![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerHas anyone seen THE WICKER MAN? I finally just did. Even though the ending has been spoiled for me numerous times (for which, I have discovered, I am all the poorer), there were a number of reasons I wanted to see it, mainly that it's written by Anthony Shaffer (author of SLEUTH and brother of Peter) and that Christopher Lee still considers it to be one of my favorite roles. Apparently, he liked the role so much, he agreed to do it for free.
It's fascinating to watch him here. This is one of the few roles I've seen Christopher Lee in where he's not playing someone unspeakably evil. He's actually warm and charming! I think my brain broke at the scene where he's in a frilly shirt and bright red kilt, playing piano and smiling like Liberace.
But back to the film itself. I really want to talk about it here, to give it a full-out review, but I really need to bounce some thoughts off other folks. It's a fascinating, subversive, complex little movie, rich with appeal for folks interested in comparative mythology and... stuff. Seriously, it's such an interesting movie. It's suspenseful, but there's no "foreboding" music. Rather, the soundtrack is pretty well all folk songs (who knew THE WICKER MAN was a musical? Not I!). And while it's often categorized as a horror movie, it really isn't, although the ending is rather horrific. And the movie does have its flaws (pretty much every second of Britt Eckland and her butt-double... I'm tempted to include Christopher Lee in drag, but how can that ever be a bad thing?), but I think its rises above them.
And then there's the main character, the "hero." He's not very likable throughout the majority of the film, since he's a repressed, often oppressive, intolerant man who shoves his single-minded version of Christianity in the faces of those filthy, filthy pagans (among the many things that disgust him, he's horrified to learn that the schoolchildren are learning about phallic symbols). And yet, by the end... well, I don't want to say there's a full-on BLADE RUNNER style of role reversal (when the hell did Roy become angelic?!), but I really want to see what other people make of what those characters do and say. I think it's safe to say that this is a fascinating movie of subjectivity, with no clear-cut black or white answer. I'm glad I finally saw it.
It's fascinating to watch him here. This is one of the few roles I've seen Christopher Lee in where he's not playing someone unspeakably evil. He's actually warm and charming! I think my brain broke at the scene where he's in a frilly shirt and bright red kilt, playing piano and smiling like Liberace.
But back to the film itself. I really want to talk about it here, to give it a full-out review, but I really need to bounce some thoughts off other folks. It's a fascinating, subversive, complex little movie, rich with appeal for folks interested in comparative mythology and... stuff. Seriously, it's such an interesting movie. It's suspenseful, but there's no "foreboding" music. Rather, the soundtrack is pretty well all folk songs (who knew THE WICKER MAN was a musical? Not I!). And while it's often categorized as a horror movie, it really isn't, although the ending is rather horrific. And the movie does have its flaws (pretty much every second of Britt Eckland and her butt-double... I'm tempted to include Christopher Lee in drag, but how can that ever be a bad thing?), but I think its rises above them.
And then there's the main character, the "hero." He's not very likable throughout the majority of the film, since he's a repressed, often oppressive, intolerant man who shoves his single-minded version of Christianity in the faces of those filthy, filthy pagans (among the many things that disgust him, he's horrified to learn that the schoolchildren are learning about phallic symbols). And yet, by the end... well, I don't want to say there's a full-on BLADE RUNNER style of role reversal (when the hell did Roy become angelic?!), but I really want to see what other people make of what those characters do and say. I think it's safe to say that this is a fascinating movie of subjectivity, with no clear-cut black or white answer. I'm glad I finally saw it.
