Portraits of the criminally insane are jarring: most viewers will recall Helter Skelter as a good example of such a film. Here's a better one: White Lightning. It's gritty, disturbing, scary, but incredibly real. If you've got the stomach for it, this film is a pure, unadulterated masterpiece.
Gotta travel to the backwoods, the poverty-stricken pockets of the Appalachian mountains, to get the feel for why a young boy goes astray.
Played brilliantly by an unknown teen actor, Owen Campbell, the kid is mentally unbalanced from the start: he sniffs glue, paint thinner, whatever he can get his hands on for a high. He goes in and out of the juvenile punishment system, getting crazier and wilder with each negative turn.
Leap forward to the boy turned man: he's now a handsome, dashing misfit (witness: my dear spouse muttering, wow, he's so cute!). Another unknown, Edward Hogg, plays the unhinged protagonist masterfully. Problem is, the young man's good looks can't save him from himself. He teeters on the verge of insanity, hitting booze and drugs when he seeks solace from his inner demons.
No spoiler, but violence lurks at every turn! Up in them-thar-hills, folks isn't too big on the crazy kid, so they's turnin' to shotguns 'n all to take care o' things....get the picture? If you think Deliverance packed a backwoods wallop, you ain't seen nothin' yet! (The language sort of grabs you...sorry, English teacher.)
Kafka is alive and well in them thar sticks. So is Faust.
Grade of A: White Lightning is as good as grit gets. By the way, lots of fascinating symbolism for those who seek it.
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