Amoeba Music

Films that are adaptations from novels can be a delicate experience. For those who are diehard fans of certain books, it can sometimes seem like a betrayal to watch films inspired by them. Perhaps betrayal is a strong word to use, but many have high expectations for these kinds of films. My review of Wise Blood, an adaptation of Flannery O' Connor's acclaimed novel, is not to disregard the high standards that people hold it to. Rather, it seems that works from two different mediums should be held to completely different standards. Any storyteller will inform you that it is, for lack of a better word, easier, to develop a character on a page. But if a director can create something new on the screen while paying their respects to its source, what's there to complain about?

Wise Blood is the story of a discharged soldier named Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif) who returns to a desolate town in the hopes of finding his purpose and having a sort of spiritual adventure. He has no attachment to his status as a veteran and sheds his uniform quickly to make room for a suit and a large black hat. Folks around town say that he looks like a preacher, and he's quick to shoot back that he doesn't believe in anything. Through flashbacks, we establish that he was raised to be God-fearing. In his childhood, he sat petrified in the pews or close to the preacher, who made everyone feel as though they were “not clean” and needed to be redeemed. As a result, he believed the preacher and would inflict pain on his body whenever he felt touched with sin, similar to Christian flagellants.

Now that he's an adult, he projects the idea that Christ is a trick on the ignorant. Enoch Emory (Dan Shor), an impressionable and dense 18-year-old boy, starts to admire his words and follow him about the town. They run into the local prophet, a blind man named Asa Hawks (Harry Dean Stanton) and his homely daughter, Sabbath (Amy Wright). Sabbath is instantly intrigued by Hazel, who rudely tears up their fliers while her father shouts the words of Jesus. He starts to follow them and argue with the blind man about God, but it’s no use. His obsession with their way of life reveals that he still has issues with his loss of faith and needs to be accepted by someone. To spite them, he starts his own church: one without Christ. He buys a shabby automobile and stands on it, telling those who pass that they are clean and righteous—that the only sin they're guilty of is the sin of being born, which can't be helped. With his own religion underway, he still finds himself at Hawks's door searching for something. He's under the inflicted impression that Hawks blinded himself for Jesus, and therefore is a true believer and not a false prophet. But what he doesn't know is that Hawks isn't actually blind, and that his daughter is only using her father's status as a holy man to get close to him.

There comes a point when Hazel realizes that he is the only true prophet around, or at least the only one who takes his calling seriously. Other soapbox preachers demand money and make people feel as though they are only worthy of God's attention if they pay up. Some feel as though Hazel is threatening their status on the street, so they get false prophets who dress like him to join their “act.” When Hazel realizes that everyone around him is simply out to get something, he draws closer to the faith he used to have as a child. In efforts to prove to himself that he is a prophet and is worthy of redemption, be reverts back to self-torture and Christianity.

What intrigued me the most about the movie was Huston’s ability to turn it into a black comedy. The fact that it contains such humor might have been distasteful to those who love the book, but I enjoyed the switch in direction. The film doesn’t mock religion so much as it exposes the lack of belief and conviction that exists in many people who practice it. The atheist finds his own way to cope with his faith and guilt and becomes the person who worships God in extremes. The irony of the story itself isn’t what’s funny, but the execution of it through the naïve characters. Each character brings comic relief with their actions, especially Sabbath, whose desperation to woo Hazel is not only pathetic, but rather uncomfortable to watch. Hazel, Enoch, and the various “prophets” and preachers grant the audience several opportunities to laugh simply because none of them realize how meaningless and greedy their efforts are.

There aren’t many films starring Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), and therefore seeing a film where he had a lot of screen time is very rewarding, and the same is true for Stanton (Big Love). For those who want to see the film for what it is, you’re sure to be impressed—especially if you are looking for humbling performances. Instead of calling it an adaptation, I’d argue that it’s simply a film on eccentrics and faith that was inspired by the novel.