Summary
When a police officer from the mainland is dispatched to an island to investigate a girl’s disappearance he runs into trouble as no one on the island seems to even remember her existing.
Context
“The Wicker Man” is a classic of the horror genre although your average movie attender may not have even heard of it and if they have, it was probably the Nic Cage version that they are thinking of.
I watched it because it is on the Criterion Channel and as I have watched “Hereditary,” by Ari Aster and “Don’t Look Now” another classic horror film on CC, I noticed some influences and references to that film. With “Midsommar” approaching I had to check out this other film which I heard had influenced Ari Aster this time around.
My Thoughts
On its surface “The Wicker Man” is about a police officer who is investigating the disappearance of a girl from a small island community. He meets nothing but resistance and opposition from the village as they are not very interested in outsiders and are also preparing for their big May Day celebration and would rather he not be around for it.
As he learns more our police officer is apalled to find out that the community is a sort of revival village for paganism and the many songs he hears, interactions he has, and confusions he endures revolve around the culture shock of being in a world of people who don’t think the way you do.
This subtext is the most interesting aspect of the film to me. The way that witchcraft, paganism, and humanism are expressed is in many ways similar to the way a person who is Christian might feel in a community of all Buddhists or a Muslim might feel in a community of all Atheists.
At first, it seems that while there may be differences in many areas, on the whole they should be able to get along. It is only after a considered screw-down into the details that it becomes apparent that they have intractable differences, not just surface ones.
I don’t know how much of this is intentional but it was the main thing I was feeling all the way through the film. Until the final facade is dropped and the heinousness of their communal intentions are revealed, there doesn’t seem to be any reason that the police should care at all about what they are doing. They aren’t hurting anyone and while their beliefs might make some roll their eyes, the same could be said of any religion or philosophy.
It isn’t until it is revealed that they have violent intentions beneath it all that all the awkward feelings and confusion that had permeated the film coalesce into the cruel scheme in which Sgt. Howie had been an unwitting pawn.
It is a film about self delusion, communal story, and appearance vs substance. It’s about knowing and how we know, fear of those who are different, and the limits of personal authority and autonomy.
Strangely, I find it to be a strongly conservative film as many of the issues brought up from below the surface are typically fears of isolationists and fearful communities who are unsure of their ability to withstand cultural change or difference. Unfortunately that is also exactly the kind of person who typically would not watch this movie because of the paganism that is depicted within it. I do think there would be great value in it for those sorts of people though, if they could find a way to see beneath the imagery used and realize how much they have in common with the pagans in this film and also with Sgt Howie.
Movies like this are not valuable because they are so intense (although it is) or because they portray us exactly as we see ourselves. The value blow the surface of this film is that the characters are so different from us that we are able to insert ourselves and our own issues beneath the metaphors the film maker is employing.
It is precisely because the extreme to which this community takes their belief is further than I would go that makes me ask questions of myself and how far I would take certain beliefs especially when they run up against another.
It is a warning of how manipulative, conniving, and cold we can be toward “the other” within our communities and an exhortation not to let ourselves go that way. Caring only for ourselves and our own small niches, silos, and facebook groups carries with it the huge danger of misunderstanding, not trying to understand, or not even not listening to people who aren’t in our circle of confirming friendships even those who show up on our shores for altogether good or righteous intentions.
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