The original filmmakers can SAY they wanted to go down the middle, but I dunno, man, you can't cast Christopher Lee as the leader of your Pagan cult then expect me NOT to enlist.
Lord Summersile is perhaps the best antagonist Christopher Lee ever played, but the remake has Nicholas Cage screaming about bees so I'm split over which one is more iconic
It's possible this is mentioned later in the video, but there's another big reason why making the letter from a specific person and not just an anonymous tip was a bad idea - it should give the game away much earlier. In the original, Howie had no idea who sent the letter , so he doesn't know who he can trust, but he's reasonably sure that _someone_ on this island is looking out for Rowan. It explains why he doesn't just leave and why he keeps talking to the islanders, and it means that he's constantly not quite sure if the islanders are just different, distrustful of outsiders, covering things up or being actively hostile when they give him weird answers or brush him off. In the remake, Malus knows exactly who sent the letter, so when he goes to this person and she _also_ refuses to give him a straight answer, this should have immediately tipped him off that the entire island was in on it. It's a stupid decision to go to the island alone in both films, but the remake highlights and underlines how stupid it is while also removing the actual reason for most of the "cop talks to the islanders" scenes to happen.
"Hows it feel to really hurt someone" // "aghghh the beees" a conversation! Good critical excercise, the super cut of nick cage just hitting women in the face is regrettably a masterpiece
I love in the original Wicker Man the number of chances Howie gets. I bet they do a successful sacrifice like once a decade because at any point dude could have been like. "Well I'm leaving" or "Well I'm going to have sex with the lady" or "Well I guess I won't be a dick" and Summersile would have to have been like. "Welp guess we're not Wickering this Man" ideally while looking directly to camera.
Yes! There were many ways to escape this outcome! Many "significant opportunities for decision-making," as WTYP might say (at least, if they were talking about the SS El Faro).
Really glad to finally figure this out. The Wicker Man remake's overt misogyny was so extreme it had me wondering if it was twisting itself into a pretzel to make commentary on that misogyny itself, but I never looked into it. Guess I should have just assumed that the plan was just as bad as the execution.
I absolutely ADORE the '73 Wickerman, if for no other reason that it stars Christopher Lee who is one of the all time baddest MFers to walk the planet.
Labute also tried to pull the ol' "Actually, we totally *meant* to make a campy piece of shit as a comment...on...on something or other" years later after the film had garnered it diabolical reputation
The remake is...exactly what I would have expected from Neil Labute, a simplistic misogynistic Christianist take on a story that is disturbing and powerful precisely because it's NOT simplistic, and criticizes both religions pretty harshly. (I mean, sure Howie is an uptight, self-righteous tool, but is that really so bad that it deserves an incredibly painful and unwilling death? That's the part I find hardest to deal with, and as Maggie points out it's also the part that makes it such a great movie.) Labute's remake has Nic Cage going FULL CAGEEEEEEE!!!!, crudely harassing and assaulting women-which the writer/director seems to think is somehow...an appropriate way for a MAN! to treat an island full of women? His death is also needlessly cruel, breaking his legs, stinging him with bees which he's seriously allergic to, THEN putting him to the Wicker Man and setting it and him ablaze. It feels like the movie's trying to say he has a right to be abusive to women, but the women are sadistic and revel in his pain and suffering more than using him as a sacrifice to bring back prosperous honey harvests. The end also had the women coming back to the mainland to find a new man to serve as a sacrifice, which implies this one didn't work out....
As a theater degree holder who had to read a whole bunch of Neil LaBute in undergrad, his career trajectory will never stop being fascinatingly weird to me EDIT: oh wow, okay. I did NOT know about the whole "getting fired from the MCC" thing. I thought he was just a deeply weird and edgelordy Mormon 90s playwright who had a penchant for writing really horrible and hateful women characters and went on to make a bunch of bad-to-mediocre films and a show for the SyFy network that I never heard anybody talk about. I did NOT know about the MCC.
If my memory serves me right. I recall Christopher Lee saying, ' The Wicker Man was one of the best performance he'd ever done.' He really enjoyed playing Lord Summerisle.
He had characterization, motivations, learned things as the audience did, and the callousness built up to a satisfying ending. Barry Lyndon was mentioned in the context of a "poor me ;(" film, I can see that. While the abusive, self-serving behavior went on wayyyy too long, I suppose he had *some* comeuppance? Maybe not as satisfying in how many lives he ruined over the cop intruding and being... tolerated as this season's game.
Woodward's Sgt. Howie is an uptight prig, but he does care about a young girl who has no connection to him. The Rowan Morrison in the original is just another of Her Majesty's subjects, and (to paraphrase the anonymous letter) Sgt. Howie feels duty-bound to see what's happened to Rowan because she is entitled to the protection of the law (as he represents).
wait is the whole 'bee' thing because bees have a queen so they're matriarchal, and is thus a paralel to whats happening on the island? because.....what.
Part of me wants Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) in this cast, but it would have instantly telegraphed Neil LaBute's intent to make the population of the island a bunch of crazy b/witches. Speaking of LaBute, something I noticed in his speech pattern: he talks a lot like T*ump, rambling and going off into tangents. Do all misogynists talk this way?
Yeah, sorta. He's driven by grievance politics and has no real points to make beyond creating literal straw feminists to "take down" and perform sexualized violence on.
Aside from all the awful stuff Neil LaBute did to the film, he completely screwed up the atmosphere of The Wicker Man. So much of the power of the film to me comes from the work of Paul Giovanni and Magnet, to the point where the only version I watch is The Final Cut, to make sure that Gently Johnny is in there. By removing the music, LaBute just missed so much of the charm of the film
An aspect of the remake that strikes me as odd is that in the original, Summerisle has a revival of pre-Christian culture -- particularly from Celtic sources -- drawing from sources before the Kingdom of England (or even the Roman Empire) expanded into the area & pressured the people there to conform to hegemonic culture. (I think of the Celtic Revival movements around the British Isles during the time as examples.) If you take that context -- investigating in an isolated area with a recent cultural revival of "old ways" that predate a Christianizing, hegemonic culture -- & put it in the United States, chances are that the people doing that are not going to be white and/or not going to speak English as a first language. (The right to exercise indigenous religious practices was only protected by federal law in 1978 under The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and only able to enforce these protections after the 1994 amendment.) The traditions are probably going to be indigenous traditions, African diaspora religions, or if the community is predominantly white, as immigrant enclaves or speaking a language such as Pennsylvania Dutch or Cajun French. Discussion of the clash between these traditions requires examination of colonialism, racism, & xenophobia in the United States. If I think about the film's setting on the islands along Pacific Northwest coast, the primary source of agricultural productivity are not beehives but on the salmon runs. It just seems so odd for the remake to refuse to engage with the themes of the original & cultural context of its new setting.
Christopher Lee said that Wicker Man was one of the best films he ever made. He was also a fairly devout member of the Church of England. I always wondered if that showed he felt his own religion could be too rigid. Well never know for sure, but it at least shows the original was made by people with a type of mental flexibility and openness the topic requires.
The real worst remake ever is probably Psycho. I have a soft spot for the wicker man remake as a comedy though. I honestly kinda love it. Not enough that I'd put it on, but if it was on TV, I wouldn't change it.
"The Wicker Man" says ACAB in both versions, too, but the original really seems to emphasize more than the remake that like... He could really just go back to the mainland. (In the remake the vibe is just more overtly antagonistic toward him, so it seems to make more sense that he's suspicious, while in the original, the people on the island seem more chill and much less malevolent, at least initially.) His persistence in trying to find a criminal to pin the alleged crime on and punish with State violence, in spite of an apparent lack of affected people/accusers/victims once he gets to the island, is part of what dooms him (as I recall).
In the remake he's not even within his jurisdiction (!)... I forgot about that, but WOW, at least in the original, the guy did have a legitimate reason to be there.
The original works in part due to Edward Woodward's perfect performance as the repressed uptight (outasight, man!) Christian puritan moralist. And even the odd inclusion of Britt Ekland, with an overdubbed Scottish accent doesn't matter. The down to earth casting works perfectly, and the overall coolness of the direction sets it apart from many a horror film. Even if it would be considered tame by latter day standards. None of this applies to the remake.
The novelization adds some interesting bits here and there. Sgt. Howie is repulsed by the public lovemaking, but partly because (as he thinks) the act of sex isn't as beautiful as he thought it would be. But he also vows to himself that when he marries his fiancee, he will be considerate and not make her do all the work in their marital bed.
I went to see the remake when it was in theatres. I was a teenager starting to become a huge horror fan, but I hadn't watched the original yet. The theatre was almost empty: just my friend, me, and maybe 3 other people. I soon realized that we were witnessing a hilarious trainwreck, that I was going to have more fun if I didn't take it seriously. I laughed out loud more than I'd do with any comedies at the time. I was joking that it was the best film of the year... But then I saw in the ending credits that this piece of garbage had been dedicated to the memory of Johnny Ramone (who would've HATED IT. Like so, SO MUCH). It was soul-crushing. I understood then how horrible this project was, nothing more than a cash grab/vanity project. It made me feel so angry and bitter.
@MaggieMaeFish Yeah, Johnny was intense about his love for horror films (the Ramones was the reason I got into them!), so imagine how awkward it would have been to tell his friend Nicholas his remake is a cinematic insult to the OG.
Every time I see the character at the beginning of the video, it becomes more awesome. The silly/dangerous attitude, the weird vocal quirks- it’s just terrific. Is it inspired by anything?
I would not characterize the Golden Bough as representing “actual” pagan belief as it was practiced, but this is a good essay. It was published in 1890, and we have made great strides since then.
In particular kingly sacrifice is a fraught issue of historiography, particularly in the British context. I myself would be careful to not readily connect Christian beliefs on the Passion with things like the drowning-throat cutting rituals of Medieval Ireland.
@@j.e1334 I greatly enjoy the comment & wanted to say something along those lines myself. Even in the '70s, the anthropological methodology & material in The Golden Bough was decades out of date. Even The Wicker Man's titular wicker man is primarily attested by Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, an the provenance is...debatable.
I'll be honest we watched the 2006 movie drunk in freshman year of college, and were too busy laughing at how ridiculous/incompetent every scene was, that we didn't even think about how much this movie hates women, but it really does. It's just that Nic Cage also garners exactly zero sympathy or respect for himself over the course of the movie so you're totally on board with them killing him.
That's where you're wrong, Maggie. I wanted to hear about The Wicker Man plenty. It's the one I've watched, and the one that's worth talking about. But I'm always down for your analysis, no matter how unexpected it is, so I am thrilled to learn about this remake.
It must be just a coincidence that so many of the worst movies of all time are crammed into one decade. 50% according to Rotten Tomatoes, but I didn't even need to check. It was a weird time.
I think the difference between a work of art being meaningfully or pointlessly edgy is whether there’s any purpose or shape to the thing. A knife can be sharp, a metal cube can have sharp edges, and yet both are fit to touch if used carefully. Other times, edgy art can be as chaotic and destructive as a nail bomb. Neil LaBute seems to make the latter.
I saw this on Nebula & greatly enjoyed it. An excellent aspect of the original that is absent from the remake is the music -- the '73 Wicker Man soundtrack would be an excellent 1970s folk music album in its own right but also adds so much texture to the setting.
Personally, I think the Wicker Man remake would have been much better if they all lived with actual bee dynamics. Or, conversely, were a bunch bees in trenchcoats pretending to be people
I love my man Nicholas Cage, I really do, but if I had a nickel for every time he has starred in a godawful, unforgivably shite remake of an untouchable classic, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but did it have to be The Wicker Man and Wings of Desire?!? Seriously!!!
I always wondered what would have happened to Sergeant Howie if he'd had gone along with it? The tragedy works because he can't let himself, but if he could have would he have been spared-would he even have become an active member of the community? Would Summerisle have sacrificed himself willingly if Howie had been capable of unbending? I could see a retelling where Howie relaxes into their ways, Lord Summerisle goes to his painful death, and Howie in an act of kindness kills him with a bullet before the flames start to burn him, telling the other residents that since Lord Summerisle sacrificed himself willingly he didn't have to suffer, and they all kneel to honor The Old King's death and the New King (Howie's) ascension.... There's a book Tammy shared with me, LAMMAS NIGHT, written by Katherine Kurtz, about how a British Intelligence Colonel assembles the covens of England to repel Hitler's Nazi Dark Magic which ends with (the fictional) Prince William sacrificing himself to help deliver a devastating blow to Hitler and save England from the Dark Arts....
This movie could have been good, even with the changes and the new angle. The original film was grim, but the messaging was clear; either of these beliefs could be right, either could be wrong. Both can somehow co-exist, but can they really? The remake could have easily been about both being WRONG. It could have been an even more grim, negative take about the two conflicting cultures, but still shown parity between them, still... set things up, more than just the man-hating-woman hating that we got.
So... never seen either of these movies. But, do I understand the 2006 version correctly... uhm... BEES! because matriarchy? Bee allergy because alpha man is to damn masculine for matriarchy which is of course what feminism is and bear costume because big strong man needs to fight feminism even if he dies a martyr? Though the 1973 original seems like something I'd like to give a little looksy
They are based on the same story, and yet they are too completely different movies and different kinds of movies and in their own way they are both amazing and annoying.
Looking at Neil LaBute's filmography on RT, he only got critical acclaim on his first few movies. Everything else since then has been a splat. I will say, the only one that I have watched is Nurse Betty, and I fucking loved Nurse Betty. He didn't write it, so maybe that was the difference, but the cast as a whole were just incredible.
15:40 ... Okay, I think he's trying to reference the idea (usually more of a film theory idea than a "theater" idea, but you could apply it there too) of the audience as having a voyeuristic role, and as being in some ways complicit in whatever the play or film is doing... But that's been done much more effectively and interestingly by other filmmakers and probably other playwrights, and he doesn't seem like he's saying anything very new about those ideas. They seem like more of a cover, here, for him to just explore the possibilities for making people uncomfortable onstage and in the audience.
15:55 so I'm assuming, since he supports dramatic audience feedback like booing or walking out, that Mr. The Bute will not then start complaining about "cancel culture" or "PC culture" or how "people are too sensitive these days"? (Waits patiently for him to start doing that.)
I don't have anything to say, but I love your work, and commenting helps the video. I love your work! And don't have anything to say! But, despite all that, I *do* think that commenting helps the video.
Well, yes, but have you considered... bees?
Oh no! Not the bees!
Oprah: BEES!!!
The original filmmakers can SAY they wanted to go down the middle, but I dunno, man, you can't cast Christopher Lee as the leader of your Pagan cult then expect me NOT to enlist.
Especially when option B is a moralizing religious prude.
Maggie, Be Kind Rewind and Broey Deschanel all releasing on the same day? Halloween really IS the gay Christmas.
#halloweeblessedbyth'goddess
Lord Summersile is perhaps the best antagonist Christopher Lee ever played, but the remake has Nicholas Cage screaming about bees so I'm split over which one is more iconic
*second best antagonist. You forget Count Dooku!
@@GeminiShadow
Third best. You forgot Professor Alan Driscoll.
Oops, spoiler alert for a 64-year old movie!😄
Dracula hands down. And that even beats his character in James Bond!
It's possible this is mentioned later in the video, but there's another big reason why making the letter from a specific person and not just an anonymous tip was a bad idea - it should give the game away much earlier.
In the original, Howie had no idea who sent the letter , so he doesn't know who he can trust, but he's reasonably sure that _someone_ on this island is looking out for Rowan. It explains why he doesn't just leave and why he keeps talking to the islanders, and it means that he's constantly not quite sure if the islanders are just different, distrustful of outsiders, covering things up or being actively hostile when they give him weird answers or brush him off. In the remake, Malus knows exactly who sent the letter, so when he goes to this person and she _also_ refuses to give him a straight answer, this should have immediately tipped him off that the entire island was in on it. It's a stupid decision to go to the island alone in both films, but the remake highlights and underlines how stupid it is while also removing the actual reason for most of the "cop talks to the islanders" scenes to happen.
"Hows it feel to really hurt someone" // "aghghh the beees" a conversation! Good critical excercise, the super cut of nick cage just hitting women in the face is regrettably a masterpiece
I'm going to use "regrettably a masterpiece" a lot in regular conversation now, thank you.
I love in the original Wicker Man the number of chances Howie gets. I bet they do a successful sacrifice like once a decade because at any point dude could have been like. "Well I'm leaving" or "Well I'm going to have sex with the lady" or "Well I guess I won't be a dick" and Summersile would have to have been like. "Welp guess we're not Wickering this Man" ideally while looking directly to camera.
Yes! There were many ways to escape this outcome! Many "significant opportunities for decision-making," as WTYP might say (at least, if they were talking about the SS El Faro).
Really glad to finally figure this out. The Wicker Man remake's overt misogyny was so extreme it had me wondering if it was twisting itself into a pretzel to make commentary on that misogyny itself, but I never looked into it. Guess I should have just assumed that the plan was just as bad as the execution.
Queen bee = bad and scary, just like women
I absolutely ADORE the '73 Wickerman, if for no other reason that it stars Christopher Lee who is one of the all time baddest MFers to walk the planet.
And he adored being in this movie.
Labute also tried to pull the ol' "Actually, we totally *meant* to make a campy piece of shit as a comment...on...on something or other" years later after the film had garnered it diabolical reputation
The remake is...exactly what I would have expected from Neil Labute, a simplistic misogynistic Christianist take on a story that is disturbing and powerful precisely because it's NOT simplistic, and criticizes both religions pretty harshly. (I mean, sure Howie is an uptight, self-righteous tool, but is that really so bad that it deserves an incredibly painful and unwilling death? That's the part I find hardest to deal with, and as Maggie points out it's also the part that makes it such a great movie.)
Labute's remake has Nic Cage going FULL CAGEEEEEEE!!!!, crudely harassing and assaulting women-which the writer/director seems to think is somehow...an appropriate way for a MAN! to treat an island full of women? His death is also needlessly cruel, breaking his legs, stinging him with bees which he's seriously allergic to, THEN putting him to the Wicker Man and setting it and him ablaze. It feels like the movie's trying to say he has a right to be abusive to women, but the women are sadistic and revel in his pain and suffering more than using him as a sacrifice to bring back prosperous honey harvests. The end also had the women coming back to the mainland to find a new man to serve as a sacrifice, which implies this one didn't work out....
As a theater degree holder who had to read a whole bunch of Neil LaBute in undergrad, his career trajectory will never stop being fascinatingly weird to me
EDIT: oh wow, okay. I did NOT know about the whole "getting fired from the MCC" thing. I thought he was just a deeply weird and edgelordy Mormon 90s playwright who had a penchant for writing really horrible and hateful women characters and went on to make a bunch of bad-to-mediocre films and a show for the SyFy network that I never heard anybody talk about. I did NOT know about the MCC.
If my memory serves me right. I recall Christopher Lee saying, ' The Wicker Man was one of the best performance he'd ever done.' He really enjoyed playing Lord Summerisle.
The original Wicker Man made me think the cop was an ass, but an understandable ass.
Meanwhile the Labute version is just an ass.
He had characterization, motivations, learned things as the audience did, and the callousness built up to a satisfying ending.
Barry Lyndon was mentioned in the context of a "poor me ;(" film, I can see that. While the abusive, self-serving behavior went on wayyyy too long, I suppose he had *some* comeuppance? Maybe not as satisfying in how many lives he ruined over the cop intruding and being... tolerated as this season's game.
Woodward's Sgt. Howie is an uptight prig, but he does care about a young girl who has no connection to him. The Rowan Morrison in the original is just another of Her Majesty's subjects, and (to paraphrase the anonymous letter) Sgt. Howie feels duty-bound to see what's happened to Rowan because she is entitled to the protection of the law (as he represents).
8:17 JD Vance jump scare.
The use of the font Papyrus is indeed the true horror.
Came here to say this.
Wait was Hot Fuzz inspired by this
Yes, very much
I HATE NEIL LABUTE SO MUCH THANK YOU FOR HATING HIM OUT LOUD
Not a fan of Bee-movies.
wait is the whole 'bee' thing because bees have a queen so they're matriarchal, and is thus a paralel to whats happening on the island?
because.....what.
Because wahmens bad of course...
you've already put more time and energy in than he
I think that was the idea, yeah
Part of me wants Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) in this cast, but it would have instantly telegraphed Neil LaBute's intent to make the population of the island a bunch of crazy b/witches.
Speaking of LaBute, something I noticed in his speech pattern: he talks a lot like T*ump, rambling and going off into tangents. Do all misogynists talk this way?
Yeah, sorta. He's driven by grievance politics and has no real points to make beyond creating literal straw feminists to "take down" and perform sexualized violence on.
4:14 The End! It's perfect! NO NOTES! 😂
Endless notes lmfao
Aside from all the awful stuff Neil LaBute did to the film, he completely screwed up the atmosphere of The Wicker Man. So much of the power of the film to me comes from the work of Paul Giovanni and Magnet, to the point where the only version I watch is The Final Cut, to make sure that Gently Johnny is in there. By removing the music, LaBute just missed so much of the charm of the film
An aspect of the remake that strikes me as odd is that in the original, Summerisle has a revival of pre-Christian culture -- particularly from Celtic sources -- drawing from sources before the Kingdom of England (or even the Roman Empire) expanded into the area & pressured the people there to conform to hegemonic culture. (I think of the Celtic Revival movements around the British Isles during the time as examples.) If you take that context -- investigating in an isolated area with a recent cultural revival of "old ways" that predate a Christianizing, hegemonic culture -- & put it in the United States, chances are that the people doing that are not going to be white and/or not going to speak English as a first language. (The right to exercise indigenous religious practices was only protected by federal law in 1978 under The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, and only able to enforce these protections after the 1994 amendment.) The traditions are probably going to be indigenous traditions, African diaspora religions, or if the community is predominantly white, as immigrant enclaves or speaking a language such as Pennsylvania Dutch or Cajun French. Discussion of the clash between these traditions requires examination of colonialism, racism, & xenophobia in the United States. If I think about the film's setting on the islands along Pacific Northwest coast, the primary source of agricultural productivity are not beehives but on the salmon runs. It just seems so odd for the remake to refuse to engage with the themes of the original & cultural context of its new setting.
Christopher Lee said that Wicker Man was one of the best films he ever made. He was also a fairly devout member of the Church of England.
I always wondered if that showed he felt his own religion could be too rigid. Well never know for sure, but it at least shows the original was made by people with a type of mental flexibility and openness the topic requires.
The real worst remake ever is probably Psycho.
I have a soft spot for the wicker man remake as a comedy though. I honestly kinda love it. Not enough that I'd put it on, but if it was on TV, I wouldn't change it.
To me it plays like a farce and I enjoyed it.
I love the original and the Vince vaughn one lol
@@AaronHendu psycho 2 too
"The Wicker Man" says ACAB in both versions, too, but the original really seems to emphasize more than the remake that like... He could really just go back to the mainland.
(In the remake the vibe is just more overtly antagonistic toward him, so it seems to make more sense that he's suspicious, while in the original, the people on the island seem more chill and much less malevolent, at least initially.)
His persistence in trying to find a criminal to pin the alleged crime on and punish with State violence, in spite of an apparent lack of affected people/accusers/victims once he gets to the island, is part of what dooms him (as I recall).
In the remake he's not even within his jurisdiction (!)... I forgot about that, but WOW, at least in the original, the guy did have a legitimate reason to be there.
I had never been a fan of "good for her" movies but.... 06 Wicker Man may make a believer out of me yet.
The original works in part due to Edward Woodward's perfect performance as the repressed uptight (outasight, man!) Christian puritan moralist. And even the odd inclusion of Britt Ekland, with an overdubbed Scottish accent doesn't matter. The down to earth casting works perfectly, and the overall coolness of the direction sets it apart from many a horror film. Even if it would be considered tame by latter day standards.
None of this applies to the remake.
The novelization adds some interesting bits here and there. Sgt. Howie is repulsed by the public lovemaking, but partly because (as he thinks) the act of sex isn't as beautiful as he thought it would be. But he also vows to himself that when he marries his fiancee, he will be considerate and not make her do all the work in their marital bed.
Without nick cage, nobody would remember this movie
The double fakeout dream sequence is the first sign of many showing how different the remake is.
Oh man, I love the original Wicker Man. It's probably why I loved Midsommar so much.
Edit: omg I forgot about the papyrus 😂
LaBute was probably upset about the Mario Movie’s portrayal of Princess Peach
LaBute casting because "lol her last name starts with beeeeeee"
I went to see the remake when it was in theatres. I was a teenager starting to become a huge horror fan, but I hadn't watched the original yet. The theatre was almost empty: just my friend, me, and maybe 3 other people.
I soon realized that we were witnessing a hilarious trainwreck, that I was going to have more fun if I didn't take it seriously. I laughed out loud more than I'd do with any comedies at the time. I was joking that it was the best film of the year...
But then I saw in the ending credits that this piece of garbage had been dedicated to the memory of Johnny Ramone (who would've HATED IT. Like so, SO MUCH). It was soul-crushing. I understood then how horrible this project was, nothing more than a cash grab/vanity project. It made me feel so angry and bitter.
We found an interview where nic cage talks about how Johnny Ramone loved the original, so they dedicated it to him.
@MaggieMaeFish Yeah, Johnny was intense about his love for horror films (the Ramones was the reason I got into them!), so imagine how awkward it would have been to tell his friend Nicholas his remake is a cinematic insult to the OG.
No deeper thoughts. Just in to say I missed Maggie Mae's sessions these past few months.
It might be a bad movie but it's a fun watch.
Why does Neil Labute look like a young George Lucas?
I don't know what you're talking about. There is only one The Wicker Man in my world.
neil labute looks like a store brand george lucas which is weird cause george lucas looks kind of store brand of something himself
Thanks MM!
Awesome RLM shoutout Maggie!!
Every time I see the character at the beginning of the video, it becomes more awesome. The silly/dangerous attitude, the weird vocal quirks- it’s just terrific. Is it inspired by anything?
I would not characterize the Golden Bough as representing “actual” pagan belief as it was practiced, but this is a good essay. It was published in 1890, and we have made great strides since then.
In particular kingly sacrifice is a fraught issue of historiography, particularly in the British context. I myself would be careful to not readily connect Christian beliefs on the Passion with things like the drowning-throat cutting rituals of Medieval Ireland.
Returning to the main content of the video, how is LaBute this unprepared to take questions from Piers “Softball” Morgan?
@@j.e1334 I greatly enjoy the comment & wanted to say something along those lines myself. Even in the '70s, the anthropological methodology & material in The Golden Bough was decades out of date. Even The Wicker Man's titular wicker man is primarily attested by Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, an the provenance is...debatable.
Neil would look great in a fedora
I'll be honest we watched the 2006 movie drunk in freshman year of college, and were too busy laughing at how ridiculous/incompetent every scene was, that we didn't even think about how much this movie hates women, but it really does. It's just that Nic Cage also garners exactly zero sympathy or respect for himself over the course of the movie so you're totally on board with them killing him.
i guess not everything can be fixed by a large influx of bees
James Franco jumpscare. RIP
I suspect it was Robin Hardy's contempt for the remake that made him do The Wicker Tree (2011)
That's where you're wrong, Maggie. I wanted to hear about The Wicker Man plenty. It's the one I've watched, and the one that's worth talking about. But I'm always down for your analysis, no matter how unexpected it is, so I am thrilled to learn about this remake.
Well this is a happy Halloween indeed 😊
It must be just a coincidence that so many of the worst movies of all time are crammed into one decade. 50% according to Rotten Tomatoes, but I didn't even need to check. It was a weird time.
Bees?!?
Honey?!?
The plot sickens
I always need more Kath & Kim references in video essays by non Australians
I think the difference between a work of art being meaningfully or pointlessly edgy is whether there’s any purpose or shape to the thing. A knife can be sharp, a metal cube can have sharp edges, and yet both are fit to touch if used carefully. Other times, edgy art can be as chaotic and destructive as a nail bomb. Neil LaBute seems to make the latter.
‘ALL OF THE CHARISMA OF JD VANCE IN A DONUT SHOP!!!!’ IM HOWLING
Off to watch on Nebula! Hooray for Nebula!
I can't like this video enough.
Oh God.... OH JESUS CHRIST
23:19 this part made me remember the nightmare I had last night! Telling
HAPPY HALLOWEEN MAGGIE!
I saw this on Nebula & greatly enjoyed it. An excellent aspect of the original that is absent from the remake is the music -- the '73 Wicker Man soundtrack would be an excellent 1970s folk music album in its own right but also adds so much texture to the setting.
I appreciate hearing the accent of my homeland, Randomia.
26:33 I think the reason why it’s a William Blake quote is because he’s talking about honey and bees. In case you missed the 50,000 previous hints.
I should’ve just kept watching, you got there.
way worse than 2006 Wickerman is 2006 Wicker man Un-unrated that doesn’t even do the bees thing at the end
Personally, I think the Wicker Man remake would have been much better if they all lived with actual bee dynamics. Or, conversely, were a bunch bees in trenchcoats pretending to be people
Other "Oh, Poor Him"s
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
The Sopranos
The Boys
Has anyone other than me seen the unofficial sequel “The Wicker Tree”? Sir Christopher Lee actually made a cameo in it
YESSS! MAGGIE’S A MORBHEAD 🧛♂️🧛♂️
sorry I'm still stuck on the fact they POUR the bees????? can you really POUR bees like that?! I have to know...
"A Muppet Wicker Man" is by far the superior adaptation. Honestly, look it up, it's magnificent.
I love my man Nicholas Cage, I really do, but if I had a nickel for every time he has starred in a godawful, unforgivably shite remake of an untouchable classic, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but did it have to be The Wicker Man and Wings of Desire?!? Seriously!!!
PAPYRUS!?!?!?!?!?! 😱 ....the horror 😢
No, I'm pretty sure the remake is exactly as bad as I remember. Saying this as a huge fan of the original.
I always wondered what would have happened to Sergeant Howie if he'd had gone along with it?
The tragedy works because he can't let himself, but if he could have would he have been spared-would he even have become an active member of the community? Would Summerisle have sacrificed himself willingly if Howie had been capable of unbending? I could see a retelling where Howie relaxes into their ways, Lord Summerisle goes to his painful death, and Howie in an act of kindness kills him with a bullet before the flames start to burn him, telling the other residents that since Lord Summerisle sacrificed himself willingly he didn't have to suffer, and they all kneel to honor The Old King's death and the New King (Howie's) ascension....
There's a book Tammy shared with me, LAMMAS NIGHT, written by Katherine Kurtz, about how a British Intelligence Colonel assembles the covens of England to repel Hitler's Nazi Dark Magic which ends with (the fictional) Prince William sacrificing himself to help deliver a devastating blow to Hitler and save England from the Dark Arts....
This movie could have been good, even with the changes and the new angle. The original film was grim, but the messaging was clear; either of these beliefs could be right, either could be wrong. Both can somehow co-exist, but can they really? The remake could have easily been about both being WRONG. It could have been an even more grim, negative take about the two conflicting cultures, but still shown parity between them, still... set things up, more than just the man-hating-woman hating that we got.
So... never seen either of these movies. But, do I understand the 2006 version correctly... uhm... BEES! because matriarchy? Bee allergy because alpha man is to damn masculine for matriarchy which is of course what feminism is and bear costume because big strong man needs to fight feminism even if he dies a martyr?
Though the 1973 original seems like something I'd like to give a little looksy
They are based on the same story, and yet they are too completely different movies and different kinds of movies and in their own way they are both amazing and annoying.
Looking at Neil LaBute's filmography on RT, he only got critical acclaim on his first few movies. Everything else since then has been a splat. I will say, the only one that I have watched is Nurse Betty, and I fucking loved Nurse Betty. He didn't write it, so maybe that was the difference, but the cast as a whole were just incredible.
i missed ur vidsss
Gotta be honest with you, the original just couldn't hold my attention. I got more out of the "making of" documentary.
The remake is definitely in the so bad it's hilarious camp for me.
thank you Maggie for this Halloween treat
15:40 ... Okay, I think he's trying to reference the idea (usually more of a film theory idea than a "theater" idea, but you could apply it there too) of the audience as having a voyeuristic role, and as being in some ways complicit in whatever the play or film is doing... But that's been done much more effectively and interestingly by other filmmakers and probably other playwrights, and he doesn't seem like he's saying anything very new about those ideas. They seem like more of a cover, here, for him to just explore the possibilities for making people uncomfortable onstage and in the audience.
15:55 so I'm assuming, since he supports dramatic audience feedback like booing or walking out, that Mr. The Bute will not then start complaining about "cancel culture" or "PC culture" or how "people are too sensitive these days"?
(Waits patiently for him to start doing that.)
Remember when Oprah gave everybody bees? They were all so stoked. T'was a good day.
no more lynchpins!
She's absolutely adorable
*_NO! NOT THE BEEEEES!_*
My eyes 😭
41:03 TODD?!
What about the second Wickerman remake, Midsommar?
Good video. William Blake is pretty good though.
Could you maybe do a weekly or monthly movie rec.
ROBERT WEBB?! JEZ?! 14:47
YUP
I don't have anything to say, but I love your work, and commenting helps the video. I love your work! And don't have anything to say! But, despite all that, I *do* think that commenting helps the video.
You are a bit more in a cheerful mode while reading your material, comparing to your other videos. I even checked the playback speed.
🐝🐝🐝🐝😫🐝🐝🐝🐝
First!
never set some movies but it seems a bit of an exaggeration to call it the worst remake ever
you have NOT had time to watch the video. it came out 4 minutes ago 💀
@@huskylluvr it's up on nebula since yesterday
@@tzimakaah
@@huskylluvr You are right but I just wanted to write it
@@lasseehrenreich5502at least youre honest xD