Sacrifice

Jessika 2021-12-30 17:21:10

A movie nearly thirty years ago is still regarded as a classic and remade. Moreover, it is a movie favored by the American cold metal group Agalloch. This 1973 version of "The Wicker Man" is worth a product. After watching, I checked the relevant film reviews and saw that the film style was classified as cut-type horror. Except for the weird and mysterious feeling and the incredible ending, there was no sense of horror during the viewing process, but afterwards, it seemed to feel a very mysterious and obscure horror.

The title of the film is literally translated as "The Wicker Man" or freely translated as "Heartist". The wicker man is a way of sacrifice by the Celts. The dolls (or living people) are tied up with the branches of wicker or trees and grass and burned to pray for blessings and prosperity for all living beings. Those who believe in this kind of sacrifice are The Christians call it heretics. At the beginning of the film, it is clarified that the background of the story is set on the summer island on the west coast of Scotland, and Scotland belongs to one of the settlements of the Celts, which matches the name of the film. And the huge burning wicker man at the end echoes the subject.

A police officer who was devoted to Christ received an unnamed letter from Xiadao describing the disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl, so the police officer rushed to Xiadao to investigate. However, the island is full of all kinds of absurd and inferior behaviors that deviate from civilization, making the police officer angry and unreasonable. For example, many pairs of men and women have group sex under the night, adults and children sing lewd songs and nursery rhymes, teachers teach vulgar content to students, a group of naked girls jumping on a campfire, a mother stuffing a frog into her daughter's mouth, inexplicably Barbaric sacrificial rituals and so on. The pious sense of mission led the police officer to continue investigating the girl’s disappearance, but when he finally discovered the truth of the incident, it was too late. He was made into a wicker man as a sacrifice and sacrificed to Natsushima in the raging fire. The god of nature believed by the residents.

If I talk about the understanding of the film, I personally feel that it expresses a kind of confrontation between paganism and Christianity, and it ended in the failure of Christianity. The pagan concept of the Xiadao people is that humans, like animals, plants and other substances in nature, are all elements of nature, and can transform and complement each other. Therefore, the Xiadao people advocate asexual reproduction, they do not agree with the term death, and all their absurd and vulgar behaviors seem reasonable under this pagan concept. Some seemingly plain dialogues in the film profoundly explain the theme and play a vital role in the rational development of the plot. For example, the female teacher said to the police officer: We believe that once the life of a person is over, the soul will return to the trees, air, fire, water, and animals, and return to another form of life. Another example is the words of Lord Summer Island: Nostalgia and awe of nature, respond to it and sacrifice to it when necessary.

There are two close-ups of small animals in the film. One is that Lord Xiadao watched the two snails lingering on the lower leaves of the night. These two snails may symbolize pagan freedom and justice. The other is that the police officer saw a wire-bound bug crawling blindly in the desk, which may represent the confinement of Christians to believers.

The desperate cry of the police officer who was about to die at the end was in stark contrast with the singing and dancing of the residents of Summer Island by the sea. The ending was new and disappointing. No matter how high-sounding dogma, it will always lead to cruel and absurd behavior.

The 2006 remake of "The Wicker Man" starring Nicholas Cage, I haven't seen it yet, but because of the habit of loving the house and the black, I decided to watch it. But it is estimated that it is not easy to see other things except for the gorgeous and dynamic visual effects.

View more about The Wicker Man reviews

Extended Reading
  • Jaylin 2022-03-21 09:01:55

    People are strange when you are stranger, women seem wicked when you are wanted.

  • Meaghan 2022-03-27 09:01:06

    8.5/10. ①The Christian police officer and the hero came to an island full of pagans to search for the missing little girl, but got into trouble and was sacrificed by a living person. ②The creation of a calm and peaceful atmosphere with a strange atmosphere: simple pictures + disturbed actors and plots with various insects and birds singing + (relatively speaking) beautiful and bright photography + peaceful and beautiful songs; strange Horrible ceremony + peaceful and beautiful songs (I like the part where the male protagonist is sacrificed most). ③ There is still room for improvement in the power of images; the narrative is too protracted.

The Wicker Man quotes

  • Willow: I thought you were gonna come and see me last night. I invited you.

    Sergeant Howie: I'm en... engaged to be married.

    Willow: Oh, does that stop you?

    Sergeant Howie: Aye, aye.

    Willow: I must say, you are a gallant fellow, Sergeant.

    Sergeant Howie: It's nothing personal. Just that I don't believe in it... before marriage.

    Willow: Suit yourself. I expect you'll be going back today. You wouldn't want to be around here on May Day. Not the way you feel.

  • Sergeant Howie: I don't know if you know it or not, but Rowan is not dead. They've got her hidden somewhere.

    May Morrison: They?

    Sergeant Howie: Now, look, if you know where she is, I beg you to tell me now before it's too late.

    May Morrison: Sergeant, I've already told you...

    Sergeant Howie: In the name of God, woman, what kind of mother are you? That can stand by and see your own child slaughtered?

    May Morrison: Sergeant, if I were you, I would go back to the mainland. Stop interfering in things that are no concern of yours.

    Sergeant Howie: I am going to search every house in this place during the next few hours, and if anybody, including you, stands in my way, they'll be arrested as accomplices to murder.