1. I get the banging on all the walls, but what was with all the dancing? Seemed almost ritualistic.
2. If Sergeant Howie ended up falling to her and had sex with her that night, that would mean he is no longer a virgin and not good for the sacrifice anymore. Would it not?
The dance IS ritualistic, as revealed in its fertility-invoking lyrics about a maid milking a bull, "each stroke a bucketful", etc.
I think they were desperate for Howie to fulfill their expectations - otherwise they would probably have needed to sacrifice Rowan Morrison after all - or chicken out and go back to the usual "weaker" crop sacrifices.
The slapping movement Willow did also served the purpose of tormenting Howie with sound according to the director.
Excised dialogue from the finale had Summerisle telling Howie his refusal of sex made him even more acceptable as a sacrifice, which seemed to suggest they'd have sacrificed the poor guy anyway.
I think if he'd caved in and tried to go for her, she'd then have refused him. It was just a tormenting test. And he did a lot better than I would've, she wouldn't have finished the first verse before she'd have found herself inspecting the lampshade.
--------------------------------------------------------- Free your mind and the rest will follow
I doubt that they did, at first. I don't see how they could have. But the morning after Willow was trying to seduce him, when she mentioned that he hadn't come to her room even though she'd invited him, he said he didn't believe in sex before marriage. He also said he was engaged to be married. So they worked out that if he didn't believe in sex before marriage, and he wasn't yet married, he must have been a virgin. Which made him an even better sacrifice than he otherwise would have been. They planned to sacrifice him anyway, but that made it better.
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Everyone in Scotland seems to have known Howie was a virgin, to judge by the comments early on about Howie's fiancee being "The Virgin Mary" and his not even having "Tickled her fancy." It wouldn't have taken much for it to come to the attention of Sumerisle's spies.
It is not our abilities that show who we truly are...it is our choices
I've always thought the virgin requirement was flat out ridiculous. Howie is a man in his early forties assuming he was the same as a Edward Woodward.
A lot can happen to change a man's mind about religion. Howie was the right age to have served in the Korean war. It's easy to see him in a trench praying that if only the North Koreans didn't overrun his position and kill him that night, he'd straighten up and his life and never touch another woman until he got married.
A lot can happen to change a man's mind about religion. Howie was the right age to have served in the Korean war. It's easy to see him in a trench praying that if only the North Koreans didn't overrun his position and kill him that night, he'd straighten up and his life and never touch another woman until he got married.
Indeed. My grandmother's first son was conceived and born out of wedlock. When she later married another man (my grandfather), and had a daughter who died in infancy, she interpreted it as a punishment from God and became the most pious person you'd ever know from then on.
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Here's the deleted opening where Sergeant Howie's virginity is established and where he receives the anonymous letter about Rowan from Summerisle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDY0D0fRSeI
Here's the deleted opening where Sergeant Howie's virginity is established and where he receives the anonymous letter about Rowan from Summerisle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDY0D0fRSeI
Christians who have lived a less than Christian life delude themselves into thinking their 'god' 'has the power to restore your emotionally, spiritually and mentally to a place where you can be pure and whole again. Committing to chastity after mistakes is possible and helps you become an amazing gift for your future spouse.'
If he would have gone to have sex with her, he probably isn't a virgin anyway. If he's passing up on her for his soon to be wife, it's probably a stone cold lock he's a virgin and the right man for the job.
I'd like to know why he was in such a state, swearing, shaking etc For gods sake it's only sex!! It's quite easy to Say no & reject her. No need to get into such a stupid Frenzy, shaking & quivering with sweat!!