Interview on the true background and inspiration for the Wickerman film
The Wickerman (1973) is a cult favorite that I finally saw in its "digitized final cut" (StudioCanal) - via Kanopy library free viewing ....
For the 50th anniversary of the film’s release in 2023, StudioCanal announced a 4K restoration of the existing footage alongside remastering the existing three cuts for a collector’s edition.
Christopher Lee actually paid film critics to see the film to write reviews since the corporate distributors were suppressing the film. I think the distributors thought the film was boring but as Christopher Lee said - they didn't think the audience should have to use their imagination to figure out the plot and details, etc.
There are countless "reaction vids" on The Wickerman on youtube - probably more than a dozen - but there's also a 7 part commentary by Christopher Lee and Robin Hardy that is very fascinating (along with Edward Woodward)....and that commentary has very few views in comparison.

Edward Woodward infamously made sure he did not see the Wickerman beforehand so his reaction would be realistic and his "Oh Jesus Christ!" line was embraced by fundamentalist Christians as a true expression against paganism. Christopher Lee and Robin Hardy went to "prayer breakfasts" in the South for church screenings!
This "beatitudes" speech by Christopher Lee is based on Walt Whitman. AI agrees: "It reads incredibly like modern beatitudes because of how it elevates simple, present-tense existence over the guilt, anxiety, and rigid social hierarchies of human civilization"
This famous passage is from "Section 32" of Walt Whitman's epic poem, Song of Myself (originally published in 1855 as part of his collection Leaves of Grass
“I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.”
So then a "Children of the Wickerman" doc just released last year with the children of the director claiming the father destroyed their lives or something - the mom secretly funded the film and Robin Hardy then deserted the family.... I think he moved to the US as a career in advertising? Robin Hardy did a follow-up Wicker Tree in 2011 but Christopher Lee only gets a cameo - then Hardy went for a third film as a trilogy but I don't think it got made.
Christopher Lee promoted the Wickerman film on his own dime in the US and they went to Southern religious communities! Christopher Lee was strongly against the occult despite his career as an occult actor.... Both Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee insisted this was their favorite and most difficult film to be in. The screenplay is by Anthony Shaffer - it was written specifically with Christopher Lee customized into the lead role
"Do sit down, Sergeant. Shocks are so much better absorbed with the knees bent."
Meanwhile the director Robin Hardy studied James Frazer's classic tome The Golden Bough on pagan religion...the "killing of the king" sacrifice as the Oedipal Conflict that also inspired Freud...
The Wickerman was filmed in horrendous conditions - cold when it was supposed to be summer and fake apple flowers on trees - and the burning effigy with Edward Woodward inside!! The distributor corporation destroyed the original negatives (20 cans of film vanished!) and only the US Roger Corman distribution print could be used to restore the original....

AI explains:
In the 1973 folk-horror classic The Wicker Man, the iconic stone circle wasn't an ancient ruin or a miniature prop. The crew created the megaliths by constructing life-sized, portable faux stones using a lightweight mix of wood, plaster, and chicken wire over a wooden framework. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]Because the filmmakers needed the stones in a specific location for the famous May Day dance sequence, they had to build the circle exactly where they wanted to shoot
I have to assume that Kubrick's the Shining was inspired by the Wickerman - because the parallels are too uncanny to me but I've yet to find anyone making a comparison - only that the Wickerman launched the "folk horror" genre....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_Offerings_(film) apparently that similar film was more of an inspiration for the Shining.
here is a comparision of the Shining and the wickerman
I actually saw the Nick Cage "remake" in the theater back in the day when I was not very finicky - just glad to enjoy sitting in a comfort movie theater out of the urban heat....(there is no comparison really between the two wickerman films except the idea that nature is in control!)
But the original is definitely a work of art since it is so quirky and wild with subtle "hints" - as this one review says "a false sense of security." Christopher Lee says the 13 songs in the film do that - to relax the audience. But the music also annoys people to no end. hahahaha. That's another great aspect to the film - the strange use of music.
I would argue the Wickerman is the best film ever made because it is focused on this ancient archetype of reality - alchemy as parthenogenesis is actually explained in the film if you already know what it means!! Many people have covered the music songs from the film also.
People to this day go to the Scottish island to tour the film locations but there were some dozen locations used for filming - including South Africa - all spliced together...
I first learned of the Golden Bough in my first year of college thanks to my best friend at the time - he immersed me into social science knowledge. I asked him a lot of questions to learn from him. hahaha.
The screenplay writer for the Wickerman was a psychological thriller detective genre who focused on "game playing" stories - like Agatha Christy clues and that is what makes the Wickerman so much fun to watch. Some people have watched the film endless amount of times to always notice new little strange details.
Christopher Lee said one scene cut out of all the versions is his joke line about how the original church priest was against the use of synthetic fertilizer - arguing that God would have provided natural fertilizer if the fruit trees needed it on the island - and then looking up to the skies as the priest had said this (And Christopher Lee recounted it). That is a very funny line indeed.
The Wickerman is a film that lives on as a legend - with peoples' commentary actually adding as much to the film as the film itself. I've only watched the film once and even then I 2xed the film. I'm more of a "truth stranger than fiction" person - but after learning so many background details of the film I feel like I need to watch it again in normal speed. hahaha.
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