Love, hate and God

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Watched this classic again after a long time and apart from few odd scenes it has stood time really well. It was way ahead of it's time when it was released and the story was too much for the ultra conservative America. That's why it flopped at it's release, getting bad reviews and not many viewers. But as time went on and religious views changed it slowly became a classic. And it still works strikingly well. Being quite timeless as there's always people who use religion to do horrible things. Also not in many movies even today is Christianity portraided thru characters as versatile as in this one. There's the fanatic, the hypocrit, the naive and the "true" authenticity. Preacher Harry Powel, played brilliantly by Robert Mitchum, being the most shocking of them all. He does not pretend to be God's tool, he knows he is. His sword of truth is his switch blade which he gladly uses on anyone he deems an enemy. The movie is shot beautifully and some scenes are the kind you remember for ages, for example the car under water scene is just stunning. Even thou the themes of the story are quite horrifying there's still some humor in it too, most surprisingly really dark humor. One of my favourite classics and a must see for everyone.
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