Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

Strongly recommended. I would ruminate, based on close examination of my late grandmother, that there's a ragged wound in the center of all white Southerners still oozing over the unrepentant evil of slavery. Nowadays, that would manifest as what Jim White calls in 'Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus,' "a loneliness for God," a vague dread that nothing can ever really be made right in this world. Add to this, the muttered self-loathing of all rural, poor America, stumbling the parapet between fundamentalism and crystal meth. The South is just more lyrically insane than Nebraska. To this special purpose, some call the songs of White, Johnny Dowd, and Brett and Rennie Sparks (all whom perform splendidly in the movie) 'Gothic,' but Amazon files it under 'Americana,' with Twain, with Bierce, and with Gee's Bend, Alabama, an appellation more honest and, in the end, the proper place for this movie.

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!

Being an import into the South, I was mesmerized by the opening scenes of this movie, and was filled with a unique representation of the Gothic South. I was displeased though to read the comments here with a clear misunderstanding of the movie was trying to portray. The movie is about the South, not about a mindless devotion to Pentecostalism. Although that is portrayed in the movie, I feel it's important to understand that the South, unlike other parts of the country is a place full of the clash of religion and "hell-raising." The Church is only one element in this film as the other elements of ghoulish beauty, good-natured people, and a love for simplistic things seems to have been overlooked by other commentaries here on IMDb. I just felt inclined to mention the movie is more about THE South, than just a pocket of the Church, and it's notable that the comments have all come from Yankees, who after seeing this movie, might not still have a clue about the charming,haunting beauty of the South.

"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!

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.