Some movies have traditional viewing dates: Star Wars fans like to watch their favorite episode(s) on May 4th (a pun on “May the Force be With You”), and a few weeks ago near Easter time ABC television aired The Ten Commandments. One year they didn’t run it, and the public protest was so great, they agreed to run it annually from then on.
I picked up a tradition for May Day which has a multi-layered purpose. On May Day, I view a movie called The Wicker Man (1973). There is a newer version starring Nicholas Cage, and I do like the actor, but the original has an atmosphere which can’t be replicated.
The film, directed by Robin Hardy, deals with religion, ritual, traditions, law, and is a combination horror and mystery. A police sergeant named Neil Howie (Edward Woodward, the original Equalizer before Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington) receives an anonymous letter asking him to investigate the remote island of Summerisle, where it’s claimed a young girl has gone missing without a care from her family or the island’s residents. He flies there by small aircraft and meets with ignorance at every turn; most people deny such a girl has ever lived on the island. When they do concede that she may be a resident, they don’t appear moved to aid him.
Howie is a conservative, stalwart Christian, and finds his investigation on the island trying, as it is populated solely by pagans, and he witnesses several ancient rituals and topical songs at the local inn/tavern. He makes an appointment to meet with Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), who openly tells Howie of the island’s history and of the religious clerics having left because of paganism and the unnatural cultivating of the famous apples imported to the mainland. He invites Howie to continue hunting down clues, which begin to form a horrific truth from which Howie may not escape.
The film contains sexuality, nudity and some interesting dichotomies as Howie navigates the search; he is warned and encouraged in various ways to lay off, but he is determined to solve what happened to young Rowan Morrison, culminating in the island’s celebration of May Day, including frivolity and sacrifices to assure their continuing livelihood amidst failing apple production, and Howie is a witness to it all.
The story is disturbing, but I won’t give key points away. What does matter in watching an “art” film of this type is keeping an open mind to differing points of view; while Howie tries to get everybody to obey the law when they have other ideas, he stubbornly refuses to see the danger in front of him.
It’s a coincidence that May Day falls on a Sunday this year. My watching this movie may seem rather out of place due to its content, but it has a strong message about faith on both sides. So it seems fitting.
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