Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

This was the best movie i saw in 2005, and i even saw it in the theater twice. That's 10.50 for a ticket and i saw it twice! It is the perfect blend of beautiful cinematography, interesting subject matter and music, and exceptional editing. On top of all of that the camera work was unbelievable. That one scene where they man and the women are singing in the barbershop left me with that awesome feeling of "how the hell did they do that?" which I haven't felt since the elevator shot in Touch of Evil. Every time I talk to a friend about movies i tell them to see this one right away, and I don't do that a lot. I read a newspaper article that described Wrong Eyed Jesus as a "Surrealist Look at the South," and it is. It is a collage of incredible sights and sounds that will leave you breathless.

As a 'stranger' to the American culture, I was really impressed by this docu-movie. It gives me a look in the American South. Of course one can not give a complete portrait of something. There always a need for some subjectivity. I understand there a million other sides of the American South.

For example, if you make a movie about Holland, surely you'll see mills and klompen. This is not representative for modern-day Holland, but it's a part of our culture, our history. I think the same applies to this movie.

Apart from this, the movie is intertwining music, art and storytelling. This is fantastic!

As a response to others: Places like this do exist. When you talk about how rare they are and refer to them as "armpits" you are only expressing your ignorance. This movie is not trying to convey the South. It is this small town southern culture that you are oblivious to that they are trying to show and they do so effectively.

Firstly, the cinematography is hair raisingly beautiful. The color used almost looks Hollywood in style. The grays greens and browns are bleak and beautiful. Secondly the characters are excellently picked. Jim is a little stiff but is sincere enough that he is believable. His cowboy philosophy gets to be a little much at times but slows down towards the end of the film. The music throughout just adds to the story and also slows down in the second half. I really don't want to talk about too much just watch and be taken into a world that you may not be familiar with (even if you live in the same region).

"Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" is a great documentary, it took me into a world I had never seen, the world of deep-South music combined with Pentacostal fanaticism. Great website too, see it at www.searchingforthewrongeyedjesus.com. I saw this movie at the LA Film Festival in June, 2004, and had no idea what to expect. The culture of lower-middle class rural Southern whites (mostly in Louisiana) is a world of work Monday-Friday, get REAL drunk on Saturday, and show up to church on Sunday with a hangover. The movie shows a certain intensity to this "Southern week", as there isn't much else to do but work, drink, and church in those parts. Oh, and play music. Some incredible solo artists and bands that I've never heard of are in this films as well! Jim White, Johnny Dowd, The Handsome Family, 16 Horsepower, and Trailer Bride just to name a few. This is one of the most original documentaries I've seen in the last five years, and I've seen quite a few. Go see it!

I saw this movie late at night myself as well and it's a mesmerizing film. I am from Canada, and the world portrayed in this film seems like from a far away distant country. Substitute Christianity for Islam or Hinduism or whatever crazy religion you want and there's not much difference, extremely poor, uneducated emotional people being whipped into a frenzy by charismatic preachers. It is fascinating but also disturbing. Jim White travels around describing this strange surreal world of misfits and fringe elements of an unforgiving society. But he looks at them with pity and sympathy, and it made me have a different view on these people. They live extremely hard lives in a land of obscene riches, if that isn't enough to drive anybody to the church, I don't know what is. Everything is black and white as one interviewed inmate describes "you're either an outlaw our your in the church", you're either going to hell, burning forever or you will be saved and go to heaven. They go to church, twirl around, speak in tongues and basically act completely crazy and if this were done anywhere else, they would be locked up, but in the church it's okay, which makes it kind of cool. It's kind of a enclosed crazy house where go absolutely bonkers and then (presumably) go back into the world and live a normal life. (Kind of reminds me of that episode of Star Trek with "Landrew", where the population goes completely looney at exactly noon for about 10 minutes every day). Of course there is the odd person, liked Jim describes, that goes absolutely nuts and stays that way. The saddest thing is these people and their leaders seem to be dictating a lot of decisions in the U.S. government right now, and after seeing this movie, the thought of that will send a shiver up your spine.

Interspersed among these scenes is some really beautiful music, some by Jim White himself, it's adds a really nice touch to all the grimness that you witness throughout this film. There is beauty here, there is a rawness of emotion that can express itself in religious fervor or musical incarnations. It almost seems like the message is to leave the former for the latter.

This is a nice companion piece to "The True Meaning of Pictures" a film by Shelby Lee Adams, a photographer who takes an unflinching look at the deep south. He goes even a little deeper than this film, interviewing the snake handlers and the strychnine drinkers, the REALLY wacked out elements of this society.

Anyway, if this subject interests you, seek these two films out, they are honest, unexploitive, unflattering and not condescending looks that the deep south.