John Huston tackles Flannery O’Connor’s gothic tale of southern evangelism. Wise Blood is a curious movie full of interesting ideas, not the least of which is a paradoxical main character who shuns Jesus while simultaneously torturing himself for some sort of redemption. Brad Dourif (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Child’s Play) stars as the son of a ‘hellfire and brimstone’ preacher (Huston in flashbacks) who moves to a new city and tries to start up his own church, “The Church Without Jesus.” Preaching on street corners, he easily wins the undying allegiance of a simpleton played by Dan Shor (Tron, Bill and Ted) and makes enemies with rival street preachers (Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty) who only seek to swindle a dollar from faithful onlookers.
Director John Huston unites Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor for their only screen pairing in this adaptation of the perverse Carson McCullers novel. Brando plays a sexually repressed Army major who turns a blind eye to his wife’s (Taylor) extramarital affair while simultaneously finding himself drawn to a mysterious young cadet who spends his days running naked through the woods and his nights as a peeping tom. The provocative subject matter is well handled by Huston, whose only missteps are bathing the entire film in a piss-yellow hue and whiplash-inducing camera movement in the film’s final, climactic shot. Good performances from Brando, Taylor, and supporting stars Julie Harris and Robert Forster.
