The Wicker Man - Wikipedia. The Wicker Man is a 1. British mysteryhorror film directed by Robin Hardy. It stars Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1. Ritual, centres on the visit of Police Sergeant Neil Howie to the isolated island of Summerisle, in search of a missing girl.

Howie, a devout Christian, is appalled to find that the inhabitants of the island have abandoned Christianity and now practise a form of Celtic paganism. Paul Giovanni composed the film score.[4][5]The Wicker Man is generally well- regarded by critics. Watch What Lola Wants Online Fandango. Film magazine Cinefantastique described it as "The Citizen Kane of horror movies", and in 2.

The Wicker Man is a 1973 British mystery horror film directed by Robin Hardy. It stars Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee.

Total Film magazine named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time. It also won the 1. Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, the burning Wicker Man scene was No. Bravo's 1. 00 Scariest Movie Moments, and during the 2.

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Summer Olympics opening ceremony the film was included as part of a sequence that celebrated British cinema. In 2. 01. 3, a copy of the original U. S. theatrical version was digitally restored and released. In 1. 98. 9, Shaffer wrote a script treatment for The Loathsome Lambton Worm, a direct sequel with fantasy elements.

Hardy had no interest in the project, and it was never produced. In 2. 00. 6, an ill- received[6]American remake was released, from which Hardy and others involved with the original have dissociated themselves. In 2. 01. 1, a spiritual sequel entitled The Wicker Tree was released to mixed reviews. This film was also directed by Hardy, and featured Lee in a cameo appearance. Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) journeys to the remote Hebridean island Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison (Gerry Cowper), about whom he has received an anonymous letter.

Howie, a devout Christian, is disturbed to find the islanders paying homage to the pagan. Celtic gods of their ancestors. They copulate openly in the fields, include children as part of the May Day celebrations, teach children of the phallic association of the maypole, and place toads in their mouths to cure sore throats. The Islanders, including Rowan's mother (Irene Sunters), appear to be attempting to thwart his investigation by claiming that Rowan never existed.

While staying at the Green Man Inn, Howie notices a series of photographs celebrating the annual harvest, each featuring a young girl as the May Queen. The photograph of the most recent celebration is suspiciously missing; the landlord (Lindsay Kemp) tells him it was broken. The landlord's beautiful daughter, Willow (Britt Ekland), attempts to seduce Howie, but he refuses her advances. After seeing Rowan's burial plot, Howie meets the island's leader, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), grandson of a Victorianagronomist, to obtain permission for an exhumation.

Lord Summerisle explains that his grandfather developed strains of fruit trees that would prosper in Scotland's climate, and encouraged the belief that old gods would use the new strains to bring prosperity to the island. Over the next several generations, the island's inhabitants fully embraced the pagan religion. Howie finds the missing harvest photograph, showing Rowan standing amidst empty boxes.

His research reveals that when there is a poor harvest, the islanders make a human sacrifice to ensure that the next will be bountiful. He comes to the conclusion that Rowan is alive and has been chosen for sacrifice. During the May Day celebration, Howie knocks out and ties up the innkeeper so he can steal his costume and mask (that of Punch, the fool) and infiltrate the parade. When it seems the villagers are about to sacrifice Rowan, he cuts her free and flees with her into a cave.

On exiting it, they are intercepted by the islanders, to whom Rowan happily returns. Lord Summerisle tells Howie that Rowan was never the intended sacrifice – Howie himself is. He fits their gods' four requirements: he came of his own free will, with "the power of a king" (by representing the Law), is a virgin, and is a fool.

Defiant, Howie loudly warns Lord Summerisle and the islanders that the fruit- tree strains are failing permanently and that the villagers will turn on him (Lord Summerisle) and sacrifice him next summer when the next harvest fails as well; Summerisle angrily insists that the sacrifice of the "willing, king- like, virgin fool" will be accepted and that the next harvest will not fail. The villagers force Howie inside a giant wicker man statue, set it ablaze and surround it, singing the Middle English folk song "Sumer Is Icumen In." Inside the wicker man, a terrified Howie recites Psalm 2.

Christ. He curses the islanders as he burns to death. The wicker man collapses in flames, revealing the setting sun. Production[edit]Background[edit]In the early 1.

Christopher Lee was a Hammer Horror regular, best known for his roles in a series of successful films, beginning with The Curse of Frankenstein (as the monster, 1. Lee wanted to break free of this image and take on more interesting acting roles. He met with screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, and they agreed to work together. Film director Robin Hardy and British Lion head Peter Snell became involved in the project.

Shaffer had a series of conversations with Hardy, and the two decided that it would be fun to make a horror film centering on "old religion", in sharp contrast to the Hammer films they had both seen as horror film fans.[7]Shaffer read the David Pinner novel Ritual, in which a devout Christian policeman is called to investigate what appears to be the ritual murder of a young girl in a rural village, and decided that it would serve well as the source material for the project. Pinner originally wrote Ritual as a film treatment for director Michael Winner, who had John Hurt in mind as a possible star.[8] Winner eventually declined the project, so Pinner's agent convinced him to write Ritual as a novel instead.[9] Shaffer and Lee paid Pinner £1. Shaffer set to work on the screenplay.

He soon decided that a direct adaptation would not work well and drafted a new story based only loosely on the story of the novel.[1. Shaffer wanted the film to be "a little more literate" than the average horror picture.

He specifically wanted a film with a minimum of violence and gore. He was tired of seeing horror films that relied almost entirely on viscera to be scary. The focus of the film was crystallised when he "finally hit upon the abstract concept of sacrifice." The image of the wicker man, which gave the filmmakers their title, was taken from one sentence in Julius Caesar's account of his wars in what is now France. Caesar claimed that the local tribes there had executed their most serious criminals by burning them alive in a huge man- shaped sculpture of woven twigs. For Shaffer, this was "the most alarming and imposing image that I had ever seen."[1. The idea of a confrontation between a modern Christian and a remote, pagan community continued to intrigue Shaffer, who performed painstaking research on paganism.

Brainstorming with Hardy, they conceived the film as presenting the pagan elements objectively and accurately, accompanied by authentic music and a believable, contemporary setting.[1. One of their main resources was The Golden Bough, a study of mythology and religion written by Scottish anthropologist James Frazer.[1.