- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd (21 April 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0283063556
- ISBN-13: 978-0283063558
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 539,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Early in his fascinating account of this British horror classic, Allan Brown points out that despite being "a film with uncomfortable things to say about the cult mentality", The Wicker Man has inspired a considerable cult following. He can hardly be unaware that, while he is keen to distance himself from "The Wicker Man militia", this book can only add to the already considerable mythology surrounding the film. In fact, Inside The Wicker Man is a fan's delight, exhaustively researched and achieving a near-perfect balance between history, trivia and serious analysis.
With very little exaggeration, Brown describes the filming and distribution of The Wicker Man as "a textbook example of How Things Should Never Be Done". The omens were bad from the start, when there were wranglings over an alleged "source" for the screenplay, but from there things just got worse. Studio politics meant that the film, firmly set around May Day, actually went into production in late autumn--so fake blossom was placed in trees, and actors were often forced to put ice-cubes in their mouths to prevent their breaths from showing on film. Arguments were rife on location in Scotland, leading to verbal and physical confrontations involving both cast and crew.
After the production wrapped, the film was unsympathetically edited into a shadow of its former self and much of the original footage was lost by a studio which hated the film and barely distributed it. Despite very mixed reviews on its release in 1973, a longer version of the film was later revived in the USA and today The Wicker Man finds favour with critics and fans alike, as a serious--if flawed--piece of cinema. Brown expertly guides readers through conflicting accounts of this convoluted history, attempting along the way to explain the film's enduring fascination, and providing interviews with most of the key figures in the story--many of whom still have an axe to grind, and some of whom still harbour plans for a sequel. --John Oates
Product Description
In the "Wicker Man" a Highlands policeman, on the trail of a missing girl, is lured to a remote island. This book takes the reader from conception, production, release and reception, through to the full details of the search for lost footage into an exploration of the film's themes and its roots in Scottish paganism and culture.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thank you Allan brown for writing this superb analysis of one of the finest films ever made!
The quality of the research is absolutely first rate, the writing is sharp, knowing and often very amusing, and the entire package is a textbook example of how these things should be done. A miracle of scholarhip, and a worthy tribute to this thought-provoking masterpiece.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Every film fan deserves to read this fantastic title, which is more of a meditation on how we "use" films for meaning than it is about the strange horror movie it deals with. A very sound argument about religion and a convincing examination of how The Wicker Man means more than it initially seems to. Highly recommended.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tragically, for many the term "British Horror" brings to mind the garish campery of the Hammer films, with their rickety sets, endless dreadful day-for-night shots of carriages rocketing across the utterly undisguised Essex countryside and isolated "taverns" peopled with unconvincing, ale-swilling "yokels" resting between episodes of Z Cars.
But there was a much more imaginative and, frankly terrifying, side to the genre in the '60s and '70s, and the grandaddy of them all, if being unnerved is our index for success, is The Wicker Man. It left some people, fans particularly, positively unhinged.
Allan Brown's book is a fascinating, meticulously researched account of the making of the movie and its subsequent troubled history, which draws on the almost permanently conflicting memories of the key players including director Robin Hardy and stars Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee and Britt Eckland.
It's a chaotic story, including among other nuggets of weirdness the fact that vital footage was allegedly lost and used as landfill during the building of the M3; Christopher Lee launching his own publicity campaign for the beleaguered film; and Rod Stewart allegedly offering to buy the negative and destroy it after he heard of then girlfriend Eckland's naked cavortings.
There are also accounts not only of a planned sequel and a mini travelogue, but also a compelling theory as to the continuing power of the movie. Brown argues, convincingly, that The Wicker Man (for the uninitiated a story of a Catholic copper investigating a suspected murder on the pagan island of Summerisle) has at its heart an unresolvable conflict between two equally self-contained belief systems: the policeman believes that he will go to an everlasting life after death; Lord Summerisle believes that by torching virgin coppers and a bunch of unfortunate chickens the apple harvest will be saved - and never the twain shall, as they say, meet.
But apart from its theological ponderings (and a very slightly irritating tendency to rubbish The Exorcist ), The Morbid Ingenuities is the definitive story of one of British horror's finest moments and, as it hints at the possibility of a release of the uncut version, leaves us long overdue for another appointment with The Man.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Customer?
Anyone else get the feeling that all these generous, five star reviews by "A Customer" have been posted by the author himself?
Published 1 month ago by Princes Spider
hugely entertaining
This is a superb account of the making and subsequent rise to "cult status" of 'The Wicker Man'. It is highly readable throughout and unlike many books in 'The making of... Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2006 by Mike J. Wheeler
Incredibly well done
Mike Ashworth mashworth88@aol.com. Score: (5 / 5) Unbelievable! What a book! An incredible piece of work, fascinating, challenging and literate! Read more
Published on 9 Dec 2000
Absolutely Superb
Absolutely Stunning! What a book! I love this film, and Alan Brown has done some job reconstructing how it was made and then cut to bits. Read more
Published on 9 Dec 2000
THERE IS A GOD!
Finally, some information on this amazing film! And what information! An incredibly well-researched and detailed trawl through the Wicker Man's embers. Read more
Published on 28 April 2000
A super, wonderfully-written account of this brilliant film
The appeal of this book should go way beyond those into the Wicker Man. It is a book for anyone interested in the cinema, British culture, the 1970s, religion - loads of things. Read more
Published on 21 April 2000
Excellent account of the making of a movie
Fans of The Wicker Man - a film that has transcended its cult status - will be delighted by Allan Brown's account of the movie's history: the off-camera problems, the memories of... Read more
Published on 20 April 2000
THE INDISPENSIBLE GUIDE TO THE STORY OF THE WICKER MAN.
An elegantly written, well researched account of the fascinating story of an obscure British film, 'The Wicker Man'. Read more
Published on 20 April 2000
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