Wow

[skull_bearer]

I saw this article in the Metro today, and my jaw just dropped.
Now, you all know I'm not a massive fan of religion. In fact, I'm not a fan at all, but this goes beyond even what I find acceptable and goes straight into 'oh wait, hang on now'.
It might be because I've got some pagan friends, and can imagine what their reactions would be at having their religion described as that practised in The Wicker Man. I mean, I love that film, but saying that it's an accurate description of modern pagans is like saying Jude Suss is an accurate portrayl of Jews.

Seriously Metro, wtf? It was on the front page too, I'm looking forward to seeing tomorrow's opinion's page.

Comments

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

Won't the inmates need at least one virgin per annum to sacrifice on the Black Altar?

Seriously, what a dreadful bit of hackery.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Aye! I mean everyone knows that we Quaker women wander around in little black dresses with white lace collars :o)

It's an uncomfortable truth that Jude Suss would be remembered as a great film were it not for its position in history.......

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

And the fact it made very little sense if you didn't klook at it through really anti semitic eyes. "We Jews are going to enact our EVIL PLOT to... give us equal rights to gentiles." I watched the first ten minutes in a discussion group, and I spent the entire time going ".... what?"
Really boring aryan family! Booming bombastic music! Debauched Jewish Women! Random Jewish midget!

It didn't revolt me nearly as much as it made me wonder what Goebbles was one when he made it.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I was meaning more in terms of technique and cinematic quality- it was a long way ahead of its time.

Goebbels was pretty strange- at the end of the war with the Red Army closing in on Berlin, he's pulling troops out of the front line to act as extras in 'Kolberg' for Pete's sake! Admittedly, the result is something remarkable which is now almost forgotten.

[delkaetre-ni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the only reason I picked up the metro today was because of the headline and the glimpsed words underneath it.

The only accuracy I can find is that they got the name of a festival mostly right. Everything else, literally every single other thing in the entire piece, was offensive bollocks. It would be like me writing a front-page article about those weird christians who keep idols of a decaying corpse and demand time off work to celebrate his death, and then deciding to just fill the rest of it up with the most random ideas I could come up with.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

I don't know enough anout paganism to guess what was right or wrong about the piece. I just saw the first line and went .... wow. How dense can you be?
It must have been a VERY slow news day.

[(Anonymous)]

Feelings of rage rising...

When I was chair of the Pagan society at Uni, people often asked me if Paganism was like the religion in the Wicker Man. I had never seen the film, so I just used to say 'probably not', assuming that it was likely balls. Now I have seen the film, I am glad I said no!

Also, lol at the festival of the lambs milk, aka, imbolc, St. Bridget's Day aka observed in Churches around the UK. Fail.

[kathie-d.livejournal.com]

Sorry, didn't realise mate had logged me out of LJ, that was me.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I love the Wicker Man, any film which gets away with putting Christopher Lee in a dress and surviving definitely works for me, but it has as much to do with modern paganism as... I don't know, Chick tracts have to do with mainstream Christianity ;)

[kathie-d.livejournal.com]

I think it's even worse, tbh. I was brought up in a Church that was fairly Chick tract-y, but I never heard of anything as insane as the Wicker Man in Paganism... but hey, perhaps I just never went to the right parties. ;-)

Didn't Christopher Lee actually do a lot of work to ensure that film was actually made? I guess he knew the world needed to see him dancing around in a dress setting fire to people.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Yeah I guess, that's why I said 'mainstream'.
Wicker Man is one of those films that should plain just NOT WORK. It has Christopher Lee in a dress! And really weird music! And a main character you want to strangle! And people being naked in Scotland in November!
AND IT WAS AWESOME.

Which is why I don't understand why people keep making sequels and remakes of it, the original was like finding a crisp in the shape of Elvis Presley, you're not going to have any luck looking through packs of crisps for another one.

[aegflota.livejournal.com]

They just want to burn a policeman and dance around like amiable rustic loons. Doesn't everyone?

[totenkopf6.livejournal.com]

How surreal. I sort of heard something about this but only just saw your link...sounds like someone saw a headline in another paper and decided to make a story to fit. I do hope there is plenty of vocal opposition coming soon!