By I’ve made my feelings clear on the matter of Preacher and D.J. Caruso. It’s basically the worst thing in the world for me. I mean, my first Zippo had “F**k Communism,” stamped on the side. Preacher means a lot to me. Now, to make matters worse, Caruso has blatantly shown that he simply doesn’t get Preacher. During an interview for I Am Number Four, he had this to say about Preacher:
It is a crazy road trip and I think what’s amazing and what makes Sony so brave is they can see there’s a real universality to the story when you have good vs. evil. I think when you have these crazy characters, that are not necessarily politically correct, there’s something generally attractive to those characters and those elements. But at the end of the day it really is a story about good vs. evil and the decisions that you make. Whether the demons are going to win or whether the Genesis or the good inside of Jesse is going to be there. So I think there’s a great universality that makes the movie commercial but at the same time it’s one of those that will shock you.
What. The Hell. I’ll continue below the fold so I can contain some of the building rage here.
“Good vs. evil?” Are you kidding me? There’s very little about the over-arching story of Preacher that’s to do with the battle of good and evil. It features an absentee God who’s being brought to task for abandoning His creation. What about that is good vs. evil? There are moments, yes, where Jesse fights evil, namely in the form of his messed-up family, Herr Starr and the forces of the Grail, and I guess Odin Quincannon during Jesse’s diversion story most of the way through the series. None of that, though, is the central conflict. And even so, with the exception of the cartoonishly-evil Quincannon, nobody is pure evil. People are working against Jesse often in the service of God, or at least in His teachers. Misguided, yes. Following a coward? Maybe. Evil? I wouldn’t say so. That’s what makes Preacher as special as it is. God is the villain. He’s not the moustache twirling type, though. Collider refers to God’s character as an “absentee father figure,” and that’s basically as good as you can put it. The biggest villains in the piece are God and His Angels. Caruso mentions demons, but they’re only in the comic in passing, or in flashbacks. D.J. Caruso seems more interesting in doing something that’s Hollywood edgy, i.e. basically your usual shit, but with a crrrrrrrrazy Irish vampire! Who drinks! Man, someone make sure the kids stay at home for this one, amirite?
I seriously have to wonder if this guy has even bothered to read Preacher. Because he sounds like he’s talking out of his ass.
Fuck D.J. Caruso. I’d rather have Mark Steven Johnson back on this. At least he understood that an HBO miniseries was the only way anyone would do justice to Preacher.