Wise Blood

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Wise Blood

PG,

1979,

1h 48m,

Drama

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Watchlist

89%

28 Reviews

Tomatometer

74%

1,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

89%

Tomatometer

28 Reviews

74%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

After returning home from World War II, uneducated and irreligious U.S. Army veteran Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif) decides to make his way in the world by impersonating a priest and starting his own religion. Motes soon attracts a follower -- a manic potato peeler named Enoch Emery (Dan Shor) -- but things get complicated when he encounters fellow sidewalk charlatans Asa Hawks (Harry Dean Stanton) and his waif-like young daughter, Sabbath Lilly Hawks (Amy Wright).

Critics Consensus

Director John Huston and author Flannery O'Connor prove a formidable creative match in Wise Blood, a gothic satire anchored by Brad Dourif's vinegary performance.

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Keith Uhlich

Time Out

Aug 4, 2020

5/6

Flannery O'Connor's incisive sense of person and place is brilliantly captured in this 1979 film adaptation of her highly regarded first novel, which plays out as a broad comedy set within a timeless purgatory.

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Frank Rich

TIME Magazine

Sep 19, 2014

This time, Huston has found material that was all but guaranteed to fuel the battiest recesses of his imagination.

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Variety Staff

Variety

Jul 6, 2010

John Huston, with uncluttered direction and expert handling of actors, has fashioned a disturbing tale of the fringe side of overzealous religious preachers in the deep South.

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Dan Schindel

Screen Slate

Aug 13, 2026

In general, there is a more whimsical, picaresque tone where the book was much darker.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Mar 31, 2026

3.5/4

It would be no easy task bringing Flannery O’Connor’s stories to the screen, yet here’s John Huston bucking the odds as he often did over the course of his remarkable career.

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

May 1, 2023

4/5

…an allegory, but of a wry and intelligent kind that’s peppered with memorable moments and scenes, impeccably played…

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Leia R

Mar 26, 2019

stupid cornball hollywood shit

Draco L

Sep 14, 2018

Wise Blood is an okay film. It is about a Southerner who is determined to become something in the world. Brad Dourif and John Huston give decent performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. John Huston did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture because of the humor and drama.

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Anakin S

Feb 16, 2018

There is this intense dude who decides he'll become a preacher, and start his own church without Christ. He's obsessed with this pretendy blind preacher, and that guys daughter is more than a little obsessed with the main preacher. There's also this bumbling town idiot who works at the zoo, steals a tiny mummy from the museum to be "the new Jesus", then steals a gorilla suit. Then there's this other dude with a guitar who works fake preachers for cash.... Our dude ends up running over that fake preacher. Then he blinds himself for-reals, and his landlady says there's nothing for it but for them to get married... It is one weird and rambling tale, without any real moral, but with plenty of preaching.

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Anakin W

Mar 26, 2017

The movie I didn't know I needed. Finding charm in the grotesque. Brilliant dialogue and exceptional performances.

Poe G

Jan 21, 2017

A great film adaptation by director John Huston of Flannery O'Connor's novel. It follows a young man named Hazel Motes (played by a young Brad Dourif) who is mad at God and Christianity and decides to start the The Church of Truth Without Christ in the deep South, where pretty much everyone is a Pentecostal, Evangelical, or Fundamentalist Christian. It is a funny, powerful, and scathing satire on religious fundamentalism and also extreme atheism. If you think you've seen it all, well, you haven't if you haven't seen WISE BLOOD.

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John Huston

Director

Brad Dourif

Hazel Motes

Amy Wright

Sabbath Lily

Harry Dean Stanton

Asa Hawks

Dan Shor

Enoch Emory

John Huston

Grandfather

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Synopsis

After returning home from World War II, uneducated and irreligious U.S. Army veteran Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif) decides to make his way in the world by impersonating a priest and starting his own religion. Motes soon attracts a follower -- a manic potato peeler named Enoch Emery (Dan Shor) -- but things get complicated when he encounters fellow sidewalk charlatans Asa Hawks (Harry Dean Stanton) and his waif-like young daughter, Sabbath Lilly Hawks (Amy Wright).

Director: John Huston
Producer: Kathy Fitzgerald, Michael Fitzgerald, Wolfgang Limmer
Screenwriter: Benedict Fitzgerald, Michael Fitzgerald
Production Co: Anthea
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 12, 1979, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 23, 2017
Runtime: 1h 48m

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