Wise Blood

A comedy? A tragedy? Philosophical farce, rather...in which a young fanatic (Dourif) returns from the army to his home town in the Bible-belt South, and stages a doomed private rebellion against the evangelism and repression of his upbringing. The enemy is neither tangible, nor simply a feature of his lived memory, but permeates the whole town: Jesus is celebrated in neon, on the street, in the language of everyday chatter. The young heretic's 'Church of Truth Without Jesus Christ' finally founders under the weight of human deception, driving its twisted creator into a real-life imitation of the martyrdom of Christ. Tragically, desperately funny: this adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's novel is John Huston's best film for many years.