Burn, Nic Cage, Burn!

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yes you do!

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 4 September 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

Fellow Chilxor Milkmaid and I have tentative plans to wait outside local theaters and immolate one attendee from each showing in protest of this remake.

― Party Time Country Female (pullapartgirl), Monday, 4 September 2006 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

from the first post on the thread: Neil LaBute being director is weird as hell, too.

when the opening credits ran I was like 'hey that name is familiar, what else did he direct again?' and then I moved on, but by the time Nicolas Cage is screaming "YOU BITCHES" at the top of his lungs I was like 'oh yeah, now I remember'

goes without saying that it can't even begin to compare to the original, and the direction is very very very poor, so much leaden tedium, great casting but phoned in acting, etc. but the film's fantastically paranoid gender war spin on the original is so unbelievable, when it turns the final corner and begins underlining it's female-thesis, it goes over the line into watchably bad. I saw this on a date with a friend was laughing hysterically through the last third and on the way out she said 'well, what are you even going to do with that'

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 02:05 (nineteen years ago)

i know right?? when nic cage starts punching teenage girls in the face it really enters gonzo badness territory

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 02:12 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone else find it strange that he won an Oscar once upon a time?

― trees (treesessplode), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 02:27 (nineteen years ago)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 02:29 (nineteen years ago)

i think half his problem is that he's in almost literally every movie that comes out

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 04:19 (nineteen years ago)

Oh my god does this seriously feature Nicholas Cage sucker punching women???? I have got to see this.

― Allyzay is cool: with Blue n White, with Eli Manning, with NY Giants (allyzay), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, i think you just sold me on an unsellable movie. maybe i'll see something else and sneak in.

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

I think I read somehwere (perhaps even here) that the original was the lower part of a bill shared with Don't Look Now. I have never seen Don't Look Now, but what a double whammy, eh? And now they are both newspaper freebies.

Perhaps this should be on the 1986 thread.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

I would consider Cage's repeated coldcocking of women in this film a spoiler but now that the cat's out of the bag, yes that's the exact moment the entire audience seemed to go 'oh, okay'

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

hahahahahaha

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 18:13 (nineteen years ago)

I feel sorry for Aaron Eckhart nowadays too, because every time I see him he reminds me of how much I hate Neil LaBute and I want to land one right on his chin bum.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 19:12 (nineteen years ago)

Neil Labute is usually great. Aaron Eckhart looks like Jussi Jaaskelainen.

― The Ultimate Conclusion (lokar), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

you a big possession/nurse betty/shape of things fan?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 20:03 (nineteen years ago)

Nic Cage punching girls in the face! WTF, cinema?

― Young Fresh Danny D (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

I can't believe this is going to be set in America. Who could
support such an awful, awful decision? It's unbelievable. I'll
still watch it, of course - you never know.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

i know :(

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:39 (nineteen years ago)

The film's dedicated to late musician Johnny Ramone, who introduced Nicolas Cage to Robin Hardy's original film.

Fuck you anyway Johnny...

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

What's wrong with setting a wicker man film in America? Is it paganism intrinisically unamerican or something?

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

Have you seen the original?

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:44 (nineteen years ago)

Err... yeah. But it was a different film.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

"Is it paganism intrinisically unamerican or something"

pretty much. this country was founded by Puritans you know. There is no history of paganism in the US like there is in Europe. the closest we come is highly diluted rituals/motifs imported from Africa and the Caribbean.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:47 (nineteen years ago)

(at least until you get to modern times and mass media)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

What Shakey said.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

Neil Labute is usually great.

HAHANO.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

And faux-celtic paganism in America is all too cute and new-agey.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:49 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.columbia.edu/~rlb7/jpegs/serpent.jpg

― Machibuse '80 (ex machina), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose so, but it's... a story. There are no pagan communities living off the West Coast of Scotland either for that matter. And I don't think wicker men were really ever used for human sacrifice either.

I dunno. It just seems a silly reason to object to a horror film, that it's unrealistic or something.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

the fact is paganism has much deeper cultural resonance in a European context than in an American one.

wicker men were used for all kinds of sacrifices, including human, at least according to "The Golden Bough". And there have been all kinds of pagan communities in Scotland throughout history (regardless of whether there's any there NOW, surely you can see how their previous actual existence would be relevant/lend weight to a horror story?!)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:53 (nineteen years ago)

think about it, what makes a scarier plot device: a creepy group of people with ties to ancient and mysterious powers/rituals, or a creepy group of people with ties to a pop-culture phenomenon stretching back less than 30 years.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

they downplay the actual paganist rituals in the new version that were so detailed in the original. here, the only thing the film needs you to know about these women is that they're all witches
The film's dedicated to late musician Johnny Ramone, who introduced Nicolas Cage to Robin Hardy's original film.

when the credits came up on the words 'dedicated to Johnny Ramone', right the big ending, well... we were just... we didn't know anything anymore

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

right _after_ the big ending, etc.

― milton parker (Jon L), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:58 (nineteen years ago)

Shirley Jackson's short story the Lottery is a perfect example of how this kind of story does work in an american context. It's quite famous, a town draw a lottery once a year and the loser is stoned to death. Settler communities of pilgrims are easy to imagine falling into savagery of the sort that is in the original film. "That first winter was hard, we had to eat the children" style.

See also Stephen King.

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

according to wikipedia, Julius Caesar was the first to note the druids' use of wicker men for human sacrifice.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

haha of course the Lottery works so well because its explicitly about PURITANISM aka one of the most American things there is. As opposed to new age women and honeybees which is... well, I don't know what it is.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:02 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think The Golden Bough is very reliable. Anyways, Mark Kermode (who tends to be a bit of a nerd about such things) and err.. wikipedia, yes say the evidence for them ever being used for human sacrifice is somewhat sketchy.

Anyway, yes, I realise I'm being a bit awkward, but the point is yes in an obvious sense The Wicker Man obviously fits better in a British context, but y'know, art doesn't always work best by following the rules of obvious fit.

I fully expect The Wicker Man (2006) to be a load of toss, based on what I've heard and seen here and elsewhere, but to make such assumptions simply on the basis of where it's set... no.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:04 (nineteen years ago)

Full disclaimer: I think The Wicker Man (1973) is mostly a load of toss too, at least when it come to the end being supposedly scary (and I scare easily). It's like Carry On Sacrificing!

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

Well, it was a Hammer film. So IOW, a B movie, but much
better than your average B movie.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

I know it's explicitly about Puritanism, but that can frighten in the same way that paganism does in that it inhabits our imagination as a lost and cultish society, uncivilised in a sense, foreign but staining the soil we thread on.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow plays on these themes as well. The film is less about paganism per se than something as driven as that, isolated and festering. It's nearly like the past reaching from the ground and terrorising us.
Another film I'd draw in is Breaking the Waves, which is also set on Scotland's west coast and also has small isolated communities (this time the damnation is of the soul and the cult is Presbyterianism) that do outlandish things. If the film isn't so explicitly about Paganism as is being suggested than it's not really all that important a ground to criticise on.

― Major Alfonso (Major Alfonso), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

Puritanism gets a bad rap. The puritans were tops at producing
hardworking farmers and tenacious warriors, the most valuable resources for any budding society.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

TS:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000068IET.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
VS.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00009PY3X.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― literalisp (literalisp), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 01:58 (nineteen years ago)

-- Shakey Mo Collier (audiobo...), September 5th, 2006.

that is the most brainless thing you'ever written

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 02:39 (nineteen years ago)

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/466237/2/istockphoto_466237_ancient_spirits_totem_pole_1.jpg

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 02:42 (nineteen years ago)

Hello? Hello! Anybody home? We've been talking strictly about WHITE paganism for this whole thread. I think that's perfectly clear from the context of the discussion (the american remake of _The Wicker Man_).

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 02:58 (nineteen years ago)

Although I have to say, northwestern totemic art can be quite creepy and alien. I'd love to see it exploited in a horror movie, maybe a family of Russian missionaries gets kidnapped in the 1880's? Too unPC to fly, though.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 03:00 (nineteen years ago)

Interesting review by a modern pagan with a good understanding of the history of the film here: http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=media&id=11130

― spectra (spectra), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 04:04 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't seen the remake (or any of the director's previous films) but it sounds like the bee thing is used in as a misogynistic analogy - female domination

― spectra (spectra), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 04:10 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of what goes on in the original Wicker Man is alive and kicking in the Basque Country, such as the hobby horse man. So it's far-fecthed, but not too far-fetched. I will look for evidence.

I liked Nurse Betty very much for some reason.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 06:12 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, it was good.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 6 September 2006 06:18 (nineteen years ago)

Skipping 209 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Looked at his filmography. I think I saw The Weather Man--that'd be the last one.

― clemenza, Sunday, 28 July 2024 01:26 (one year ago)

Hated nearly every single thing about Longlegs. Alicia Witt is fine until her character becomes too ridiculous.

― Chris L, Sunday, 28 July 2024 01:27 (one year ago)

I thought there was directorial skill in the first two parts, a few nice compositions, a decent build-up. Part three was preposterous.

― clemenza, Sunday, 28 July 2024 01:30 (one year ago)

Fascinating stuff I didn't know about the director, Osgood Perkins (from the Vulture review):

Perkins, for his part, is creating a Freudian cocktail from autobiographical elements. His father was Anthony Perkins, a closeted actor who died of complications from AIDS in 1992 and was best known for playing the title character in Psycho, a motel manager who takes orders from a psychological construct of the mother he murdered for her sexual appetites, and who still haunts him. Perkins’s mother was model, actress, and photographer Berry Berenson, who died on 9/11 while traveling in one of the hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center a day before what would have been the anniversary of her husband’s death.

― clemenza, Sunday, 28 July 2024 03:33 (one year ago)

"Looked at his filmography. I think I saw The Weather Man--that'd be the last one."

Every fibre of my being wanted to reply with "actually it was The Wicker Man". With the word "wicker" in double italics.

But he was in a film called The Weather Man. It came out in 2005. He was a weatherman, although nowadays you have to call them weatherpeople or weatherpersons. They get offended if you call them weathermen.

I hope he completes the trilogy by appearing in a film called The Wither Man. Except that it would be The Wither Person get out of my head.

― Ashley Pomeroy, Sunday, 28 July 2024 22:14 (one year ago)

And here's the recording! Turn up the volume, the recording level was low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZRFiu_G9dU

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 2 August 2024 17:13 (one year ago)

one month passes...

heard a description of Leaving Las Vegas, which I haven't seen since the 90s, and realized that both of Cage's Oscar nominations have been for roles in which he played a screenwriter (Adaptation being the other)

― jaymc, Monday, 30 September 2024 01:13 (one year ago)

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