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The Wicker Man

The Wicker Man

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: best pagan film I've seen
Review: I have seen this movie twice and love it. The soundtrack (featuring Todd Alan and many more) is awesome. As a film representing the pagan community, it is more accurate than modern representations. Well, until the ending of the film that is. But, I can't explain why the ending does not maintain the standards without giving the movie away. However, I think that the movie is quite amusing- just read the quotes page on amazon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Smell of Maypole in the Morning
Review: This masterpiece will soon be available as a limited edition DVD. You can smell the wood coming off this movie. Your grandpa's woodburning set will make you love this movie! But this film is not only for old people. If you enjoy the smell of flowers then this movie is for you. Don't sleep on this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: chopped version
Review: This version the, 99 minute chop job, cuts out all of the parts that make this a great movie. This version turns it into a b grade horror movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A true renaissance film
Review: I saw this film because I have recently become a big fan of British horror film actor Christopher Lee. He is the last surviving great horror film actor and one of the last of the great movie villains. Unfortunately, Lee has rarely gotten roles that do real justice to his great talent. "The Wicker Man" is an exception.

A Scottish Christian fundamentalist police officer(Edward Woodward of TV's "The Equalizer") receives an anonymous letter reporting a missing child on a nearby pagan-inhabited island. Woodward travels to the island, which is governed by pagan lord Christopher Lee. Woodward's religious beliefs harshly clash with the views of the pagan inhabitants as he searches for the missing child. The film climaxes in what is arguably the greatest twist-ending in film history.

"The Wicker Man" is the archetype of a great renaissance film. The film successfully combines several different genres, including the Horror film, Detective story, Mystery movie, Drama, Satire, and Musical. There is no other movie like it.

Christopher Lee gives the greatest performance of his career. He was fifty years old when he made this movie but he looks several years younger. Lee has said that "The Wicker Man" offered him his favorite role and I believe him. He is absolutely charismatic as the suave and ruthless Lord Summerisle. Lee is far more effective in this film than he was in any of his Dracula movies.

Not only Lee but also screenwriter Anthony Shaffer should have been nominated for Oscars. The film has the most creative dialogue that I have ever seen in a movie.

I have already seen this movie seven times and could stand to see it seven times more. Well-recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: High class horror.
Review: Once again, the viewer must ignore the notorious Leonard Maltin's claim that The Wicker Man is not really a horror movie. Like countless other comments he's made, it misses the point. Sure, it's a thriller, but some thrillers are also horror films: the foreboding and mounting sense of eerie, pagan atmosphere, the deliberate pace, and the occult subject matter place The Wicker Man within the horror genre, albeit it in an unorthodox manner. It's obviously not Friday the 13th, which is a good thing.

Although some viewers don't seem to agree. One customer below refers to it as a "quick kill horror-thriller." What?! He also says it's "primarily a thriller, not a modern day Cliff notes version of Sir Anthony Frazer's GOLDEN BOUGH." What does it mean to be "primarily a thriller"? As if that is incompatible with an intelligent script and mythic/Jungian components! The Wicker Man's script contains both these things, although nobody ever said the film was the equivalent of Anthony Frazier.

Yes, in summation, thrillers can be horror movies and horror movies can have intelligent scripts. Sorry I haven't actually reviewed the film, but then I wouldn't go out of my way to make these points if The Wicker Man wasn't a film I respected. You can take that as a recommendation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: B 21 or B Gone
Review: [This is in reference to the 102-minute version]

Check yourself - if you don't know IN ADVANCE what the Easter Bunny is really all about, don't waste your time with Wicker Man; it's going to go right past you. If you can't imagine watching ANY movie five or six times, don't waste your time watching this once; it's like giving yourself a two-day weekend to visit Tokyo. And if you're not comfortable with a movie unless you've got it slotted by genre, the characters sorted by stereotype, and the two or three possible endings figured out by the end of the first reel, you're going to be much, much happier watching "Swordfish."

But for the grown-ups, this is an absolute treasure. If you've read The Golden Bough, Heart of Darkness, or Anthony Burgess, you get ALL the jokes in Wicker Man, Apocalypse Now, and Clockwork Orange, where the kiddies are seeing only Willow work the wall, lots of explosions, and a couple of violent rapes.

I once saw a comment in print to the effect that you can't say you're a cool person until you've seen Faster, Pussycat! Kill!Kill! OK, if you've got an IQ that breaks into three digits, you haven't completed your cultural education till you've seen Wicker Man TWICE. And I speak as one who passed on this movie for years, thinking it was some lame cross between the Lottery and Children of the Corn.

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[DEFINITE SPOILER] I've seen and heard comments from some Christians who're deeply disturbed by Wicker Man. Look again, folks, and keep your eyes fixed on Edward Woodward. When was the last time you saw such a naked confession of faith in a general-release movie? When was the last time you saw a Christian character made a martyr precisely BECAUSE he was acting to the highest standards of duty, honor, and morality?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wicker Man will entertain, shock and provoke thought
Review: Think of all the shock twist endings of today's flicks like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. These endings are merely the weak, mild-mannerd children of the robust father of all twist endings: 1973's The Wicker Man, written by Anthony Shaffer (Frenzy, Sleuth).

But The Wicker Man is so much more than its twist ending. This movie dares to explore the nature of religion, of the provocative uncontrolable power of mass hysteria, and the impotence of an individual when challenging a mob.

This film, for me, sparked deep thought not only into the concept of religious differences, but into all areas of mass hysteria, be it African Americans being lynched decades ago by white mobs in the deep South, the Holocast, or the mass hysteria of the Salem Witchcraft Trials or Spanish Inquisition.

But, aside from the deep complex messaging, the movie is also entertaining, and has a wonderfully infectous and authentic folk soundtrack. And the overall atmosphere and mood of this picture is something you won't forget for years to come!

This movie, which failed at the box office but over time became a cult favorite, is arguably one of the most important films ever made, especially for those brave enough to examine its horrifying underlying message of religious intolerance and the frailty of individual liberty when in the face of mass hysteria.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quick Kill Horror Thriller...
Review: I am perplexed at the mythical/Jungian depths ascribed to this film. Yes...the "stuff" is there. But WICKER MAN is, primarily, a thriller not a modern day Cliff notes version of Sir Anthony Frazer's GOLDEN BOUGH. This said, the movie is an eerie, excellent police procedural with some fine DON'T LOOK NOW (Nicolas Roeg) twists. Edward Woodward...The Equalizer...is superb as the no nonsense detectve dispatched to SUMMERISLE to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Christopher Lee is his mocking antagonist who baits THE PROPER CHRISTIAN COPPER into a terrifying test of his courage and Faith. Britt Ekland is stunning as Willow, a modern Druidic-cult priestess, who challenges Sergeant Howie in a steamy sequence to sin by yielding to erotic seduction. The soft whistful music; folk tones and atmosphere of false comity created by the people, Lord Summerisle and Director Hardy set the viewer up for a climax which is blood curdling. THE WICKER MAN is not a paeon to New Age cultism or witchcraft. Neither is it...in my estimate...an attack on Christianity. It is a very engaging...sometimes subtle...but ultimately take-your breath away, quick kill, horror thriller......

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: in the woods there grew a tree....
Review: what a beautiful film. it starts off so innocent and gradually gets more and more bizzare and sinister. The all-star cast is brilliant. Chritopher Lee is a Genius and the same can be said for Edward Woodwood. please come, say how do. enough said. buy this film, now. you won't regret it and you'll understand my incoherent mumblings. I'll say it again, buy this film in its 86 minutes of niceness and your life will never be the same again. Thanks for your time. bye

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Please put this out on DVD
Review: This movie is so good that it's a crime that it's no longer easily available. Anchor Bay, are you listening?


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