the_wicker_man_2006

disclaimer: I wrote this in 2015

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2006 was an eventful year: there was an outbreak of E. coli in spinach, Steve Irwin died, a pitcher from the Yankees flew his plane into a building. With major life-changing news stories like these happening around us and occupying our attention completely, we often forget to stop and (like a bumblebee) smell the roses - and in 2006, there was a beautifully aromatic flower right under our noses: Neil LaBute’s The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage. This grade A flick was a remake (improvement) of a much older, much inferior, film.

The Wicker Man

The plot of the movie can be summarised thusly: A man (Cage) is lured (honeypotted) to a female-dominated island to be ritually sacrificed to the mother goddess who will in turn replenish the bee population so the honey harvest will be bountiful.

You catch more flies with honey, but in this case, Nicolas Cage caught too many honeys being fly.

The Wicker Man is on our list of great movies because, just like honey on toast, the sweetest elements of horror and mystery are just the icing on a solid thematic foundation. We as audience members can learn a lot from this movie if we’re just willing to take a big enough bite.

Analysis

Like any good story, this one pits two eternal forces against each other. Nicolas Cage, a police officer who eats salad and does his job, represents Order. The inhabitants of Summersisle who live literally outside of the law, and the girl Cage is supposed to find, are Chaos. It is simply a pleasure to behold the cinematic dance between yin and yang. Our hero brings about order and light sometimes by means of chaos and violence while Summersisle brings about dark magic and chaos by adhering to ritualistic order. LaBute graces us with a glimpse into this timeless struggle. 

If your parents never talked to you about “the birds and the bees”, here’s an SAT summary: men are to women as bees are to flowers. On this island, women are flowers (eg: Sister Rose, Sister Violet, Daisy) and men are bees. The men (Cage included) bring order via procreation. This is stated clearly by the self proclaimed godly conduit Sister Summersisle when she says “the bees bring order”. The women who operate the island ensure that reproduction is the solitary function of men by cutting out every one of their tongues (but maybe, in the name of making babies,  the ladies should have thought twice about that decision).

As the story zips along, the mystery gives way to horror as we find out that Malus (played by Cage, who’s name is a combination of the words “male” and “phallus”) is searching for his daughter who has been chosen to be sacrificed in exchange for a healthy harvest. The sweet object of his creation is about to be taken away from him - a striking similarity to the concerns of the Summersisle inhabitants about their honey. The film treats us to some early foreshadowing as we watch Malus kill a bee with its own creation; honey, in the form of mead. This foreshadowing predicts Malus’ death at the hands of his creation: his very own daughter lights the fire that sends him to his death. At the conclusion of the film, it is easy to look back and see that the steps taken to bring our hero to his death were choreographed and executed like a beautiful and nimble ballerina. In the end, the tragic irony on screen tastes as sweet as the honey for which Malus was murdered.

Final Thoughts:

This film is much like a honeycomb: extremely well-balanced, buzzing with life, and it has a sturdy foundation. Neil LaBute is a honeybee who has pollinated the masses with his creative vision and messages. As a result, our honey harvest is bountiful: and the honey is titled The Wicker Man.

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