Edward Woodward makes authority look hard to maintain: his upright men have anger to contain and convictions they cannot put aside. We rate him most highly when that restraint becomes uncomfortable, as it does in The Wicker Man.
Fi1m perspective
In The Wicker Man (1973), Edward Woodward makes listening to an explanation look like a considerable personal concession. As Sergeant Neil Howie, he gives disapproval the force of physical effort, as though letting the islanders finish speaking risks conceding something important. The stiffness is funny, but he keeps Howie's convictions serious enough to make our amusement feel questionable. He makes us notice the strain without asking us to find the man agreeable.
The title role in the spy series Callan (1967–1972) brought him wider attention, establishing television as an important home for that controlled anger. His film work took him from Howie to the title role in Breaker Morant (1980), before another sustained television lead as Robert McCall in The Equalizer (1985–1989). The recurring figure is a solitary enforcer or investigator, carrying responsibilities that do not make him easy company. We value the suggestion that keeping control costs these men something; mere sternness would soon become tiresome.
Robin Hardy makes especially good use of Woodward's discomfort in The Wicker Man, setting it against islanders who seem entirely comfortable with the customs Howie finds intolerable. Woodward gives Hardy a reliable source of comedy without letting the laughter settle the question of Howie's worth. We laughed at his unease among the singing islanders, then felt uncomfortable with how readily we had joined in, because he made the man's conviction so hard to dismiss. His seriousness makes us care about how Howie is treated even when we disagree with him.
That succession of stern men should not be mistaken for the full extent of his abilities. He had a strong singing voice, used in stage musicals and over the end credits of Breaker Morant, though the controlled anger remains the more familiar screen quality. Nor is restraint automatically a virtue: The Wicker Man has its stiff passages, even if they scarcely weaken our recommendation. Start with Hardy's film, but give Howie a fair hearing before choosing the more agreeable company.
Biography
Edward Woodward was an English actor and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage in repertory and made his London debut in 1955. He appeared in productions in the West End and on Broadway.
Woodward came to wider attention as the title character in the television series Callan (1967–1972), for which he received the 1970 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor. He played Sergeant Neil Howie in the film The Wicker Man (1973) and the title role in Breaker Morant (1980). From 1985 to 1989 he starred as Robert McCall in the American series The Equalizer, winning the 1986 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Drama Series. He was appointed OBE in 1978.
