"If you want to get anywhere in the religion business you gotta keep it sweet". This is probably one of the most uncomprimising, angry films about post-vietnam America. Huston depicts society as a nightmare soaked in religious zealotry, stupidity and racism. The acting isn't always top notch, but there are great turns from Ned Beatty and Harry Dean Stanton, and the undervalued Brad Dourif is perfectly cast as the manic preacher.

I haven't read O'Connor's work, but I have to believe it's not nearly this condescending to Southerners. Most of the major characters are ignorant kooks, the same kind of smug fake-liberal viewpoint seen in stuff like Junebug. The movie also has a lot of inappropriately goofy music. There are some unusual takes on religion here, but they're not developed very far, and the movie doesn't mine anything that interesting until the end. Other than that, it's a waste of a good Dourif performance.

"Huston's Wise Blood is a sharp, busy canvas that, like a man with a good car, doesn't need to be justified." - Bill Weber

I really really liked this one, it might be worth a higher score. Will see when I rewatch it. For now: very strange, very interesting, and yes, great performance from Dourif.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen. I can't believe my PSI was 81. It was so boring and I found little point in the whole film. The one thing I actually liked was Ned Beatty's performance, but other than that this film was pretty much a waste of time. See Elmer Gantry for, in my opinion, a much more worthwhile religious satire.

I shouldn't compare the film to the original novel, but its impossible not to. It has great aspects to it, like Brad Dourif, but it feels exceptionally hollow. Without the internal descriptions of the characters from the novel, ineffectually done through flashbacks for the main character, the events in the film lack a reason behind them and removes the seriousness of the themes. It also has the most inappropriate music possible; the novel is very funny, but the goofy banjo music is just wrong.

Weird. Lots of good ideas. Probably too weird, though.

Brad Dourif is just too, too under-appreciated. A fantastic analogy on the way of religion, as well, that invites/demands multiple viewings. "I'm gonna do some things I ain't never done before" has officially made it into my personal lexicon.

a must see.

A very strange drama based on a Flannery O'Connor novel, with the psychotic-looking character actor Brad Dourif suitably typecast for the lead. I'm not a big John Huston fan but this is my second favorite of his, after Fat City.

Strange movie that I want to like better than I do, since it's one of the few American movies to take a good look at how religion is practiced in the U.S.

Most strange.

Strange, compelling look at relegion ranks as Hustons weirdest film overall. But it's damn good weird.

Dourif gives a great performance, but it just seems like odd characters just keep popping in and out for no reason.

Nietzsche spoke too soon; Hazel Motes, not Christ, was the last Christian. A tautology?

Brad Dourif's best performance in this faithful and effective adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's fine novella about a God-ridden man who must preach even though he does not believe..

Depending on your point of view, this could be interpreted as either a redemption story or an indictment of religious zealotry. Ultimately I find it to be spiritual, and irreligious though I may be, I'm hard-pressed not to appreciate such a unique and thoughtful story. Brad Dourif is perfect as the eccentric street preacher.

Only Huston could direct a film so simultaneously hilarious and depressing.

To quote Samuel L. Jackson: "That's just plain, damn weird." And though I love Dourif, and was excited at the prospects the film held, they never took off like I had expected. The film is just plain, damn perplexing, and I do like it, just not that much. Yet it's still an interesting treatise on modern religious zealotry.