wickerman

no.97 Wickerman

Man, I watched this a month ago, right before I left for PW. Locke and I were drunk dancing around the fire and I was describing to him about the pre-pubescent girls dancing around and jumping over the fire. When he asked why they were naked, I replied, "you don't want their clothes to catch on fire, now do you?" :)

This 70's take on Paganism being alive in Scotland and the great traditions which sicken the virgin detective is almost silly in 2009, but charming in the same breath. Christopher Lee is brilliant in this role; his devotion to the island, to the people, is downright heartfelt and utterly creepy. The Detective's die hard Catholic bent is his demise, the silly man. A virgin, at his age?!

I know there is a Wickerman Festival that still takes place on the island, I just don't know how true to the real May Day festival and ritual the film is. Either way, it's a refreshing, if not old, version of man being beholden to the land and his efforts to appease the god to shine favorably upon his livelihood.