the march leaRAB Howie to Rowan, and in turn, his fate, which is all part of Summerisle's plan, so he (Summerisle) would have to have known that Howie was in the Punch costume, which he apparently didn't!

I can't believe I'm the only person to have picked up on this, as I know there are loaRAB of die-hard Wicker fans out there who probably know the script off by heart, so perhaps I'm misinterpretating something.

But any comments about the above, or chat about the film in general are welcomed.

TC
 
Well for one thing. I bet you don't feel like your with Cage at the end of the film like you do when you are with Woodward. You just feel every moment with him (and the animals screaming). Horrible.
 
Well apart from the fact the original was hacked down so that the action covers two days instead of three. I am not sure I follow your reasoning. LS was playing mindgames with Howie and set him up to steal the Punch output. Remember the victim had to volunteraly make his way to the site of the sacrifice.
 
I think it takes a bit of a leap of faith to assume that Willow and Dad would have bothered with the 'hand of glory' to make him sleep if they knew poor old Dad would have got coshed and taken the Punch costume. Surely Summerisle wouldn't have planned that as part of the set-up?

Maybe I shouldn't take it too seriously, but there you go... ;)
 
But who would have guessed he was capable of playing the role like that if they had only seen his hardman Callan? It's what good actors do.
 
The Director's cut doesn't clear up the point I was making, but as the other correspondent quite rightly observed the plot is revealed over an extra night.

There are lots of other deleted parts that make the Director's cut essential, especially the above and scenes at the start of the film. The audio commentary is very interesting too, as is the documentary ehich should also be on the DVD.
 
Hopefully the free DVD will be the Director's cut over three nights in Summerisle not the two.

Going back to my original point, :o from what other contributers have stated, then, Summerisle 'knew' that Howie would cosh MacGregor the Landlord. Man, he was good! :)
 
Nooooo! Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! Enough of the remakes already! And Nic Cage!!? NO! Edward Woodward brought an awkward, believable innocence to the role, Cage could never do that in a million years! :( :mad:
 
The Wicker man is my favourite movie. Although I should not judge before I see the movie, I think its safe to say that Hollywoodizing this movie is going to ruin it completely :confused:

Its sacrilegious I tells ya :mad:

I have the directors box set addition of this, but I am still going to buy the guardian on Saturday, as I am a Wickerman dork :o

Listen to Gently Johnny here :D

http://media.putfile.com/Gently-Johnny-

"Hail Nuada, God of the Sun"
 
This is a classic film that shouldn't be remade.

I don't know about you, but watching Nicholas Cage burning to death inside a wicker effigy will probably be more amusing than disturbing.
 
I honestly don't get the anti-remake feeling surrounding The Wicker Man. This is a film that's crying out for a re-make.
The Wicker Man is about a small-town policeman who goes to a remote community to investigate the disappearence of a young girl. Whilst there, he comes to realise that this community has abandoned 'conventional' Christian values and morality and adopted a paganistic society, complete with patriarch, sacrificies and worship of sun goRAB.

The original isn't a film 'of it's time'. There's nothing in the film that no longer applies to today's society which would need to be excluded and therefore alter the film substantially. This type of hedonositic society still goes on today in parts of the world, as typified by the recent Pitcairn Island case. In this day and age of internet and global travel, it might take a bit of a leap to believe there's communities in the US where this sort of society has flourished un-checked, but with many parts of the country relatively isolated, maybe it isn't that far-fetched. You can argue till the cows come home about the casting, but there have been countless cases where a supposedly 'wrong' actor put in an incredible performance in a film.

I can see the problem with remakes if the original version's main concept and key scenes no longer made sense today (you couldn't remake Wargames in the same way for example), but as long as these still apply, I'm all for it. Just because a film is regarded as a classic shouldn't mean it's forever excluded from a remake. If it was, we'd never have PJ's King Kong. (I'm not saying that film's good or bad, but I never heard anyone saying it should never have been made).
 
That would be ace. I can see the ending now, the helpless police officer is put in a wooden cage and the druiRAB dance around with glee and prepare to set it alight...

And then over the horizon an Apache AH64D helicoptor appears, piloted by Willis. Rockets, machine guns, naplam!

The police woman is rescued and as the sun sets Willis embraces her, etc.
 
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