First Reformed · reception & legacy

How First Reformed has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Hailed on arrival as the late-career masterpiece of a 71-year-old written off by many, it went from festival buzz at Venice 2017 to instant-canon status — the rare case where 'best film of his career since Taxi Driver' talk actually stuck.

What's debated

The debate is all about the final minutes — fans argue endlessly over what's real, what's fantasy, and whether the famously abrupt cut to black is transcendent or a cop-out, with the 'Magical Mystery Tour' levitation scene splitting viewers just as hard.

Its footprint

Ethan Hawke pouring Pepto-Bismol into whiskey became an instantly recognisable image (people genuinely mix the 'First Reformed cocktail'), and 'Will God forgive us?' turned into shorthand for climate despair far beyond film circles.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd-era canon climber and the modern entry point to Schrader's 'God's lonely man' lineage — the 2010s 'you must have seen this' title for anyone getting into slow, austere cinema.

Named by the director

Influences Paul Schrader has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Diary of a Country Priest (1951) — Schrader repeatedly named Bresson's tormented, journal-keeping priest as the direct template for the film.
• Winter Light (1963) — He cited Bergman's crisis-of-faith pastor drama as a core model, down to the cold church and the despairing parishioner.
• Ordet (1955) — Schrader pointed to Dreyer's austere miracle film as part of the transcendental lineage he was finally joining.
• Ida (2013) — He said seeing Pawlikowski's film was the trigger — walking away thinking it was finally time to write the spiritual film he'd sworn he never would.
• Robert Bresson — The central figure of Schrader's own 1972 book Transcendental Style in Film, which he openly described the film as putting into practice.
• Andrei Tarkovsky — Schrader cited Tarkovsky among the slow-cinema masters whose withholding style he was deliberately borrowing.