Kaznodzieja

Kaznodzieja (2016) 

The original is essentially a action-packed neo-western road-movie loaded with one-liners which is full of explicit scenes like showing spinal fluid, exposed breasts or insult of all the saints. And it is the masterpiece of Garth's "Tarantino comic book" Ennis from a time when he was not yet a ridiculous parody of himself as he is today. However, under the guise of all that seemingly (only seemingly I) obvious controversy, cheap sex, and meaningless violence, it was very disrespectful towards all the religions and for several years has been developing a complex story with central multi-layered characters about the crisis of faith and hypocrisy in each of us. And that's why it's pretty brave to come up with a much more moderate adaptation, which in the first season is supposed to be just a prequel to the events from the opening part of the original and will take place in Texas. In any case, it seems that it is conceived very loosely on the motives of the comic book, but essentially absolutely accurate in terms of the spirit of the original. And that is the most important thing. One-liners and black humor work, the action is nice and physical. Moderation is noticeable compared to the original and is actually welcome (after all, what worked in the ninety-page comic book with a stylized drawing does not necessarily look the same in a realistic fiction two decades later). The movie is fully aware that the whole thing, despite the tempting tinsel, will be mainly dependent on the characters, so you will like the perfectly chosen cast very much... The potential is therefore huge and, thanks to the time lag, even the flaws of the original could be corrected (especially the excessive level of everything in later episodes in the form of supernal troubles or global conspiracies hidden inside other conspiracies), the authors are obviously daring enough, so the adaptation follows its own path, which could potentially be better than the legendary original. (10.02.2022)