Wise Blood
A Southerner--young, poor, ambitious but uneducated--determines to become something in the world. He decides that the best way to do that is to become a preacher and start up his own church.
Critics Sentiment
Haze deliberately blinds himself with quicklime
Haze Motes returns from war to his crumbling ancestral home
The film builds from the atmospheric but unclear opening to its shocking climax where Haze blinds himself, representing the largest emotional and narrative payoff.
Critics were divided on Wise Blood, praising Brad Dourif's fearless performance and the authentic Southern Gothic atmosphere while struggling with the film's deliberately obtuse narrative structure. The sentiment builds gradually through the middle sections as Haze's religious obsessions intensify, peaking with his climactic self-mutilation, though many found the overall experience more intellectually challenging than emotionally satisfying.
Full cast
Showing 20 of 36
Brad Dourif
Hazel Motes
Dan Shor
Enoch Emory
Amy Wright
Sabbath Lily
Harry Dean Stanton
Asa Hawks
Mary Nell Santacroce
Landlady
Ned Beatty
Hoover Shoates
John Huston
Grandfather
William Hickey
Preacher
J.L. Parker
Karl
Marvin Sapp
Raymond
Richard Earle
Jakob Winslow
Herb Kossover
Jacob Wood
Betty Lou Groover
Leora Watts
John Tyndall
Loki Martinson
Gillaaron Houck
Stranger #1
Philip Mixer
Stranger #2
Sharon Johnson
Stranger #3
Joe Dorsey
Stranger #4
Stratton Leopold
Depressed Human
Leonard Holmes
Stranger #5
Crew
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