With the coming of a Nic Cage version of this film, I thought I'd give the original here a watching. The 70's were an experimental time for the film industry, and filmmakers loved being able to buck the 40 year old production with the advent of the new rating system. This was no exception to that rule.
We start off with a police officer going to an island in the United Kingdom to investigate the supposed disappearance of a girl. He continues to get no cooperation from the natives, though as he uncovers more information, they at least agree with the information he provides to them. The island is run by a cult religion with all the standard deviants to regular religion, such as nature worship and human sacrifice.
The policeman professes his devotion to Christianity early on, and that becomes one of the main conflicts within the larger framework of the search for the missing girl. It does get preachy at times, and his character can be admired for overstepping his authority on several occasions for the sake of preaching Jesus, but it's all not overwhelming.
It has some moments where the pacing slows down a lot, and we just want to move on, but it doesn't necessarily drive me to distraction. A better soundtrack would have helped this a lot.
When we hit the climax, we get a big twist, and anyone who has seen enough of these types of movies can guess how it ends. I got a little concerned that the dragging in the end was dragging a bit too long, but it got cleared up neatly when the "title character" was revealed.
It had some excellent character development of the lead and the island served as a character in and of itself with Lord Summerisle as the head. There was a ton of supporting characters from all over the island, and they served as little snippets of developing the religion more than individual characters.
Weird ending. Weird movie. But altogether pretty decent in all its weirdness.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment