Wise Blood

First, a big thank you to Ms. Robin for pointing out Thomas Video, which has a heap of in stock VHS versions of movies not yet available in digital format. I haven’t even gotten to their DVDs yet. For the first round, I picked up four videos, including a copy of Wise Blood (1979/1980), which I hadn’t seen in more than twenty years.

Wise Blood is a comic-spiritual adventure, The Dukes of Hazzard meets The New Testament. The soundtrack is terrible, worthy of 70s TV fair, something out of Little House on the Prairie. But the characters are riveting – in fact, this could easily be set in Metro Detroit today, given the people I’ve met along the way here -- probably best set above Eight Mile, though, given the callous use of the hateful “N” word.

Wise Blood was made in and around Macon, Georgia, and has a weird feel, like mixed eras (1970s and 1930s) jumbled together; the viewer is not sure if this is dark comedy or just plain mockery of eccentrics a la the equally brilliant and equally unsettling Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell (1932). This latter uncertainty is exactly as Flannery O’Connor intended in her short novel Wise Blood (1952), and director John Huston is faithful to the spirit and general details of the Flannery text in his film adaptation.

The cast includes Brad Dourif (Hazel Motes), Amy Wright (Sabbath Lily), Harry Dean Stanton (Asa Hawks), Dan Schor (Enoch Emory), Ned Beatty (Hoover Shoates), and John Huston in flashback as Hazel’s fire-and-brimstone preacher grandfather.

Harry Dean Stanton is true to form, and can now be seen on HBO’s Big Love playing another religious character. Ned Beatty plays a goofy two penny charlatan (while over on the set of The Guyana Tragedy, he was playing Congressman Leo Ryan). Dan Schor has the feckless Enoch down perfectly. But the standouts in Wise Blood are Brad Dourif – haunted eyes, driven ways – in the lead role, and Amy Wright as the blind preacher’s daughter. In The Guyana Tragedy, Dourif’s character (David Langtree) is personally saved by none other than Jim Jones himself (Powers Boothe in the role of a lifetime); he later helps dispense the poisoned Flavor Aid at Jonestown. More recently, Dourif has appeared with Powers Boothe again, as Doc in HBO’s Deadwood.

Amy Wright is elfin and a real treat as Sabbath Lily. “I have this personality that makes boys follow me. . .,” she says while trying to seduce Hazel. Wright also appears in Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories (1980), as a groupie. A wonderful actor, she’s married to another wonderful actor, Rip Torn.

From Flannery O'Connor's note to the second edition of Wise Blood (1962): . . . [A]ll comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death. . . free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man [person]. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen. In that sense, both the novel and the film succeed. Warning: the movie takes about ten minutes to kick into gear. Keep the faith.

Today’s Rune: Possessions.

Happy birthday, Betty Friedan.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I don’t really care who wins, but favor the Chicago Bears. I liked the Colts more as a kid – when they were in Baltimore. Johnny Unitas rocked! I got to meet him once in Philadelphia when he was an announcer. As for the Bears, I’ve always been a fan of the Black and Blue Division. Go Bears!