Child of God

2014 "Murder is his salvation"
5.4| 1h44m| R| en| More Info
Released: 28 April 2014 Released
Producted By: Rabbit Bandini Productions
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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A dispossessed, violent man's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, he descends to the level of a cave dweller and falls deeper into crime and degradation.

Genre

Drama, Thriller, Crime

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Director

James Franco

Production Companies

Rabbit Bandini Productions

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Child of God Audience Reviews

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
BasicLogic well done, Mr. Franco. after watched this film, i have to say that you are indeed got something we called 'talent'. this film has put you in a totally different category and level. the original story created by the author of 'no country for old man' was such a weird one but in other word, a very very disturbing and sad one. we got a crazy, stone-cold bloody killer in 'no country for old man', now we got a half crazy, half idiotic lone-wolf-like loco hilly-billy roaming aimlessly day and night. we saw him gradually deteriorated, became crazier, became a more and more violent sociopath. he at first was not a rapist but was imprisoned as a rapist, that jail time had changed him into another unsalvageable rapist and a serial killer, an incurable social disease. Scott haze had successfully performed an Oscar level character, very convincing, very intense, very pitiful dejected person who step by step turned into a half human, half animal like tragic role. what made this novel and the adapted film unique is although the 'lester' guy did a lot of unthinkable crimes, we, the viewers, seemed not be able to hate him as we usually hate a vicious killer, murderer or a rapist. this character has gently affected us to sympathize him as a victimized victim. after watched this film, i have found that i could not judge or blame him as a bad person by all means, even he had caused lot of troubles and deaths, i seemed to still consider him as another kind of victim.this is a great viewing experience.
kosmasp James Franco is wicked. If that's a good thing or not is up to you, but he kept and keeps himself busy. Very busy, but not making Hollywood movies (which he does have the looks and appeal to do), but making movies like this. In this case, he mostly settled with directing rather than acting (though he does have a small part in the movie too).The story is very strange is mainly based on the main performance of our lead, who does a great job with a crazy character (no pun intended). The movie played at Sitges, but at a very late hour, which made a slow paced movie like this almost impossible to watch. From the crowd reaction, I know we were all drained by the end of it (and not always in a good sense). And while this is not solid gold, there is something raw hidden inside the tough exterior ...
TheRedDeath30 James Franco seems to be trying to make a reputation for himself as a director who will tackle "classic novels" that were considered to be unfilmable, as he did with AS I LAY DYING. Let's say this about the Cormac McCarthy source novel, though. You will hear a lot of praise heaped upon it by the literary intellectuals. What you hear, though, is that the author has an original way with his prose, or that it's well known for a distinctive writing style that is missing common punctuation. What you don't usually hear is "this is a stunningly original and exciting story". It's the style that is praised more than the story.That has an obvious effect on this movie, then, as you cannot translate the prose to the screen (though Franco tries by injecting voice- overs and on screen text containing actual excerpts). What you are left with is a story that isn't all that exciting and has been done plenty of times. Yes, the necrophilia angle takes it further than most movies are willing to go, but in the end, this is just another Ed Gein influenced horror tales. What it desperately needed was to have something more happen in the actual events of the story. There is very little actual action and very little occurs in this movie. Prepare yourself to spend a great deal of the run time following our main character as he wanders around in the woods talking to himself.It is the main character and the acting by Scott Haze that is the central reason anyone would want to watch this movie. It is mainly a character study of one man, who we meet in the beginning clearly already suffering from mental illness. Through the course of the events of the story, we watch his mental health further degrade until he is little more than a primal animal, living in a cave and acting out his sexual deviances on whatever victims stumble his way. Haze does an excellent job of portraying this character, who mostly mumbles his way through the movie, putting the emphasis on Haze to portray the characters mental instability through his facial expression. The character could have become a cardboard cutout villain, but through the acting of Haze and some directing by Franco, the character definitely has his sympathetic moments where we feel for the situations that have put him down this course in life.Ultimately, though, I was just bored through most of the movie. I don't mind artistic. I don't mind low budget. I don't mind experimental. I am not someone who just doesn't have a tolerance for this style of film making. Instead, the only real action is a botched lynching that he escapes from far too conveniently. I just kept waiting for something to happen and it never did, including a huge letdown ending.
Hellmant 'CHILD OF GOD': Four Stars (Out of Five)Director James Franco's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 1973 novel (of the same name) about a violent outcast trying to survive on his own, in a world that's shun him; set in the beautiful mountains of 1960s Sevier County, Tennessee. Franco also costars in the movie and co-wrote it, with Vince Jolivette. The film also stars Scott Haze (as it's central character, Lester Ballard), as well as Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parrack, Brian Lally and Jolivette. I haven't read the book, and don't know how much justice Franco does to it, but this movie is definitely fascinating to watch.Haze plays Lester Ballard; a depraved man child who lost his parents at a very young age and was continuously rejected by society (all of his life). Forced to live on his own, in the mountains of 1960s Tennessee, Ballard becomes more and more mentally unstable, and increasingly violent, due to society's isolation of him. Nelson and Parrack play a sheriff and his deputy; who are following Ballard. Franco plays a man obsessed with taking the law into his own hands, against Ballard.While (as I've said) I can't comment on how this film lives up to the book that inspired it; I can say that it's almost equally as entertaining and interesting as other McCarthy film adaptations (like 'NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN', 'THE ROAD' and 'THE COUNSELOR'). All of these movies take a very disturbing and twisted look at human nature. I think Franco does as good a job, as the others, attempting to bring classic McCarthy literature to the big screen (although 'THE COUNSELOR' was actually an original screenplay, written by McCarthy). With this, and 'AS I LAY DYING' (from just last year), Franco continues to show what an amazingly talented and diverse filmmaker he can be. He does an incredible job of showing how society's alienation of someone can turn them to total madness. There is little light or hope here, which is it's main flaw, but it is a very interesting psychological character study and also a horrendously fascinating thriller. I can't wait to see what Franco does next!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/NiZxP8LDXto