I don't think there were any human villains. Rather, the theme was the clash of religious opponents, both parties of which regarded each other as villains. Howie's strong faith is mirrored in the strong faith of Lord Summerisle and the villagers. Neither party is presented as higher or purer than the other. The camera is documentary and objective. It doesn't take sides. The film is not at all moralistic. On the contrary, its indifferent laying-out of the action is non-judgmental toard both parties. Howie sticks to his faith, and is sacrificed. Summerisle clings to his faith, and sacrifices Howie. Both faiths were taken to their ultimate expression - but without authorial judgment. The judgment, if any, is left to the viewer.
My own judgment as viewer is that TWM is one of the most horrific shockers ever filmed. First, we see Howie as stuffy and judgmental, but later we see that he is faithful and good, and determined that Rowan Morrison be rescued. At the same time, the villagers are shown as happy in their simple, sensuous paganism. Howie is "darkly" stern; the villagers are almost frivolously joyous. But when the Wicker Man is set alight, this viewer's heart simply breaks for Howie - even his Christian piety, strength of faith, and resignation waver just a little in the face of what is about to happen to him. The villagers, to me, seem pathologically indifferent to Howie's fate, while Summerisle seems to harbor his own doubts about the sacrifice, telling Howie, re: next year's crops, "And I know that they will [grow successfully]." Of course, this is exactly what Summerisle does not know - he is making an overconfident - even a blind - faith-statement. He protests too much.
And with that stark, fiery conclusion, the film ends. There is no way of making Summerisle "right", even if next season's harvest is fruitful (neither Summerisle nor the audience is given this information)...because a bountiful harvest would not prove that Howie's death caused the crops to flourish. That idea would vindicate Summerisle, but the island Lord is far too canny not to already be worrying about the next year's crops. Perhaps Howie was right after all, and the harvest was sickly not for earth-religion reasons, but simply because "the strains failed". Summerisle has become Lord of the Harvest, and it has now fallen on him to officiate at the sacrifice of more Islanders in whatever future years the crops may fail. Yet, on the other hand, he has already sacrificed one off-Islander. Will he be compelled to "abduct" other strangers in bad seasons? Or will he go on sacrificing young Island virgins? He is caught up in a potentially nightmare scenario of human sacrifice - an immolation demanded not by any deity or human agency, but by an ideology - invented by his own forbear - that is soley dependent on the vicissitudes of weather.
In this scenario, neither Christians nor pagans win, and nothing validates one side over the other. Howie's death is a grotesque monstrosity, and Summerisle's "high priestly" function - because of its blind reliance on indifferent natural processes - is utterly empty of the kind of hope that was cherished by Howie. And this fact, too, is another element of the horror that firmly buttresses this perfect little gem of a film.
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rp69
9 years ago
@bastasch8647
No human villains you say? They burned a man to death in sacrifice. Howie was in no way murderous. He was a cop looking for a missing girl.
Do you think Muslims cutting people's heads off because they are a different religion is OK? That's a clash of religious opponents too. Is it OK.
Your incredibly long post starts off so wrong in the very first sentence. And the rest is just irrelevant ramblings and religious theory.
QUESTION @bastasch8647. Your post reads like some sort of a report. I come across post similar to yours often lately. Are students doing posts like these as school projects to be graded? Kind of like the way I had to write book reports 30 years ago.
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vestdennis
8 years ago
Thanks for a truly sane post. Amazing how warped values have become these days.
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MooseNugget
8 years ago
I don't think there were any human villains. Rather, the theme was the clash of religious opponents, both parties of which regarded each other as villains. Howie's strong faith is mirrored in the strong faith of Lord Summerisle and the villagers. Neither party is presented as higher or purer than the other. The camera is documentary and objective. It doesn't take sides. The film is not at all moralistic. On the contrary, its indifferent laying-out of the action is non-judgmental toard both parties. Howie sticks to his faith, and is sacrificed. Summerisle clings to his faith, and sacrifices Howie. Both faiths were taken to their ultimate expression - but without authorial judgment. The judgment, if any, is left to the viewer.
This reminds me of a video I watched on the making of the 1978 Invasion of The Body Snatchers. One of the film makers said if you're a pod person then you'd see the ending as a good one.
If you're a Pagan then you'd probably see the ending of the film as a good happy one.
But most people of The Western Civilization should see Summerisle's actions as barbaric. Howie was fooled and lured into a death trap.
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