See “The Wicker Man” (1973) starring Edward Woodward!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070917/
Don’t see the recent remake with Nick Cage.
There was no such remake. It was just a horrible nightmare/bad drug trip you must have had.
Yeah I'm in denial.
Actually last week Aust TV ran the two versions back to back. Verdict Worst. Remake. Ever.
Despite Cage being in the right, and against a mob of moonbat feminists, he was such a jerkass about it (dude, did you just kick Joan of Arc in the face?) that burning to death was what he deserved. That he was a wimpering coward about it was the cherry on the top.
Whereas, Woodward's character looked a bit of a prig, and the happy hedonistic pagans were so reasonable about their beliefs that you were on their side until it came clear to where those beliefs had led. And Sgt Howie's death, crowning moment of awesome: that is how a man dies.