Movie: The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
Well, here is a film in which a false prophet shakes up a religious village community without exposing the hypocrisy of the religious village community. In fact, it is a pious woman who studiously applies the teachings of the Bible in her daily life who saves the day. I am a wholly non-religious person who would agree with most criticisms of most religious institutions, but, by and large, contemporary art and entertainment dealing with religion does so in a mostly abstract way using religious communities and people as strawmen without any interest in how they lead their lives and how their religious values shape their practices, habits and daily lives. The Night of the Hunter is not only interested in that, but is also I think a good example of the idea that the characters/community you show in your film should like the film you are making.
Beyond being a depiction of a Depression-era Christian village community in the Appalachian mountains, you get the feeling that if the people depicted in The Night of the Hunter were asked to make a film about a misogynist serial killer invading their village by pretending to be a priest, the resulting film would look and feel very much like The Night of the Hunter. The films often seems to look at good and evil, childhood and parenthood, men, women, love and death from the point of view of the community at its center. I may be wrong about this, but the strangest thing about this film is the discrepancy between its portrayal of the community and Robert Mitchum's performance as Harry Powell. Its depiction of village life is precisely judged and specific with even the speech patterns of the townspeople, and their folksy humor and attitudes, feeling authentic to that particular place. Equally impressive is its understanding of how life in the village is completely shaped by its proximity to the river and its belief in God. These are the two most important 'institutions' in the village and nothing anyone does is fully independent from one or both of them. All of this is depicted in a rather naturalistic style. The mysterious and expressionist elements of the film only come to the forefront in the presence of Powell.
Powell's characterisation (and Mitchum's performance) is all over the place. The ease with which he can control and manipulate Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) for example is fully at odds with his complete inability to do the same to her children. A scene in which he unsuccessfully chases them across the cellar almost feels like it could come from a slapstick film. It seems inconceivable that he can't get what he wants from them. But he is a force that the village can't understand and so we can't either. And maybe for the same reason we don't actually see any of his murders. Interestingly, we also do not see Ben Harper's (the kids' father) lynching, but the film does find time to show the responsible warden coming home to his wife reflecting on and regretting what happened, unable to see much sense in it. It's an example of the film's humanism, consistently emphasizing the vulnerability of people, children and animals. There is a sequence here in which Willa's children go on a nightly voyage along the Ohio River to escape from Harry Powell. During the voyage Laughton constantly cuts between them and the animals along the riverbank, implying that all creatures in the world are in this together. The film takes the existence of God as a given, but does not necessarily believe that following God's rules will make you survive evil. Not on your own anyway; evil will always appear somewhere on the dark horizon, singing creepy songs. But if you find yourself a loving family and community you just might make it.
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