the devil all the time directed by
antonio campos features robert pattinson
in his scariest role since twilight but
edward cullen and pennywise jokes aside
the devil all the time is a slow
brooding drama
with interconnected stories that span
decades it also reminded me
never to go hitchhiking in this video
we'll be taking a deep dive into the
film
explaining how everything's connected as
well as the film's hidden meaning but
before we get into it
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the first thing you'll notice is the
film's narration voiced by donald ray
pollock who is the actual author of the
book the film is based on he was raised
in the real city of nocomstiff ohio one
of the two main locations the film takes
place in the other being cole creek in
west virginia the book the devil of the
time has been described as hillbilly
gothic and it's no wonder considering
the author refers to the townsfolk as
being related
if not by blood than by quote one
godforsaken calamity to another
it's here we meet willard russell a man
his son arvin says quote
fought the devil all the time but was it
the devil he was really fighting
throughout the film the devil is hardly
mentioned i counted only twice where the
name is set out right once in the
narration and once by the preacher
preston teagarden oh we'll get to him
on the other hand god the lord the
almighty are mentioned in almost every
scene the decisions made by these
characters aren't so much based on a
fear of the devil but by a fear of god
and willard's cautionary tale
is one of these examples he goes off to
war and swears off praying after seeing
the atrocities committed by man
one event in particular where he kills a
marine who has left to die
hung on a cross foreshadowing the deaths
of all those who believe
in fact almost every fervent believer in
this story dies
aside from emma but let's be real her
being embarrassed in front of the church
for making chicken livers was punishment
enough i've never been so embarrassed in
all my life
upon returning from the war willard
meets charlotte it's at this diner where
carl and sandy also first meet the two
serial killers who take
photos of their victims you have one
waitress who is good she even gives a
homeless man some
food when he's chased at the store and
one waitress who will end up murdering
dozens of young men
this dichotomy between good and evil is
projected through the characters with
arfin and his father being the only main
characters who walk the line between the
two
often doing bad things for good reasons
willard gives his uncle a german luger
and jokes about how it was the one
hitler used to kill himself ironic since
this same gun will kill one of the
film's most evil
characters willard is one of a few
characters who actually has a character
arc and changes because of it
he turns from non-believer to believer
but this change ends in
tragedy the first act of the film is
warning us of the dangers of belief or
perhaps the dangers of belief
taken too far this is shown through many
of the characters but perhaps none so
much as roy lafferty a preacher who
locks himself in the darkness after
getting stung by a spider
and fears he's lost his connection with
god god tells him to take his wife helen
into the force where roy will be used as
an
instrument to resurrect her of course
this goes as well as you'd think it does
helen is killed and remains dead
something roy says must be god testing
him earlier in the film we overhear how
roy's brother theodore lost
his ability to walk after drinking
antifreeze and another apparent test
from god
if roy was willing to kill his wife for
the lord was he also the one who made
and or convinced his brother to drink
that antifreeze
roy's escape is short-lived when he's
picked up by carl and sandy
this is one of their first kills as
we'll see how sloppy carl
is here this is juxtaposed later in the
film when carl and sandy have their
whole operation
down to a science they stop in a
secluded area under the pretense of
lunch
offer the victim some booze and start
slowly with innocent pitchers the funny
thing about
roy is even though he just killed his
wife he still considers himself a good
man refusing to fornicate with sandy and
ready to die
rather than do the deed he is blinded by
faith a faith that has led him to his
own demise fast forward to 1965 when
arvin is now an adult he fights off a
group of bullies picking on his
stepsister lenora as a child arvin was
also picked on and it was his father who
taught him to fight back lenora and
arvin couldn't be further than one
another when it comes to faith when
arvin tells her the world is filled with
no good sons of [ __ ] the same line he
was taught by his father
she says maybe you should try praying
for him then with that hurting
you already do enough for all of us
where's doing you much good huh
arvin saw how faith poisoned his father
resulting in his father sacrificing
their dog
believing it would save charlotte from
cancer and later he ends up taking his
own life
sacrifice plays a large role throughout
the film
god had a tendency of asking man to make
sacrifices
in order to prove their faith not only
does willard sacrifice his dog but roy
sacrifices his wife
and preston gives up the good meat
saying as
the new preacher of this church
sacrifice myself
so but y'all can have a share of the
good meat tonight lenora even tells
arvin that if her father roy who killed
her mother
were to somehow reappear she'd forgive
him something arvin thinks is crazy
i've already forgiven him we could start
over
that's crazy this idea of forgiveness is
something that arvin grapples with
ultimately forgiving his own father for
killing himself when he
realizes his father had no choice and
arvin even thinks he himself may one day
be forgiven for what he's done
he started to think maybe the law would
recognize he'd done good
[Music]
maybe he'd be forgiven lenora ends up
falling for the new preacher preston
teegarden a grifting pastor who owns a
flashy car
cheats on his wife and uses his power of
authority to rape young women when
lenore tells him she's pregnant with his
child he gaslights her says it's not his
that it never even happened at all and
if she does have a child she should get
rid of it lenora hangs herself but at
the last minute decides not to go
through with
it but she slips in what some may call
an act of god
and dies these mysterious acts of god
are
littered throughout the film and are
easy to miss willard one day just feels
inspired to start praying again the
narrator says a quote invisible
force pulls arvin back to knock himstiff
and his car just happens to break down
leading him to be picked up by carl and
sandy it's as if some omniscient
puppeteer is putting all the pieces of
the puzzle in their place
arvin watches preston engage in his
nefarious acts and confronts him at
church he's learned the best time to
engage his enemies a lesson he learned
from his father
now you remember what i told you just
gotta pick the right time he's going to
kill
preston but not before preston goes off
talking about how lenora was delusional
she was delusional
this is a throwback to a sermon he
preached about how delusions lead us to
sin
it is our delusions that lead us to sin
but as the film ends we learn delusions
don't lead us to sin they lead us
somewhere unexpected perhaps even to
hope
arvind dreams of a life with a girl and
kid not sure if he's going backwards and
forwards
as the narrator says it's a place where
there is no fighting or screaming or
pain that doesn't sound like sin to me
the last act of the movie centers around
clay and sandy after 14 road trips
culminating in multiple kills
sandy wants out she even calls the cop
after one of their kills to tell them
where the body is
carl will never stop as the narrator
says his kills bring him closer to god
only in the presence of death could he
feel the presence of something like god
this is what makes the ending all the
more tragic sandy was looking for a way
out even thinking of murdering carl if
she had to
the thought of killing carl and taking
off with the boy in the back seat
suddenly crossed sandy's mind he was
young
but that didn't mean she couldn't make
it work yet another example of a
delusion
one that also gives her hope but this
hope is short-lived when she is shot by
arvin
after firing a blank she didn't realize
her paranoid husband had replaced all
the bullets with blanks who said god
didn't have a sense of humor
sandy's death is reported to sheriff lee
bodeger who happens to be
her brother he's a crooked cop receiving
money from a brothel owner named leroy
for those with a keen eye the front of
the bar where the brothel is found is
where willard goes for a drink after the
death of his wife
and guess who happens to work there
sandy lee allows the brothel to run in
exchange for leroy lining his pocket but
with an election coming up in the
townsfolk wary of his crooked ways
he wants to distance himself so he ends
up killing leroy and his bodyguard bobo
with a british pistol bobo said whose
bullets can't be traced
not only that but lee covers up his
sister's serial killer past knowing that
if it were found out he had a serial
killer prostitute sister
it probably wouldn't be great for his
re-election lee tracks down arvin in the
force
near where he picked him up eight years
earlier than night his father died nine
millimeter luger bullets were found at
sandy and carl's crime scene as well as
preston teegarden so he's
pretty sure arvin is the one responsible
for his sister's death
arvin ends up killingly he has no choice
it's either
kill or be killed he also had no choice
when he shot and killed carl and sandy
and even after preston's death he said
he had no choice in that either
he hurt my sister so bad she killed her
so sure if i hadn't
once again it's as if something is
guiding him and the other characters
is it god or is it the devil arvin also
kills lee with a luger at point-blank
range while
lee is armed with a shotgun it's kind of
ironic since earlier uncle erskill said
this when giving him that very luger
shotguns maybe the film is trying to say
something about beating the odds but
i'll get to that in a bit
as lee dies he looks up to the sky and
we get almost the same image that roy
saw moments before his death roy looked
up at the clouds drifting by and
wondered if that's what death would be
like
just floating away in the air arvin ends
up finally being able to
bury his dog a symbolic act of closure
for him and to the story he ends up
hitchhiking which you'd think he'd learn
his lesson but i want to talk for a
moment about the last line of the film
right now he needed sleep
i just felt lucky someone was giving him
a ride
while the film deals with some pretty
grim themes there's one that's riddled
throughout that's easy to miss that's
kindness it all started back when
charlotte sneaks to the back of the
diner to give a homeless man some food
telling willard some people just need a
little help once in a while
you know what i mean arvin remembers the
kindness the man at the general store
showed him the night his father died
you were awful kind of me and i just
want you to know that i never forgot it
all these moments had nothing to do with
god and maybe that's the point while the
preachers and believers in the story
ramble on about god it's these small
acts of kindness that i find to be much
more profound and as arvin drifts off to
sleep the radio plays a clip of
president johnson
saying america must continue to defeat
the enemy
but arvin is off to sleep dreaming of a
different world where there is no more
pain
or suffering perhaps he has finally let
go of his violent philosophy
one handed down to him by his father and
that will no longer hold power over him
arvin has defeated the odds just like he
did with that luger and broken out of
this violent cycle
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until next time remember daddy loves you
very much