I saw the truncated VHS version and maybe I missed something, but why would the men continue to go along with the whole harvest lord concept? Wouldn't they be a bit upset watching friends and neighbors murdered year after year? Did the full version flesh out more that would make the whole situation a bit more plausible?
shareYeah I just watched this for Halloween, to see Bette Davis and Tracey Gold (what little screentime she had). I didn't like it...partly 'cause I found it very easy to predict what was gonna happen at Harvest Home time (so the male protagonist seemed like a bonehead to me and I was just exasperated with him)... and mostly because of the plausibility issue you mentioned.
And maybe it's 'cause I saw the condensed version too, but the movie failed to provide any plausible explanation as to why and how a seemingly normal wife & daughter would turn against their husband/father and become totally okay with murder. And in such a short time living there! I mean, did the full length version develop these female characters better so that we have some idea why they'd be seduced by this town with all it's barbarism? If we'd seen them being abused by men before or something, I could better understand a turn to violence. As it is, I'm lost. Like that scene where the daughter just stares coldly at her father after they both witness the mother become an adulteress and murderer. Where is the hatred and cold-blooded attitude coming from? Were they drugged by the Widow?
What's even more implausible is that the men in this town don't seem to know what goes on during the ritual? Since such a big deal is made of how secret it is and how men aren't allowed outside their homes/into the woods that night... not to mention the fact that the women are willing to blind any men who try to see what's going on.
Okaaaay. So we're supposed to believe that none of the men in this community *notice* when one of their fellow fellas (whoever was elected Corn King or whatever) DISAPPEARS AFTER HARVEST HOME NIGHT, NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN?! You're telling me that none of them figure out that maybe, just maybe, the women are sacrificing this poor shmuck in some primitive ritual that supposedly ensures good crops?
Not to mention, whoever gets to be Corn King seems to know in advance that he's toast (and is brainwashed to accept it as necessary mother-earth-worshipping) ... so that seems to contradict the whole... men have no idea what goes on during the ritual and must be severely punished if they try to find out.
Bah. The whole thing was ridiculous, in my opinion. I get the feeling the writer was just feeling threatened by the feminist movement in the 70s and decided to write an extreme reaction/worst case scenario story to get guys panicky about the idea of women taking over. :P
What no man may know or any woman tell!
Any man who found out was silenced by being blinded and/or having his tongue cut out.
And the townsfolk managed an excuse for why the guys disappeared. Accidently shot himself, fell off a horse, or whatever.
But then again, Nick might have been the only one left in the dark because he was the outsider.
Worthy obviously suspected something.
Love is never having to say you're sober.
Seven years of getting helped by all the in habitants of the village seems a good enough idea. But look what happens to Wothy's family when he runs away, they get punished for his 'sin'.
This is a matriactrical culture at its Zenith.
When you think about it, this story/book is kind of a Stepford Wives in reverse.
In the Stepford Wives, the men rule, and this story the women do.
But the Stepford Wives made a larger impact, on society in general.
You often hear someone using the phrase "Stepford Wife" to describe someone kind of robotic, but you never hear anyone calling someone a "Worthy Pettinger" (just joking)
Thank you for the insightful commentary.
Maggie Dodson's husband was an intellectual like Nick who is also .... blinded. It seems the outsiders are the curious ones. The ones who have been born and brought up there accept The Ways as the only one. Worthy, after all, was being educated away from the Coombe. This supposedly led to his unacceptable ways.
There was plenty of drugging (Widow's) and drinking going on. Widow was a sha woman, plain and simple. She was always in the shadows, plying and applying her wiles and wares.
Like how a lot of cults operate, in the beginning, the magic of every reawakened moment portends the nightmare of every recalled memory in the ending. We live in timeless time, just mostly aren't aware of it.
Sincere, undomesticated paganism. The Widow probably represented the Goddess on earth - her word was wise and final. As sincere pagans, the men more than just went along with it - rather, they wholeheartedly supported it because, in this religion, they formed an essential pillar: that of the sacred ritual sacrifice, without which the Mother Goddess religion would not function.
To be the lord of the corn/harvest lord was to receive the religion's greatest blessing and privilege, to symbolically mate with the Goddess, merge with the earth, renew the harvest and re-balance humankind with the cosmic forces. Only the most worthy, in most circumstances, would be chosen for the honor of playing this kind of pagan Christ role, and the selected sacrifice himself would, ideally, look with anticipation and humility on his upcoming demise, which was not really a demise at all, but a unique opportunity to serve the Goddess and live on in the harvest.
Because it was 'the way.' As Robert kept saying, the village adopted traditions from very old cultures, who often included sacrifices. They were afraid of another Great Waste if traditions were disrupted. If you haven't read Shirley Jackson's short story 'The Lottery,' it has a similar theme. And obviously it was a hard choice for some. Why do you think Sophie killed herself? She couldn't bear the idea of killing Justin. In the book, Worthy's mother supported his leaving the village, and I bet she wanted him out of the line of fire.
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