Wise Blood - DVD
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Criterion / 1979 / 105 Minutes / Not Rated / Street Date: May 12, 2009
 WISE BLOOD
John Huston's later output has been chronicled by Criterion before (Under the Volcano got a lovely release in 2007), and what continues to earnestly shock me about these movies from the director's autumn period is just how grisly they are. They're not particularly violent or sexually provocative, by any means, but there's an undercurrent of dirty, skeptical rage to Albert Finney's drunken escapades in Under the Volcano and to Brad Dourif's masterful encapsulation of an evangelist with dubious aims in Wise Blood. Based on a short story by the acclaimed writer Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood is a desperately eerie tale of wandering WWII veteran Hazel Motes (Dourif), who decides to become a small-town preacher. But that ain't all - Motes figures that pretending he's blind will appeal to the hellfire and salvation evangelical crowd, and they eat it up...almost too much. Turns out that Motes gets the idea from these heavy-rhetoric folks that blinding himself for real is the only way he can achieve the redemption for which he's searching. In typical Huston style, the performances here are standout - Dourif has a creepy-crawly charm as the film's protagonist, and Ned Beatty and Harry Dean Stanton turn in exceptional supporting roles, as does Huston himself. Yet, like Under the Volcano, Wise Blood is more curious than good, a film with noble intention but slippery execution. Cliched as it may be to say, it's a movie far more easy to appreciate than to like.
Video: How Does The Disc Look? Presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, Wise Blood looks quite nice indeed on this Criterion disc. Black levels are consistent and plenty punchy, finely detailed textures come across with clarity and finesse, and the print utilized for transfer here is impressively free of the kind of dirt and blemish that tends to hamper filims of this age. Most impressive, though, is the transfer's color accuracy: Both skin tones and deeper, more saturated hues have wonderful defnition and accuracy. Very nice. Audio: How Does The Disc Sound? The mono mix afforded Wise Blood also gets the job done. Dialogue comes through nicely (for the most part - some outdoor scenes have more hiss than other sequences), the film's excellent Alex North score is presented with fidelity that exploits the mono soundscape as far as it'll go, and while much of the work done by backgrounds and atmospherics gets lost in the shuffle of such a minimum-dynamic-range presentation, Wise Blood sounds like it must have upon its release, and that's what Criterion strives to Accomplish. English SDH subtitles are included.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? I would have loved a commentary track here, but I guess I'll just have to settle for an impressive breadth of featurettes: We get new interviews with Dourif, screenwriter Benedict Fitzgerald and screenwriter/prodcuer Michael Fitzgerald, as well as an episode of Bill Moyers' Creativity WIth Bill Moyers showcasing John Huston and his work in Hollywood, and (most fascinating of all) an audio recording of Miss Flannery O'Connor herself reading her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find. The film's theatrical trailer is also included. DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC? There are no ROM extras on this disc. Parting Thoughts Worth a rental for film viewers with a sweet tooth for all things bizarr-o, Wise Blood is a mesmerizing and beguiling picture, one that showcases some expert performances as well as director John Huston's distinct filmmaking style. This writer wouldn't exactly call it a film that demands repeat viewings, but fans will no doubt enjoy the great audio/video quality afforded the film on this Criterion release. |
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