The Wicker Man (1973)

"It's much too dangerous to jump through fire with their clothes on.", 8 May 2006

I'll try to keep this short as I've always found it difficult to write about a movie I genuinely love. Give me a bad movie and I'll write for days, but with a brilliant film like The Wicker Man, I'm at a loss for words. If it's possible, I enjoy The Wicker Man more and more with each successive viewing. I notice things each time I see the movie that I never noticed before. It may be something as insignificant as a small piece of set decoration or a look that one character gives another, but they all add to the overall enjoyment I get out of this movie. And regardless of the number of times I've seen The Wicker Man, that final scene has lost none of its power. The images of Sergeant Howie being led off to face his destiny are some of the best I've seen in any movie. It's the kind of moment that you don't easily forget. As I said, it's powerful stuff.

I just checked to see who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for 1971. Don't misunderstand because Gene Hackman is good in The French Connection, but there are very few performances that I feel compare with Edward Woodward in The Wicker Man. People in movies like The Wicker Man don't generally get recognized for awards, but they should. It's a fantastic performance. Every moment, whether it's what I call The Seduction of Sgt. Howie to The Indignation of Sgt. Howie to The Martyrdom of Sgt. Howie, Woodward expresses more emotion and conveys more feeling than most actors are capable of. Whether you like the character or not, it would be difficult to deny how effective Woodward is.

10/10