By Charlie Hinds
Robin Hardy’s 1973 folk-horror film ‘The Wicker Man’ tells the story of Police Sergeant Neil Howie investigating a missing child case named Rowan on the fictional island of Summerisle in the Hebridees and has been widely appreciated as one of the greatest horror films ever made.
Though this may not sound like the most obvious place to study the nature of identity and nationalism, it is impossible to not see the strict Calvinist Howie inhabiting the role of a colonial administrator appalled at the barbarity of the pagan islanders. Through callously wiping the school’s chalkboard clean, horrified witnessing of public nudity and ultimately his hypocritical desperate plea ‘can you not see? There is no sun god. There is no goddess of the fields.’ Howie’s position becomes no different from any other colonist believing they’ve found their ‘new-caught peoples,/ Half Devil and half child’ that they must bring into God’s embrace.
Or at least that’s what a surface level interpretation of the film would give you. Looking at the history of Summerisle, provided in the film, we can appreciate something far more nuanced. Lord Summerisle tells Howie that his grandfather bought the island to utilise the soil and gulf stream to cultivate a new type of apple and in order to motivate the islanders to work this plantation he ‘roused them by giving them back their joyous old gods.’ In a pitch perfect parody of primordialism, there is little in ancient paganism found in Summerisle’s religion, meaning that Lord Summerisle’s grandfather likely made it up in order to coerce the affection of the islanders. Something so successful that by the time of the Sergeant’s investigation, whenever he demands the islanders compliance the response is always to speak to Lord Summerisle. Nothing and nobody challenges the Lord’s power.
In the conclusion of the film, Lord Summerisle leads the May Day procession in costume as the fictitious “Man-Woman” character (further supporting the idea that Summerisle’s paganism is made-up). Yet as Sgt. Howie emerges from the cave with Rowan, she runs to Summerisle’s arms and we see that he has removed his costume. As he commits to burning Howie alive in the titular wicker man, he’s now wearing a tweed shooting jacket, yellow woollen turtleneck and navy-blue trousers. Looking unlike any of the islanders, instead dressed like any other member of the British aristocracy. Lord Summerisle has cast aside the role of the native and returns to the position of the Lord.
Frankly, I understand if you’re reading this thinking “why does this matter when discussing identity?” The answer is because Lord Summerisle perfectly depicts how political leaders construct narratives of identity in order to maintain their power.
Roselle, Miskimmon and O’Loughlin’s article ‘Strategic Narrative: A New Means to Understand Soft Power’ highlights how democracies struggle to control narratives ‘at every level’ but, importantly, also how control of narratives is a vital component of soft power. In the nationalist struggle of anti-colonial forces, the narrative is the story of the nation and how identity binds people to resist colonisers.
So when an autocrat emerged to lead post-Rhodesian Zimbabwe, a narrative was needed. Robert Mugabe utilised the belief that ‘openly criticising the [ZANU-PF] was … siding with the enemy… imperialism and the apartheid regime in South Africa’ to cultivate a narrative that he was the champion of anti-imperialism. Mugabe’s support for ‘land reform’ was key to building this narrative. As both a primary economic grievance of Zimbabweans (white-settlers controlling the land ensured control of the agricultural economy) and central to local spiritual beliefs. Yet when Zimbabwe’s economy failed, thanks to mass crop failure, Mugabe turned to hard power in order to retain his hold on power, as it soon became apparent that narrative alone won’t be enough to keep his grip on power.
When too challenged with crop failure and economic hardship Lord Summerisle’s presented narrative that the colonising Christian mainland will always be a threat to the joy of the island’s “old religion” wavers. Yet he doubles down. Like Mugabe, Lord Summerisle determines that hard power is needed to reinforce the soft power that has decayed as the perfect postcolonial narrative decays.
Identity, for the autocrat, is a necessary component for the narratives they build about themselves and the land they rule. Whether they believe it themselves or not, the autocrat’s power is legitimised by their ability to cultivate the narrative that they alone do what is necessary to protect their people.
Bibliography:
Bilson, Anne. “The Wicker Man: No. 4 Best Horror Film of All Time” The Guardian, October 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/22/wicker-man-hardy-horror.
Compagnon, Daniel. A Predictable Tragedy: Robert Mugabe and the Collapse of Zimbabwe, University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, PA. 2011.
Kipling, Rudyard. The White Man’s Burden, 1899, https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/ poem/poems_burden.htm, accessed 1 November 2024.
Roselle, Laura, Alister Miskimmon, Ben O’Loughlin, (2014). “Strategic Narrative: A New Means to Understand Soft Power” Media, War & Conflict, 7(1), 70-84.
Scott, Eric. “Classics of Pagan Cinema, The Wicker Man.” The Wild Hunt. October 2023. https://wildhunt.org/2023/10/classics-of-pagan-cinema-the-wicker-man.html
Wicker Man, The. directed Robin Hardy, screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, David Pinner. 1973: London, British Lion.
Identity Hunters 