MovieChat Forums > The Wicker Tree (2012) Discussion > An Open Letter to Robin Hardy -

An Open Letter to Robin Hardy -

posted 15 years ago by wolfe-pack
61 replies | jump to latest

First off, I'd like to say I enjoyed your film, "The Wicker Man". The plot was well constructed and in general, the film was well written and directed.
My main criticism comes in however, in regards to your persistent misrepresentation of pagan beliefs. While I understand that much of your sources came from Frazer's Golden Bough - both a classical sourcebook, and more lately found to contain gross generalizations and fictionalizations of historic pagan folk beliefs and practices - and many statements contained within the Wicker Man are truly in line with actual Pagan beliefs, the actual and real sacrifice of humans, or for that matter, even animals, in modern pagan ritual is completely untrue.
I am a Pagan. As a Wiccan, I believe that the nature is sacred and interacts with man in the forms of the god and goddess. Our sacrifices are ones of thanks - incense, libations of wine or ale or water, offerings of cakes or the fruits of the harvest, Even the Wicker man himself as a straw effigy. In ancient times, Julius Cesar (hardly an unbiased source on British culture) tells of the druids burning condemned criminals in a wicker man - an assertion that has little other evidence to confirm it. Modern Pagans however, do not, and have never practiced human sacrifice in their rituals. To do so is against the very tenants of our faith: that all of life is sacred. Thus we "harm none" as it says in the Wiccan Rede.
Because of the richness of many details in your original film, I and many other Pagans overlook the misrepresentation and enjoy the film for its other thematic elements. However, I begin to question your motives when I find that your sequel film, "Cowboys for Christ" rehashes the theme of murderous heathens killing Christians, apparently without even the semi-sympathetic treatment given in the first movie.
Pagans have labored over the past 60 years against ingrained prejudice and open hostility from "mainstream" society due to misconceptions of our beliefs, often perpetrated by popular media. Our rights to openly hold and practice our beliefs have been hard-fought. Though Wicca has been recognized as an official religion in the United States in 1986, we continue to struggle even for the most basic rights granted to any other religion. Certainly, movies that portray members of our faith as insane murderous fanatics does nothing to advance an open and honest discussion of our rights in the public forum.
Please consider the repercussions of your fiction before you make the film. Certainly the Christian religion is not blameless on the score of murdering others in the name of their religion. See also: The Inquisition, the Crusades, and the Burning Times.

Wulfric
[email protected]

[–] sirulas-1 12 years ago

wolfe-pack if modern pagans do not sacrifice human why you are a pagan?

[–] Boutros_Boutros_Sirhan_Sirhan 12 years ago

Why do all modern pagans believe they can speak for every pagan sect or belief system the world over? This is like Mormons speaking for Catholics, Shakta speaking for Vaishnava, or Sunni speaking for Shia; but probably worse seeing as pagan cultures are so widespread and diverse including the Celtic and Norse cultures modern pagans usually get their beliefs from, and having no single direct lineage is even more of a problem for those speaking for such a massive and diverse system.
It's fiction, there are negative portrayals of everyone in film.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] southparkdom 12 years ago

Cool story bro!

[–] Pharaoh-in-de-Nile 12 years ago

Wulfric, sorry to break it to you but Wicca (which is not even a correct use of an Old English term) is a persistent misrepresentation of pagan beliefs, and it is not accepted as an accurate representation of heathenism/paganism by ANY valid authority on the historic religions of Europe.

"The game's afoot!"

[–] michael77-1 12 years ago

It's just a movie some of you say in reply to this wolfe pack self obsessed ranting idiot ? (note how he hasn't been back to the thread since somebody kindly pointed out all his monstrous syntactic errors and misunderstanding of words and definitions)

It's not even that , it's 90 minutes of the worst acted most appallingly scripted excuse for a low budget tit fest I have ever seen .I mean some of the dialogue - Lady Of The Manor hiding in the shadows talking about the young girl " I bet she has a musty bush and milky tits" - where did that come from ? The sweaty trouser pockets of a 12 year old schoolboy about to start puberty ?

The Director should hang his head in shame - and then be hanged along with all the actors.

Preferably with Christopher Lee in a big wig from Mr Ray's wig-world , holding hands with 50 dolly birds young enough to be his great grand-daughters while they all sway from side to side in the breeze chanting on the cliff top.

This pagan argument is ridiculous , everyone knows that the only pagans in modern day britain are people with personal body odour problems who can't afford to buy roll-on deoderants.

Now get over it and go beat yourself with an ivy bush !

[–] Lokisgodhi 12 years ago

michael77-1 wrote:

"It's not even that , it's 90 minutes of the worst acted most appallingly scripted excuse for a low budget tit fest I have ever seen ."

The only acting I saw that could be seen as subpar was Brittani Nicol. However it could just be how she was playing the character. Since this is her first role, I don't have anything to compare it to.

"I mean some of the dialogue - Lady Of The Manor hiding in the shadows talking about the young girl " I bet she has a musty bush and milky tits" - where did that come from ?"

Mockery and ridicule of Beth and the culture she represents.

[–] darkview 9 years ago

Help me unsee this true work of senile rubbish.... I so loved the Wicker man...

[–] Sparrowhawk 9 years ago

The fact that you use "heathenism/paganism" as an actual idea tells me you don't know much about ancient religions either.

[–] bowswayer 11 years ago

"...the actual and real sacrifice of humans, or for that matter, even animals, in modern pagan ritual is completely untrue."

No, it isn't.
Several reconstructionist faiths still practise animal sacrifice. Not in Wicca perhaps, but you do not speak for all other pagan faiths.
I'll give you the lack of human sacrifice though.

We are our deeds!

[–] MadRotaryOne_DDCgod 10 years ago

So I am the 44th reply on a thread that is 5 years old, but in the hope that the OP reads this, I am writing it anyway.

I really don't think that the filmmakers were going for any kind of authenticity here.
Basically, if Optimus Prime swooped in and saved the 'Laddie', then it would have still
been the same thing, A FREAKING MOVIE AND A WORK OF COMPLETE FICTION!!!

Guess what, us people who like to watch movies don't give a crap one way or the other!

[–] senua 9 years ago

I'm kind of stunned this font of all knowledge on pagan practice didn't complain about the biggest error that's in your face all the way through this film; Sulis is not a Scottish goddess and her sacred spring is not a little pond in some out of the way Scottish village, it's the spa at Bath where she was worshipped locally. And only locally. That irritated me so much as a lover of ancient history, I can't imagine how much more infuriating that would be if I believed in her as a part of my faith. Which Wiccans do; all gods and goddess are representations of different aspects of the same god and goddess.

[–] brautigan-126-784250 10 years ago

As a Wiccan, you should know better than anyone that Wicca, although having many roots in Paganism, is not the only form of Paganism, and that the "harm none" creed of Wicca is, in fact, quite specific to Wicca itself.

And, for the record, there have been some brutal examples of Paganistic religions, as with nearly all religions, throughout the course of human history.

True Wicca should actually be held up as an exception to this. But, again, The Wiccan creed of "harm none" does not extend to all Pagan religion.

I have not seen "The Wicker Tree," but I will hazard a guess that the word "Wicca" is never pronounced within it, just as it was not within the entirety of "The Wicker Man."

As I see it, we should appreciate very much that the film's creators saw fit not to define the people of Summerisle under a specific religious label.

Honestly, if I were to be offended about anything in The Wicker Man, it would be that it does not end with the same sense of beauty which is so splendidly portrayed throughout the rest of the film. Instead, this wondrous people of the magical place are turned morally on their heads merely for the sake of a plot-climax that is pointed toward capitalist aims. The shock of the ending, in short, is nothing more than a "ticket seller."

'Tis a pity, without question, for those of us who appreciate the tone of the rest of the film.