[I'm reposting this from earlier this week because a certain 'thonner who has a wicker man tattooed on his arm is back from Disneyworld.]It's been a while since I made noise about AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A SCIENTIST! That's the website of an Australian movie buff named Liz, whose expansive and funny reviews I've been reading since long before there was a Horrorthon blog. For a fun browse of what she offers, try her complete index of reviews some time. They're longer than the ones we have around here, but they're steeped in thorough analysis and excellent research.
What brings me here today is her recent review of The Wicker Man, by which I mean of course the beloved 1973 original. I'd advise all you Wicker Man freaks (and you know who you are) to check it out. You don't need to read the synopsis, just scroll down to the beginning of "comments" and groove on the hard-luck story of the movie's production history, which contains the following interesting facts.
-- On more than one occasion, some suit or another did his very best to get The Wicker Man buried completely.
-- One of the main forces opposing that burial was Christopher Lee, who continually went to bat for the movie like the dude he is.
-- While the only version I've ever seen is 87 minutes long, apparently there's another version on dvd that has eleven minutes of extra footage worked back in. Holy crap!
-- Tragically, the original cut was even longer -- nearly two hours -- but that extra footage has been lost forever.
This is pretty huge, so huge I have this feeling we must have touched on it before... but a search of the blog tells me nothing. I don't have any clues about finding the longer dvd, as Netflix's version is posted as 88 minutes. I think this is something for the true Wicker fanatics among us to suss out.
Meanwhile, if you don't feel like reading Liz's entire review, I do suggest you check out the turbulent history she recounts at the beginning, and also mentions at the end. Besides that, what else can I say?
CHROIST!!! OH, CHROIIIIST!!!
4 comments:
chroist that's a long review.
Seriously, it took me all morning to read that but it was well worth it! JPX has the deluxe DVD edition that comes in a badass wooden box and includes the extended version which he was kind enough to copy for me. I actually introduced it to a friend a couple of weeks ago. The extended version is honestly a mixed bag.
The opening church sequences are relevant to establishing Howie as a pious man but they're, well, church-like boring. Also I thought that Christopher Lee's early appearance with Willow was unecessary and actually detracts from the impact of his first appearance (midway through the film) in the confrontation with Howie. On the other hand, I love the inclusion of the song Gently Johnnie. The song is very hypnotic and sexual, much like the film itself.
There are some great behind the scenes extras on the DVD (as well as an awesome easter egg with vintage Christopher Lee on a talk show) detailing the movie's struggles and cult status.
Okay, good! I figured The Brothers Xpants would know about this already.
Deleted scenes are funny that way. You want to be glad there's more of a fave movie and then you often realize it was better the other way. Examples...
The first "deleted scenes" experience I ever had was a VHS copy of Aliens with the deleted scenes stuck back in, courtesy of the laserdisc. With the exception of the scenes with the automated sentry robots, every scene they took out had the potential to transmute the movie's plot, themes, etc. into garbage.
And in the deleted scenes for 6th Sense, there's a closing scene that M. Night Stupid introduces by saying "they say in film school that you always have to cut your favorite scene, and it was true for me with this scene." Then there follows a craptacular extended shot of Bruce Willis on the wedding video his wife is watching, saying a heap of schmaltzy schmaltz. Laaaaame. And a peak into the truth behind M. Night's larger vision, as his subsequent movies would reveal.
M. Night never ceases to find ways to aggravate me.
Another good example is the Amazing Larry deleted scene from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. At first I was thrilled to see more of him but it's much funnier to leave it to the audience's imagination as to who this strange mohawked man is, what he does that's considered "amazing" and what exactly he was whispering into Mario's ear.
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