Thank you for posting this, Luciaphil. I am excited by this project. Today's Pagan community is divided on evaluations of the original Wicker man. Some regard it as a blasphemous caricature of Pagan spirituality; others regard it as a fascinating artistic exploration of light and dark aspects of surviving Neolithic religions in a modern context. I saw the restored DVD a few months ago, and was impressed by it. As I see it, the point of the original film was a critique of "varieties of religious experience" and the role of religion in human social life. I really loved the music, especially the Maypole song. There's an interesting new book out by British scholar Miranda Green, Dying for the God, about human sacrifice amongst the Celtic peoples. It is very difficult to document the practices, role, and beliefs around human sacrifice. Green points out that the Roman writers, who were so critical of the "barbarism" of Druid sacrifices, had their own skeletons rattling around in their closets on this issue. In the Wicker Man, Robin Hardy makes a similar kind of statement by presenting the *symbolic* sacrifice of the Mass at the beginning of the film, counterpointed with terrible irony by the literal sacrifice at the end.
Having said all that, "May Day" could be just plain awful, but I'm hoping it will be done with wit and intelligence. There was talk of Ewan Macgregor participating in it. He would look beautiful clad in nothing but a stag-horn headdress. sigh.
G.
