The Wicker Man (2006)

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Movie
German title The Wicker Man
Original title The Wicker Man
Country of production United States ,
Canada ,
Germany
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 101 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Neil LaBute
script Neil LaBute
production Nicolas Cage ,
Boaz Davidson ,
Randall Emmett ,
Norman Golightly ,
Avi Lerner ,
John Thompson
music Angelo Badalamenti
camera Paul Sarossy
cut Joel Plotch
occupation

The Wicker Man (alternative title: Wicker Man - Ritual des Evil and Wicker Man - The secret of the island ) is a feature film by US director Neil LaBute from 2006. The thriller is the remake of the 1973 film of the same name Nicolas Cage was so fascinated by the original that he also produced the new edition himself. For the most part, The Wicker Man takes the story of the original and changes little to make the movie a bit more modern. The film was released in US cinemas on September 1, 2006. It was published in Germany on November 2, 2006.

action

After the traffic cop Edward Malus could not help in a fatal accident, he sinks into deep feelings of guilt. When his former partner Willow asks him shortly afterwards to look for their missing daughter Rowan Woodward on the remote island of Summersisle, he sets off resolutely.

Once there, the policeman discovers that a pagan sect, led by the dominant sister Summersisle, is ruling life on the island. In the search for the missing girl, Malus learns more about the rites and strange views of the sect members, who are visibly withholding the truth from him. He is forced to take more drastic measures and overwhelms a villager in order to take part in a planned costume party undetected. Once there, he discovers the wanted Rowan, who is tied to a stake and, as Malus assumes, is most likely to be burned as an offering.

After Malus has freed the apparently trapped Rowan from the shackles, after trying to escape together he is led by her directly into the arms of the villagers who are already waiting for him and finally overwhelmed by them. Only now does Malus register that everything was only staged to lure him to the island, and that not Rowan, but himself should be burned as a sacrifice for good harvest yields. You break both of his legs, put his head in a kind of beehive and lock him in a large figure made of wicker, the wicker man.

The task of setting the Wicker Man on fire is entrusted to Rowan, with Malus being burned alive.

A time jump of six months follows. In a city bar, two police students look around for attractive women and discover two sisters from the island, who this time are made up and dressed in modern clothes. After a short conversation it becomes clear that they are looking for victims for their rituals. The ignorant young men are obviously interested. What will become of them in the end remains uncertain, but their fate is hinted at with the hum of bees, death screams and a crackling fire.

Original and remake

The differences

Basically, the two films are very similar. Both times it is a policeman who, under the pretext of looking for a missing girl, is taken to the island, where he ends up as a victim after a tour of the mysterious world. In the remake, Malus is a traumatized American traffic cop; in the original a highly religious Scottish police sergeant.

While the original begins with a visit to the local police station, there is a terrible accident on a street in Neil LaBute's recast, in which the character played by Nicolas Cage falls into deep feelings of guilt. These should better underline why the police officer later finds the girl so important. In the original, the dramatic (and cultural) conflict between the pagan polytheistic population of Summerisle and the pious piety of the pious policeman Sgt. Howie determines the plot.

Instead of a female cult leader, there is a male, Lord Summersisle, played by Christopher Lee in the original . While the men in the first film were also relatively equal to the others, different rules apply in the new version. The women are the more dominant group on the island, the men silent and ignorant.

Reviews

“What should I think of the fact that the character is played by a woman who was played by a man in the original from 1972, as part of a Scottish-pagan group, if she is now played by a woman of the same name? What I think about that? Nothing. There is nothing to say. "

- Christopher Lee , one of the main characters from the original

"There is no question which of these two Wicker Men should be on fire."

- Kieran Grant

"Surprisingly impressed with the quality of the script."

- Edward Woodward

"Powerlessly prudish adaptation of a horror classic from 1973, which, despite promising approaches, does not succeed in turning the story transported into the present into the intended intellectual fear cinema."

- Lexicon of international film

Nominations for the Golden Raspberry

In 2007 the film was nominated for the Golden Raspberry ridiculous prize in five categories :

  • Worst movie
  • Worst actor: Nicolas Cage
  • Worst screen pair: Nicolas Cage and his bear suit
  • Worst script: Neil LaBute
  • Worst remake / worst rip-off

Remarks

The Wicker Man (freely translated: Korbmensch or Korbmann ) is not an invention of film. According to Julius Caesar in his Gallic War , the Celts made human sacrifices in a similar way. As in the film, the human sacrifices were locked in a large willow figure, which is called modern wicker man , and this was then set on fire. Even today such willow figures are burned by Celtic neo-pagans, but without human sacrifices included. In Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland which is held annually Wickerman Festival held a music festival, a large Wicker Man is burned on his last day.

The film is dedicated to Johnny Ramone , to whom Nicolas Cage recommended the original. The main actor of the original Edward Woodward was honored twice: the main character is called Edward by first name, the missing girl Woodward by last name. If the original is about a Scottish-pagan group, this will not be clarified here. However, sentences in Irish Gaelic are clearly on the blackboard in the school building . On a budget of $ 35 million, the film grossed only $ 32,259,395 in total ($ 23,649,127 in the US).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Wicker Man . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2006 (PDF; test number: 107 770 K).
  2. ^ Age rating for The Wicker Man . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ news.scotsman.com ( Memento from July 16, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ↑ eye.net ( Memento from August 6, 2007 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ↑ The Wicker Man. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  6. ↑ The Wicker Man. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Box office earnings . Box Office Mojo . Retrieved August 22, 2011.