Reality Reels: ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’

‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’ is an intimate work of haunting beauty, revealing a wealth of creative spirit and culture in the deep South that’s both foreign and fascinating. The film combines folk and alternative country music performed by established artists on and off screen, as well as interviews with it’s bleak cinematography to paint a picture of the opposite of Norman Rockwell’s America.

The film was directed by Andrew Douglas, who would go on to direct the 2005 remake of ‘The Amityville Horror’. The movie follows alternative country singer Jim White on a casual tour of the deep South and attempts to shed light on the role music and religion play in the lives of the people.

The idea for the film came from the title of one of Jim White’s albums called Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus. The Pentecostal faith is the religion of choice for most of the real life characters in this film, but it’s a general connection to God, a passion for creating music and living a simpler, albeit often difficult, way of life that permeates the film.

Johnny Dowd: “What’ya been doing’?
Jim White: “Killin’ time.” (pause) “It won’t die.”
[They both laugh.]

This is the most straight forward quote from the film that sums up the underlying theme. The characters in the film, ranging from the unemployed to blue-collar workers, inmates to miners, all live a relatively hard life, but despite their hardships they don’t complain. They just sort of laugh the hard parts off and maintain a surprisingly positive outlook on life, each of them fueled by their own individual connection to their faith and/or their drive to make music.

‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’ may sound like a preachy work of right-wing conservatives, but really the film is nothing like that at all. What the viewer gets to experience is how the idea, the concept of religion can do wonders for the human spirit and there’s a constant parallel between this and music. The important message isn’t one of whether there actually is a God, or which religion is right or wrong, but it’s the empty space in a person’s life that this faith, and music, can fill that is important. The film is almost completely void of the politics of religion, which is a fresh breath of air.

Given that the idea for the film was spurred by music, it’s only natural that music plays an integral role in the film. For as long as anyone can remember, and well beyond that, music has played a crucial and irreplaceable role in the lives of people across the globe. Few movies have illustrated this point as clearly as ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’. Not all of the interviews touch on religion or faith, but music is certainly a key element with many of the figures in this film.

The music of the movie is rich, textural and full of both joy and pain. A few of the songs are incorporated into the film directly, breaking the fourth wall, but used in such a creative fashion that the film becomes more than just a documentary. On screen performances that are staged within the frame include songs from Johnny Dowd and The Handsome Family. It’s a stylistic approach that is both visually and audibly engaging and takes the viewer out of the typical documentary mindset and allows for a more sensory driven experience.

The photography is ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’ is stunningly beautiful in it’s own way, pulling the charm of the landscape and the textures of the towns into focus. The result is series of cultural landscapes that become characters of their own. While the structure of the film isn’t strictly that of a traditional documentary, those who appreciate the films of Errol Morris may appreciate what this film has to offer. Connoisseurs of eclectic, non-mainstream music should find this a treat as well.

Here’s a clip from ‘Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus’ featuring writer Harry Crews, who is best known for writing the novel ‘The Hawk is Dying’ which was adapted into a film in 2006 starring Paul Giamatti…

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