Robin Hardy
The Wicker Man

The charm of the Borderlands... the Wild Man of the Alpine Arch, the Mammutones of Sardinia, the vampire suggestions of Transylvania, Scotland. Yes, Scotland, with its landscapes, its monsters hidden in the lakes, the incomprehensible pronunciation of its inhabitants, the Celtic legacies. It was obvious that sooner or later someone would make a film about it, much less obvious that the result would be this masterpiece called "The Wicker Man", which at the time (1973) was awarded with many cuts to the full version to make it more marketable and with only moderate success, today the object of such a cult that, during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, some of its scenes made an appearance in the section dedicated to English cinema.

Credit goes to a team (starting with director Robin Hardy and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, the true engines of the whole project) in a state of grace, which turned the story of Sergeant Howie, who travels from the mainland to Summerisle in search of Rowan Morrison, a missing girl that no one seems to know, into the opportunity to stage a real clash of cultures and a singular descent into the most ancestral recesses of British imagination, gifting us with an almost perfect film. A movie that today, just like then, is first and foremost surprising. Produced by a company linked to Hammer and with the names of Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pitt on the poster (that is the vampire and vampiress par excellence of Hammer-branded horror), one expects to be in front of yet another B-movie horror, commendable and artisanal enough to make it fun.

Then you also notice the presence of Edward Woodward as the main actor, then the famous protagonist of the TV series "Callan", and you might think that the film is a crime story. However, the cast also includes a bombshell blonde like Britt Ekland (some might remember her as Peter Sellers' wife), and one begins to suspect that it could be a sexy comedy. The beauty is that "The Wicker Man" is all three things at once: it's a crime story bordering on thriller with Sergeant Howie's investigation, a mysterious and arcane film that turns into true horror in the troubling finale, a film steeped in often explicit sexual references, most of which are concentrated on the local "goddess of love", Willow, the innkeeper's daughter played by Ekland (a memorable dance of hers as nature intended). All the actors, nevertheless, deliver a memorable performance, spontaneous (considering that Hardy often used common local people) and possessed at the right point, capable of giving further stature to what Christopher Lee himself has always considered his best film, for the making of which he did not hesitate to act without any fee and even funded the project out of his own pocket.

"The Wicker Man" is also — to a certain extent — a musical, with a stunning soundtrack composed by Paul Giovanni alternating original folk compositions with rearranged Scottish traditional melodies. It is often the same characters who play and interpret the songs, punctuating the pagan rites to which the inhabitants of Summerisle are devoted, or accompanying amorous encounters, inviting to them.

But, above all, "The Wicker Man" is, as mentioned, the compelling representation of a cultural clash, that between Sergeant Howie, a devout advocate of Anglo-Saxon and Christian civilization, and the inhabitants of Summerisle, led by Lord Summerisle, devoted to pre-Christian practices and rituals and a pantheistic religion aimed at the cult of nature and fertility, which in its human aspects embodies a very strong erotic component lived out in the open. The film thus stages the drama of incommunicability between the two worlds, however, without falling into the temptation of putting one in a bad light. If, indeed, on one hand, Sergeant Howie may come across as cloying in his rigid morality, on the other hand, he is also the only representative of a hint of real common sense in front of the extravagances of Summerisle's inhabitants, particularly when these are presented with an aura of pseudo-rationality by the village teacher. And while at first, the traditions and customs of Lord Summerisle and his countrymen may fascinate and tickle that inevitable nostalgia for a more spontaneous and natural approach to life that resides in each of us, as the story progresses, the rites and beliefs become increasingly unsettling and alarming. It's in the finale that this incommunicability becomes shocking and absurd, revealing a bitter truth about Summerisle: as in every utopia, the well-being of the individual is (literally) sacrificed for that of the community.

"The Wicker Man" is, therefore, above all an experience, a whirlwind capable of involving step by step, song by song, piece by piece, and surprising until the end. It's a different way of reacquainting oneself with one's roots and rereading the beginning of summer, and the perfect antidote to so much fundamentalism and new age.

P.S.: In 2006, Hollywood had the sad idea of remaking it with the same title and Nicholas Cage. Needless to say, the result is a disaster (thanks also to Cage's acting, which borders on the comedic), from which one should stay as far away as possible, especially considering that it occasionally airs on TV under the title "The Chosen One". Only the original should be sought, even though there is no Italian version.