Film 2010 #27 - Wise Blood

Wise Blood (1979, dir. John Huston)
Starring Brad Dourif, Harry Dean Stanton, Amy Wright, Dan Shor, Ned Beatty, William Hickey

I first became aware of the author Flannery O'Conner during my Freshman Comp II class with Dr. Greg Carpenter. We read the classic short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and was shocked and happily surprised at how bizarre and quirky the piece was. I would continue expand on my knowledge of the late Southern writer in American Lit II, Southern Lit, and a short stories class all with Dr. Greg's wife, Dr. Dana. In her Lit of the South class I read Wise Blood, the novel that serves as the basis of this film and found some deep insights and themes that are woven into the fiber of everyday life here in the South.

So, how did Academy Award winning director John Huston do when it came to adapting the novel? Good and bad. If you are one of those people who hates for a film to deviate too far from its source material then I guess you'll be happy. In my own opinion, Huston stuck so close to O'Conner's novel that you see how poor of a film it truly makes. The book benefited from the omniscient narration of O'Conner to talk about the psychology of our characters and provide backstory. Here we just have characters speaking the author's words but with no idea of who they are beyond that.

The biggest problem with the film are the stylistic choices Huston chooses to make. The Southern Grotesque that O'Conner brought to all her work is all but absent here. The film is so bright and the score is horrendous. The music definitely pulled me out of the film on multiple occasions. It's a bizarre mix of synthesized folk tunes and doofy Hee Haw-esque musical cues. While watching, I couldn't help but think how the film would have benefited to have been filmed in black and white and to have had no musical score at all. I anticipate a lot of people who love O'Conner disapproving of the film's contemporary (late 70s) setting. While there are elements of her work that could be argued to be set in a specific time in the South, her stories are equally without grounding in a specific era. Huston's decision to make it contemporary though, seems to reflect budget constraints rather than artistic choices.

The one character who was used terribly was poor Enoch Emery. The young man who steals a shrunken head doll and dresses as a gorilla is played in a strange way. We aren't quite sure if he is simply a religious simpleton or has serious mental issues. My own opinion was the latter, but his portrayal in the film feels very uneven. Amy Wright does a great job as the Sabbath Hawkes and Harry Dean Stanton does an adequate job for the small role he is given. The weight of the film rests on Brad Dourif's shoulders as Hazel Motes and I can't criticize him too much. The problems with the film come down to a strict adherence to the novel and a lack of strong cinematography.