Customer Reviews

Wise Blood [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
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Directed by John Huston and starring Brad Dourif in a rare leading role, this eccentric film should really have gained more popularity than it has. Set in the deep south, the film tracks the exploits of a young soldier - Hazel Moats(Dourif), who has just returned from a war. From which particular war he is returning is not made clear, so the time period is a little hazy, however the clothes look 70's. He returns to his home in the sticks to find it deserted, he promptly sets about getting some civies( a black suit and hat) and looking like someone off the set of 'Witness', he heads to the city to 'do some things he ain't never done before'. Upon arrival he sets about getting himself a whore and en route he is alarmed that the cab driver thinks he's a preacher. Later on he comes across a blind preacher(Harry Dean Stanton) and his daughter begging. While being pestered by a young nerd, he follows the preacher and is outraged by his outspoken religous beliefs. From this point onwards he sets about forming his own church - 'The church of truth without Jesus'. The rest of the film is made up of a series of bizarre encounters with the afformentioned characters interspersed with flashbacks from his fire and brimstone preachers upbringing. John Huston appears in these reveries as his father - a preacher. Hazel tries to deny this past by rejecting Jesus, but ultimatly becomes more obsessive and deranged as his quest to purge his fanatical instincts ultimatly works against him. The film was shot on a low budget and this is reflected in it's simple offbeat style. This serves to highlight the exellent performances of all involved, even though Brad Dourif admitted to being scared throughout the shoot. At times the film wanders into territory one would normally associate with David Lynch, and indeed Lynch has gone on to use two of the principal actors (Stanton & Douriff) repeatedly in subsuquent films. One can never say that John Huston exhibits a pattern in his filmmaking and Wise Blood is no exception

This movie was perfectly cast. Every actor brings life to the novel's characters. I personally thought that Huston's The Dead was drawn out, adding little to Joyce's story. In Wise Blood however he manages to keep the viewer entertained while sticking close to the original. And best of all, none of the book's humor is lost.

This great, unjustly forgotten John Huston film has fallen by the wayside, and that's a real shame. A striking cinematic adaptation of the Flannery O'Connor novel, Wise Blood boasts Brad Dourif in the lead role, Hazel Motes, and Dourif nails it. When you see the film, you realize it would be really tough to imagine anyone else alive at the time being able to carry off the role. Harry Dean Stanton, as usual, adds his terrific skills as the "blind" preacher Asa Hawkes, and Ned Beatty is also along for the ride as singing preacher Hoover Shoates.

Motes, Hawkes, and Shoates--all preachers. This is O'Connor country, and Huston himself shows up as another preacher, Hazel Motes' grandfather, who spews fire and brimstone, inculcating his grandson in the fierce and vengeful ways of the Lord. And so Hazel grows up to preach the Church Without Christ.

It could be that this has not made it to DVD yet (if ever??) because of a ferociously downbeat ending and even, possibly, for fear of lack of political correctness. The setting is rural Georgia, about 1950 or so--give or take--and there is use of the "N" word. O'Connor, as did Huston in this marvelous film adaptation, captured the reality of life in that time and place.

You should not overlook this film based on what could be perceived as non-PC issues. It is a terrific powerful piece of work and definitely deserves to be on DVD.

Another superb John Huston film. This time it is based on a black-humor Flannery O'Connor short novel of t he same title. I read the original, and the film sticks pretty close to it.

Brad Dourif is unforgettable in the role of Hazel Motes "a Christian malgre lui" in O'Connor's phrase. Returning home from WWII, he finds his family home deserted, and embarks on a spiritual journey that is at once sad and hilarious. He is obsessed by religion, and tries to start a Church without Christ, but of course, he is only fooling himself.

Dan Shor plays a confused kid who tries to befriend Hazel. He turns in a super performance.

Harry Dean Stanton who plays a "blind" street preacher, and Amy Wright as his sexually precocious daughter, are two more Southern characters who are, well ... real characters. Chalk up two more excellent performances.

Then there is Ned Beatty, probably the most underappreciated actor in Hollywood. He plays a holy-roller who has a radio show and who hears Hazel preaching and suggests to him that they join forces. Hazel rebuffs him, and Beatty's character finds a street person to act as a preacher to challenge Hazel. Hazel is very upset at this and tries to run him over. Once again, Beatty turns in a fine performance.

Huston's direction, the funny yet sad, and wise script, and the wonderful settings, all make "Wise Blood" a film you will never forget. It was on TV and I taped it, so I can enjoy it any time I want. It might not be to everyone's taste, especially if you are an evangelical Christian, but I recommend it highly to everyone else.

If this film seems crazy, try reading Flannery O'Connor's novel of the same name. The low budget John Huston had for filming sometimes seems slighty annoying, especially the modern cars in what seems like a period piece, but you can't read O'Connor's short story collections, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge, without feeling the same sense of collision. This film played the college circuit and was widely influential, far beyond its limited screening. O'Connor inspired Bruce Springsteen, for instance, to create his best album, Nebraska.

"A man with a good car don't need to be justified," claims Hazel Motes in the film, itinerant preacher of the Church of Christ without Christ. In a film filled with odd, unforgettable bon mots, that line is widely known because the band Ministry quoted it on an album. In the film's southern, rural setting, that boast may say something about cars, or churches or Hazel Motes. Huston leaves that up to the viewer as O'Connor does the reader. The recurrence of "The Beautiful Tennessee Waltz" in the soundtrack clashes against parts of the film. But again, the stories are the same way. "Everything that rises must converge," is a quote from '50s theologian Teilhard de Chardin. But where he saw it as a promise of peace, in her stories it's ironic. "The impact of the holy is like the impact of violence," she once wrote. Maybe for that reason this unforgettable film leaves us reeling.

A film that is frightening in its bleakness, hysterically funny in its blackness, kind in its humanity and understanding and stoic in its vision. Amazingly all of these emotions are evoked at the same time.

Reputedly Huston's favorite of all of his films it's obviously a labor of love. Spectacular cast of character actors most of them in their best roles. Brad Dourif was born for this role. Stanton's best film. Beatty's irritatingly pathetic leech is spot on. Dan Shor's hilariously pathetic lost looser had me in stitches. Amy Wright's sexy needy white trash is repelling and attractive at the same time. One of the funniest brutal murder scenes you'll ever see.

Flawlessly beautiful cinematography executed on a budget of peanuts in an environment most people wouldn't notice. Local non-professional actors enhance the ambience. Wonderful score is a perfect match to the visuals.

People we've all seen from time to time but never really thought about in the same world we live in except their part is as surreal as a Dali painting.

Scared me the first time I saw it. Thought it was funny the second time I saw it. Thought it was hilarious the third time I saw it. Reveals new view each time. Last time it scared me again.

Hazel: No man with a good car needs to be justified!

Hazel: I'm gonna do something I ain't never done before!

This tour de force, featuring a self-appointed prophet who heads the Church Without Christ, Where the Lame Don't Walk, the Blind Don't See, and the Dead Stays That Way, isn't as the web-heads might think, a southern white trash joke, but a serious treatment of a thesis concerned with faith. So there, all you great unwashed.

This movie,starring Brad Douriff,is probably one of the best movies you have not seen,it certainly is one of the best I have ever seen.Douriff stars as Hazel Moats,a very religious man,who takes a train down to a little southern town to teach his religious beliefs.The movie has an impact like few I've ever seen.This is not a feel good movie in the least,and leaves you stunned by the time it is over.Based on Flannery O' Conners novel.

This movie is difficult to watch because it deals with alienation, masochism and religious quackery; however the acting
(especially by Brad Dourif and Harry Dean Stanton)is superb, and
the script catches the spirit of its literary source very effectively. Just don't expect anyone to ride off into the sunset.