Ernst Toller, a troubled priest of a small church in upstate New York, begins to spiral out of control after a soul-shaking encounter with Mary and her unstable environmental activist husband. Consumed by thoughts that the world is in danger, Toller embarks on a perilous self-assigned undertaking.

That Paul Schrader is a disciple of Bresson and Dreyer is nowhere more evident than in this towering modern classic: a film about America, its histories of violence, and its hopes for redemption. As the spartan protagonist striving for salvation, Ethan Hawke is nothing short of transcendent.