Wise Blood (1979)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Pierluigi P

  
  Decidely more tragicomic and surrealist than ever before. Another show about the love that John Huston always professed to losers.

• Michael S

  
  A very strange and thoughtful 70s drama with dark and comedic twists. Directed by John Huston and starring Brad Dourif, the film tackles a lot of themes and adapts to a variety of tones throughout, making for an experience both ambitious and scattershot. The final fourth of the film… More
  A very strange and thoughtful 70s drama with dark and comedic twists. Directed by John Huston and starring Brad Dourif, the film tackles a lot of themes and adapts to a variety of tones throughout, making for an experience both ambitious and scattershot. The final fourth of the film is particularly difficult to grasp. But despite being uneven and repellant at time, in Huston's hands the film always remains entertaining and interesting. It's worth the effort for Dourif outstanding performance alone. Huston in his more outlandish form.

• Ken S

  
  Very strange, but entertaining, but odd and well acted, but weird and worth watching.

• Randy T

  
  The oddest sort of John Huston. Bizarre but very, very interesting.

• Michael G

  
  Wise Blood isn't exactly one of those movies I want to kick myself in the ass for not seeing sooner, but I sure as hell want to know why more people don't know about it and why I haven't heard of it sooner. Brad Dourif, marinated in nonsense, insanity and ignorance,… More
  Wise Blood isn't exactly one of those movies I want to kick myself in the ass for not seeing sooner, but I sure as hell want to know why more people don't know about it and why I haven't heard of it sooner. Brad Dourif, marinated in nonsense, insanity and ignorance, becomes a preacher and starts his own church seemingly intent on rejecting everything. Just about everything that comes out of his mouth is such random gibberish (much like the movie itself) with almost no logical basis that you've got no other option than to be completely entertained. The rest of the cast is fantastic. Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty shine in all their shady piousness. Amy Wright was the perfect combination of everything wrong with the south and dopey sexiness. And how excited I got when I saw William Hickey...! I've been seeing a lot of movies lately where the final scenes make the movie and that's definitely the case with Wise Blood. And if that's not enough for you, this is the movie that Ministry sampled for "Jesus Built My Hotrod."

• Bruce B

  
  This is from the Criterion Collection, which is a fine collection of over 500 Movies, check out there web site. Its Directed by John Huston and based upon a novel by Flannery O'Connor, This one was a little hard for me to grasp, its about a young man returning from military… More
  This is from the Criterion Collection, which is a fine collection of over 500 Movies, check out there web site. Its Directed by John Huston and based upon a novel by Flannery O'Connor, This one was a little hard for me to grasp, its about a young man returning from military service to find his families farm abandoned so he decides in order to make money and live he will become a preacher and start his own church. Filmed in Macon, GA a lot of these scenes are still there today. Brad Dourif plays the preacher and does an excellent part. I can only muster up 3 stars as this film is a little bit out there..

• Tim S

  
  A fascinating film. Directed by John Huston and based upon a novel by Flannery O'Connor, I was immediately drawn into the film, but can totally understand how someone could find it hard to get into. Brad Dourif is awesome in the lead role and the always reliable Ned Beatty gives… More
  A fascinating film. Directed by John Huston and based upon a novel by Flannery O'Connor, I was immediately drawn into the film, but can totally understand how someone could find it hard to get into. Brad Dourif is awesome in the lead role and the always reliable Ned Beatty gives an outstanding performance albeit I wish his character was in the film more. There are some scenes that could have been better with a better choice of actress (the girl who plays the blind preacher's daughter is at times annoying and a little over the top), but overall, it's a nice black comedy about religion with some really great dramatic and hard hitting scenes mixed in nicely. An interesting watch all around.

• Stella D

  
  brad dourif is like a man possessed. well, he's generally like that but it works perfectly for hazel motes, prophet of the church of truth without christ. this is twisted southern gothic, full of grotesque characters, and a fine adaptation of flannery o'conner's… More
  brad dourif is like a man possessed. well, he's generally like that but it works perfectly for hazel motes, prophet of the church of truth without christ. this is twisted southern gothic, full of grotesque characters, and a fine adaptation of flannery o'conner's novel, about a man haunted by a childhood with his tent preacher grandfather, played by the director. another great huston film from the 70's, bit hard to get hold of. wicked, disturbing, the blackest of comedies and a frightening portrait of obsession

• Mark A

  
  One would think that a film based on a novel by one's favorite Southern Gothic author and directed by John Huston would be a sure-fire recipe for an enjoyable film. One would be wrong. Wooden characterizations, a severely limited emotional range, plot elements loosely thrown… More
  One would think that a film based on a novel by one's favorite Southern Gothic author and directed by John Huston would be a sure-fire recipe for an enjoyable film. One would be wrong. Wooden characterizations, a severely limited emotional range, plot elements loosely thrown together, and diversions that went nowhere made this one that the viewer had to force himself to finish. The one bright spot in an otherwise dreadful film was Amy Wright as the young woman, Sabbath Lily. Innocence and worldly wisdom resided comfortably side by side in her characterization, and she could be seductive one minute and incredibly naive the next and make both completely believable. The two young men, Hazel Motes and Enoch Emory, played by Brad Dourif and Dan Shor, respectively, were nothing more than one-dimensional caricatures of backwoods southern boys. Hazel is a returning veteran who has lost his religion and moves to the big city. He is angry at the world and all of his lines and all of his energy was devoted to maintaining a righteous anger throughout. One quickly tired of his diatribes. Enoch, is the country bumpkin who becomes fascinated with whatever shiny thing is in front of his nose at the moment. He desperately wants people to like him, but his efforts to please them are so inept as to make his character pathetic rather than sympathetic. I expected batter from the legendary director and found this effort doubly disappointing.

• Eric B

  
  Finally saw this, after being curious about it for ages. I'm not sure what point of the story is (are we supposed to make some general conclusion about religion, or is this character just too uniquely bizarre have any universality?) but, wow, what a memorable, haunting film. Brad… More
  Finally saw this, after being curious about it for ages. I'm not sure what point of the story is (are we supposed to make some general conclusion about religion, or is this character just too uniquely bizarre have any universality?) but, wow, what a memorable, haunting film. Brad Dourif and Amy Wright (who?) are both just fantastically good. I'm always struck by how many dark, cynical, wholly adult films were part of the '70s mainstream, and mourn the shortage of such films today.

• Hal M

  
  A good script. Female lead Amy Wright is terrific: a total scene-stealer. Nice location photography too. Still, this is not a very good movie (even if directed by John Huston--who has a small role as well). The lead actor Brad Dourif (sp?) is poorly cast, exasperatingly… More
  A good script. Female lead Amy Wright is terrific: a total scene-stealer. Nice location photography too. Still, this is not a very good movie (even if directed by John Huston--who has a small role as well). The lead actor Brad Dourif (sp?) is poorly cast, exasperatingly one-dimensional. The musical score, by Alex North, is atrocious. I guess he's trying to turn this into a spoof but it does NOT work. I can only hope Flannery O'Connor's fine novel is remade someday.

• Alec B

  
  A film based on a Flannery O'Connor novel shouldn't be this boring. I think the problem is that John Huston was a devote atheist so he couldn't really have the extreme religious conviction of O'Connor even if he made a film that is pretty faithful to what happens… More
  A film based on a Flannery O'Connor novel shouldn't be this boring. I think the problem is that John Huston was a devote atheist so he couldn't really have the extreme religious conviction of O'Connor even if he made a film that is pretty faithful to what happens in the novel. O'Connor's stories are sort of a Catholic take on Southern Gothic literature, and while I'm not sure I ever really agree with her, all her stories make for interesting reads. I don't want to be too hard on the film, Brad Dourif is fantastic, and maybe I shouldn't blame Huston too much. The real problem is that any movie loses the wonderful poetry of O'Connor's descriptions so maybe film adaptations are out of the question.

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