The Wicker Man
Short description
The Wicker Man follows Sergeant Neil Howie, a police officer from the mainland who travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the reported disappearance of a young girl. The islanders insist the girl never existed, and Howie's strict Christian faith puts him at odds with their way of life. The community, led by the charming Lord Summerisle, follows an old pagan nature religion, and the longer Howie stays, the more he suspects the residents are hiding something behind their evasions and contradictions.
Robin Hardy directed the film from a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, with Peter Snell producing. It was Hardy's first feature as director. Edward Woodward plays Howie, Christopher Lee plays Lord Summerisle, and Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt and Roy Boyd appear in supporting roles. The credited cast runs to 48 names. Made in the United Kingdom and released in December 1973, the film runs 93 minutes.
The film's reputation has grown over the decades. On IMDb it holds a 7.5 rating from around 105,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.3 from roughly 1,730 votes. A critics' rating of 8.1 from 70 reviews places it somewhat above those audience scores, indicating stronger praise from reviewers than from the general viewing public.
What's left behind the scenes
- Although the film is set in May, it was shot in November.
- Christopher Lee played his role for free. By that time, Lee was in dire financial straits, and he felt that the role of the lord was simply magnificent and would help him improve his situation.
- In the final scene, Woodward delivered his lines looking through the bars at nearby cliffs where giant transparencies with the text were placed.
- Michael York and then David Hemmings were considered for the lead role, but when they didn't show enthusiasm, Robin Hardy invited television actor Edward Woodward (at the recommendation of screenwriter Anthony Shaffer and producer Peter Snell).
- The boat that Sergeant Gowrie (played by Edward Woodward) sails away on after getting off the plane wasn't built specifically for the film. It belonged to one of the local residents. In 2004, it sank in a storm.
- According to director Robin Hardy, the film was mainly shot in Scotland, but aerial shots were taken in South Africa because the film's budget didn't allow for attaching foliage to the trees.
- The film's negatives and footage were stored at "Shepperton Studios", but when the company changed hands, its new owners ordered the storage to be cleared of all "old junk". The storage manager accidentally placed the negatives that had just arrived from the lab with those that had been selected for destruction.
- The film is set on the Hebrides Islands, where in the 1960s Gaelic languages were primarily spoken, but these languages are hardly used in the film. Moreover, some of the customs mentioned in the film are English, not Scottish.
- Filming took place from October to November, when there could simply be no flowering trees on the island. The trees in the scenes with the pregnant women were artificial.
- Filming Britt Ekland's dance sequence took 13 hours.
- Cinematographer Harry Waxman was imposed on director Robin Hardy by the executive producers. They feared that the key scene with the main character could not be shot on location and would require composite photography, and Waxman had the most experience in composite photography at the time (he shot Val Guest’s 1961 science fiction film “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”), so they hired him. Hardy was very unhappy with this situation, and he and Waxman constantly argued during filming.
- The director's cut of the film includes a scene where the characters of Edward Woodward and John Hallam are riding in a police car, which was actually filmed in a garage. The illusion of oncoming cars was created by two assistants waving flashlights in front of the windshield.
- The film's budget was so small that a significant portion of the actors – including Christopher Lee – worked without pay.
- During a break in filming the final scene, some members of the props department rushed to the leading actresses with coats. Ingrid Pitt noticed that they themselves were not wearing outerwear and, in solidarity with them, refused to put on a coat.
- On his days off from filming, Edward Woodward was repeatedly offered a trip to the location where the film's climax would be shot, but he refused each time, wanting to be there for the first time during the actual filming. Therefore, the structure known as 'The Wicker Man' was the first thing the actor saw when his character was dragged up the hill. The cry of 'Oh, God! Right God!' was half the actor's scream and half Sergeant Howie's. According to Woodward, throughout his acting career spanning over six decades, he had never been as frightened as when he was inside the burning 'Wicker Man'.
- The film studio's executives were so shocked by the film's ending that they demanded screenwriter Anthony Shaffer and director Robin Hardy, respectively, rewrite and reshoot it so that a sudden downpour would extinguish the flames and save Govi. Shaffer and Hardy flatly refused.
- A genuine cult has grown up around the film about occultism. Since 2004, the "Wicker Man" music festival has been held in the places where filming took place (Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland). At the end of the festival, a giant Wicker Man doll is burned – a sacrifice to the gods of the festival.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
