Why all the anachronisms?
It's a couple of years since I've seen it but aren't there a lot of anachronisms in this film, mainly clothing styles, makes of car and things like that? Always wondered about that.
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No anachronisms. John Huston purposefully "muddied up" the film's era visually (Brad Dourif's words on the DVD commentary), creating a world lost in time, but the action is set in the late 1970s (as the headstones in the film's opening designate). That's why Hazel's coveted '55 Ford Fairlane is a good 20 years old.
shareWell, I respectfully disagree, I believe there are. I watched it again recently, it was especially apparent in the clothing in the crowd scenes with the "ape" (bubble jackets?! T-shirts for products that didn't exist until 60's, etc). Hazel Motes mentions a couple of times about returning from WWII, so how is the action set in the 70's? Since I made this post I've read/seen/heard references to Houston's purposeful ""muddying up" of the film's era visually"...which is more-or-less another way of saying that the film features anachronistic elements. Don't get me wrong, I think it adds to the film's tone and atmosphere, it's one of my favourite films ever but to say there are no "out-of-time" elements in Wise Blood seems to deny Houston's intent, as evidenced by the Brad Dourif quote. So I would conclude there ARE anachronisms but they were obviously done on purpose to heighten the bizarre feel of the film.
Thanks for commenting, never thought I'd get a reply! Would like to hear more of your thoughts on this fantastic film. I should probably get around to buying a "legal" copy of WB, my own is just a below-par YouTube rip, a huge disservice to the picture, I know!
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Hazel never mentions what war he's coming home from in the film. In the context of when Huston set the film (post-1974), it would make more sense that he's coming home from Vietnam. But it's murky, as Huston intended it to be. At the film's opening, Hazel visits his grandfather's grave. The dates on the headstone are 1924–1974. Another headstone shown reads July 1974. As I mentioned, Hazel's 1955 Ford Fairlane — practically a main character in the story — is two decades old and falling to pieces. In a commentary on the Criterion DVD, the film's co-writer Michael Fitzgerald explains that when Huston saw that recreating a post-WWII world would be too costly for the film's small independently-raised budget, he decided to take the story out of the novel's time frame and include imagery from the entire American 20th century up to that point — from a steam engine to current (1979) cars and clothes. The only times dates are shown in the film are the headstones at the start. The Criterion DVD print is gorgeous — you should check it out. Wonderful film.
shareAre the Criterion Collection DVD's available in region 2? I know Wise Blood and Crumb aren't so I'm guessing the Criterion series is solely for region 1 players....and, unfortunately, I haven't got a regionless DVD player!
I bow to your superior knowledge of the minutiae of the film Wise Blood. I don't know if I was conflating the films time period with the novels. So it's supposed to be set in 1974? Or a "muddied" fever-dream of the first two-thirds of the 20th Century? The steam train was something that made me fairly sure it was showing a pre-1950's south, along with Hazel's bigotry against black people--obviously racism exists in all epochs but there's something about his shameless virulence that, to me, smacked of a less-enlightened era. Obviously there were other things but, like I said in my last comment, I thought it was purposely an anachronistic hodge-podge of props, clothes, vehicles, etc. Not at all visually jarring like, say, the anachronisms of Derek Jarman (have you seen Caravaggio?) but subtle; just enough to contribute to a sense of dislocation.
It's enjoyable to me to pick over stuff like this. Ultimately it doesn't matter WHEN it's set, really, because everything about the film contributes to it's overall brilliance, for me! Going to see if I can find those videos I mentioned. Thanks again for the reply!
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No superior knowledge here at all, just repeated viewings of this film over the years, with a lot of the time frame questions recently cleared up in the interviews on the Criterion DVD (which, unfortunately, I believe is only available in Region 1). I've confirmed now that Hazel's uniform is, indeed, Vietnam-era, and the headstones marked 1974 at the film's start are covered in weeds, so I think at the time of the film's release (1979) viewers would have at least started the film with the assumption that it was set sometime at the end of the Vietnam War (1975). The American landscape Hazel returns to, however — as envisioned by Huston — is, as you've said, an almost dream-like hodgepodge of the 20th century. Born out of necessity, as the interviews reveal, but a perfect reflection of Hazel's mental state. Fascinating.
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