Wise Blood

Wise Blood (Criterion #470).
1979 New Line Cinema (distributors) & Janus Films.
Starring: Brad Dourif, John Huston, Dan Shor, Harry Dean Stanton, Amy Wright, Mary Nell Santacrose, Ned Beatty, William Hickey
Director: John Huston
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John Huston directed this adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's 1952 novel of the same name. Brad Dourif is Hazel Moses, a returning veteran discharged due to an embarrassing injury that he'd rather not discuss. Moses plans to settle down in a new town to experience things that he's missed out on before. Once he arrives in an unspecified mid-sized community called Taulkinham, various strange characters begin to congregate around him, including a young man named Enoch Emory (Shor), who is evidentally desperate for Hazel's approval, claiming to have "wise blood" flowing in his veins.

Hazel's grandfather (Huston) was a pretty hardcore fundamentalist preacher, we learn in flashbacks, and Moses grew up as an angry young man who refused to believe in a higher power. Even though Hazel grew up to despise preachers, he finds himself transforming into a zealous street preacher promoting his so-called "Church of Truth Without Jesus Christ", where a member has to save himself because "sure as hell the Lord won't save you". Moses also runs across a fellow preacher named Asa Hawks (Stanton) who feigns having blinded himself in the name of Jesus, as well as his daughter Sabbath Lily (Wright), who isn't as innocent as she seems.

The Church Without Christ never truly takes off, despite the efforts of Sabbath Lily, Hawks, Enoch, and a huckster known as Onnie Jay Holy (Beatty), who steals Hazel's message and attracts the following that Moses was unable to attain. Things start to spiral out of control for Moses, and a routine traffic stop is the catalyst that sends him over the edge.

Highly recommended, but this is still a weird movie.