(1979) Wise Blood
DRAMA
Based on a book written by Flannery O'Connor of the same name starring Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes who has just returned from the army. It is somewhere in the deep south where Hazel often reminisces about his grandfather(John Huston) as a preacher but doesn't speak about him very much. He goes to a store and cashes a check, but we don't know for how much and at the same time gets berated that he often looks like a preacher since the type of clothing he chooses to wear. Once going to a bigger city, he then becomes infatuated with a young teenage girl handing away Jesus leaflets promoting charity, her name is Sabbath Lily (Amy Wright) walking with her (supposedly) blinded father Asa Hawks played by Harry Dean Stanton both obviously exploiting this for the sake of money. As a result of not liking what Hazel is witnessing he then goes on an escapade ranting about his own so-called church he intends to build someday and it is not going to cost anyone any money and it is a church without Jesus since he believes that it's nothing more but a false prophet for poor people particularly for African Americans- a fanatic for a better word. We also get to see other eccentrics and oddballs doing things without a clear motivation except to say that is stereotypically how the south typically used to act and perhaps still act like in specific areas where people are not properly educated. They all talk like "are you gonna eat them apples!' like how much of the south usually talk like- there's no proper English often spoken there and that the laws are totally convoluted too. One of the first films I remember watching as a child but unable to understand it, but upon watching it again I get to see some of the inconsistencies but I guess that was a total reflection about how it used to be back then when a high percentage of the people were uneducated. Although it's faithful to the book, the source material where Huston adapted it from with overall praise both from fans and by critics alike, I have to say that there are some thing's better suited in the imagination from reading a book than to actually see it on screen since we can see what the actors are doing but not necessarily know what they're thinking. What makes sense in the novel doesn't mean that it's going to make much sense here upon watching it especially when we are looking at faces despite many great performances here. I really liked this film but to some degree but I still need clarification such as a man gets pursued and followed and then gets assaulted by Hazel when he runs him over with his car, yet when he's pulled over from the road by a police officer, he's not even asked about that. Also what's the deal about the 17 year old kid wearing a gorilla costume- it is those things and more that are baffling to the seeing audience but would make more sense upon the novel being read.
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