NFR Project: 'The Blood of Jesus'

 

NFR Project: ‘The Blood of Jesus’

Dir: Spencer Williams

Scr: Spencer Williams

Pho: Jack Whitman

Ed: N/A

Premiere: April 26, 1941

56 min.

The Blood of Jesus is a “race” film, meaning it was made specifically for African American audiences. Its director and screenwriter was Spencer Williams, whose second film this is. It’s a celebration of holiness couched in the shape of a fable about faith and temptation.

It is crudely made, but convincing. The director’s deficiencies can be duly noted, but his knowledge of narrative and film grammar mark him as a prodigious filmmaker.

It’s a pedagogic film, a film that seeks to instruct, in this case morals. It was screened not only in theaters but in churches. It is certainly a film for the faithful.

In the rural South, a young woman named Martha gets baptized in the river. Others note her husband isn’t there. She returns home, and he lies about poaching some of his neighbors’ stoats. His shotgun slips and falls and wounds Martha grievously. In bed, she is prayed over and sung over.

An angel appears and takes her to the crossroads between heaven and hell. There, an emissary of mean old Satan incudes Martha to dress up and go to the club with him. There we see people dance, drink, and watch an acrobat and a singer. Tame stuff now, but the movie looks on it as abhorrent behavior.

The angel appears again, to warn her. Martha escapes, pursued by a mob. She falls at the sign delineating Zion and Hell. There Satan is driving a flatbed truck with a jazz band on it – others mill about, dancing, drinking, fighting. The signpost turns into the crucifix – Christ’s blood drips onto Martha’s face – and she is redeemed and restored to health. What’s more, her husband has gone straight.

The film is steeped in the Puritan hypocrisy. It wants to experience some sinning, but it wants to see it condemned as well. The club footage looks like it was shot one night in a real club; the film is part documentary. Only the framing is evangelical.

But this Pilgrim’s Progress, redemptive and devoted to right living and salvation, hasn’t got a hateful bone in its body. It looks down on sinners but gives hope of everlasting glory for the faithful. It is literally a come-to-Jesus movie.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Citizen Kane.