Editing The Wicker Man (section)

===Background===
[[File:The Wicker Man (1973) US trailer - Christopher Lee 1.png|thumb|left|upright|[[Christopher Lee]], who appeared in more than 275 motion pictures, considered ''The Wicker Man'' his best film.<ref name=TFInterview />]]
In the early 1970s, Christopher Lee was a [[Hammer Film Productions|Hammer Horror]] regular, best known for his roles in a series of successful films, beginning with ''[[The Curse of Frankenstein]]'' (as [[Frankenstein's monster|the monster]], 1957). Lee wanted to break free of this image and take on more interesting acting roles. The idea for ''The Wicker Man'' film began in 1971 when Lee met with screenwriter [[Anthony Shaffer (writer)|Anthony Shaffer]], and they agreed to work together.<ref>[https://www.steve-p.org/wm/ THE VARIOUS VERSIONS OF THE WICKER MAN]</ref> Film director [[Robin Hardy (film director)|Robin Hardy]] and [[British Lion Films|British Lion]] head [[Peter Snell (producer)|Peter Snell]] became involved in the project. Shaffer had a series of conversations with Hardy, and the two decided that making a horror film centring on "old religion" would be fun, in sharp contrast to the Hammer films they had both seen as horror film fans.<ref>Stephen Applebaum [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-wicker-man-caught-in-the-crossfire-412303.html "The Wicker Man: Caught in the crossfire"], ''The Independent'', 18 August 2006</ref>

Shaffer read the [[David Pinner]] novel ''[[Ritual (1967 novel)|Ritual]]'', in which a devout Christian policeman is called to investigate what appears to be the [[ritual murder]] of a young girl in a rural village, and decided that it would serve well as the source material for the project. Pinner had originally written ''Ritual'' as a film treatment for director [[Michael Winner]], who had [[John Hurt]] in mind as a possible star.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wicker-man.com/trivia.php|title=Wicker Man Trivia|publisher=Wicker-Man.com|access-date=11 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210205628/http://www.wicker-man.com/trivia.php|archive-date=10 February 2012}}</ref> Winner eventually declined the project, so Pinner's agent persuaded him to write ''Ritual'' as a novel instead.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://b-music-collective.blogspot.com/2011/12/david-pinner-interview-cult-of-david.html|title=David Pinner Interview - The Cult of David Pinner|author=Orphan, David|publisher=B-Music Collective|date=1 December 2011|access-date=11 April 2012}}</ref> Shaffer and Lee paid Pinner £15,000 ({{Inflation|UK|15000|1971|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) for the rights to the novel, and Shaffer set to work on the screenplay. He soon decided that a direct adaptation would not work well, so drafted a new story based only loosely on the story of the novel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/leisure/8985362.The_author_who_inspired_The_Wicker_Man___/ |title=The author who inspired The Wicker Man... |author=Gore, Will |publisher=Surrey Comet |date=22 April 2011 |access-date=11 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826092935/http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/leisure/8985362.The_author_who_inspired_The_Wicker_Man___/ |archive-date=26 August 2011 }}</ref>

Shaffer wanted the film to be "a little more literate" than the average horror picture. He specifically wanted a film with a minimum of violence and gore. He was tired of seeing horror films that relied almost entirely on viscera to be scary. The focus of the film was crystallised when he "finally hit upon the abstract concept of sacrifice." The image of the wicker man, which gave the filmmakers their title, was taken from the description of the practice of human sacrifice by the Gauls in [[Julius Caesar]]'s [[Commentarii de Bello Gallico|''Commentaries on the Gallic War'']]: "Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames."<ref>{{cite book |last = Caesar |first = Julius |year = 1910 |title = Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic war: literally translated, with explanatory notes |publisher = Hinds & Noble |location = New York City |url = https://archive.org/details/caesarscommentar00caes/page/149/mode/2up |pages = Book VI, Chapter XVI, page 149 |quote = Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames.}}</ref> For Shaffer, this was "the most alarming and imposing image that I had ever seen."<ref>Lori Anderson [http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/film/lori-anderson-worship-at-the-feet-of-the-wicker-man-1-3104662 "Worship at the feet of The Wicker Man"], ''The Scotsman'', 21 Septemberv 2013</ref> The idea of a confrontation between a modern Christian and a remote, pagan community continued to intrigue Shaffer, who performed painstaking research on paganism. Brainstorming with Hardy, they conceived the film as presenting the pagan elements objectively and accurately, accompanied by authentic music and a believable, contemporary setting.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-07-04 |title=Long arm of the lore: remembering The Wicker Man {{!}} Sight & Sound |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/long-arm-lore-robin-hardy-wicker-man |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=British Film Institute |language=en}}</ref> One of their main resources was ''[[The Golden Bough]]'', a study of mythology and religion written by Scottish anthropologist [[James George Frazer|James Frazer]].<ref>Melanie J. Wright [https://books.google.com/books?id=-NPfv-s7WdcC&pg=PA87 ''Religion and Film: An Introduction''], London: IB Tauris, 2000, p. 87</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cowdell |first=Paul |date=2019 |title="Practicing Witchcraft Myself During the Filming": Folk Horror, Folklore, and the Folkloresque |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26864166 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=78 |issue=4 |pages=295–326 |jstor=26864166 |issn=0043-373X}}</ref>