Can I hear an Amen?
The Apostle A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1998 Michael Redman
**** (out of ****)
Fanatics are odd birds. They eat, breathe and sleep their obsession and will grab any possible opportunity to tell you all about it. Commendable in their energy and devotion, they are usually best admired at a safe distance. Up close and personal, they're too up close and personal.
Pentecostal minister Euliss F. "Sonny" Dewey (Robert Duvall) is full of the Lord, full of fire & brimstone and he's also full of contradictions. Looking like a rock star in his white suit and shades, he hits the revival circuit in the deep south like a locomotive with a full head of steam. A devoted family man, he hits the sheets with his conquests with the same passion. He's a man of peace, but hitting comes natural.
In the middle of the night, he senses that something is amiss. Jumping in his car and racing home, he discovers his long-suffering wife Jessie (Farrah Fawcett) bedding down the local youth minister Horace (Todd Allen).
Hot-headed Sonny doesn't take the situation well. Besides his philandering and ignoring his wife in favor of his ministry, there are obviously other problems in their relationship. Jessie's flinch reflex whenever he reaches towards her is telling. In the business of saving souls, he has been unable to save his marriage.
To make matters worse, Jessie has manipulated the church bylaws to take his congregation away from him. Seeing her and her lover together at his son's softball game sends Sonny over the edge and in a fit of rage he takes a baseball bat to Horace's head.
Realizing that he has done a _wrong_thing_, Sonny dumps his car and wallet in a river. He is born again again, dubs himself "The Apostle E.F." and sets out to redeem his life. Leaving Texas and lead by the Lord to Bayou Boutte, a small Louisiana town, he meets up with Brother Blackwell (John Beasley).
Blackwell has retired from preaching after two heart attacks, but still has an empty church. He is convinced of E.F.'s dedication and gives him the building to use. The Apostle takes on his new church "One Way Road To Heaven" with a vengeance: rebuilding the chapel, creating a church bus out of scrap and gathering his flock. Soon they are singing, clapping and testifying.
This film is Duvall's baby. After attempting to get a studio interested in it for over a decade, he put up the money himself. He also directed, executive-produced, wrote it and is in every scene. In the hands of a lesser actor, it would be a disaster. Instead, it is a masterpiece.
E.F. is a complicated man. Cinema's treatment of Christianity has generally concentrated on one-dimensional squeaky clean folk or corrupt money-grubbing evangelists with no room for anyone in-between. Duvall gives us a real and certainly imperfect person. Sonny is filled with energy. He doesn't walk anywhere: he struts, jumps and dances wherever he goes. Running away from or towards something, he doesn't have to time to saunter. His enthusiasm for his god is unmistakable as is the fact that he's a guy with some serious problems. There ain't none of us saints.
With a strong cast (including June Carter Cash, Billy Bob Thornton and an under-used Miranda Richardson) backing him up, Duvall shows us a personal tale of a very flawed man. If there is a problem with the characters, it is that, other than E.F., they are underdeveloped. Everyone exists only as a connection to the preacher, but then, this is his story from his eyes.
Using church-goers and evangelists rather than professional actors as extras, the film has an air of authenticity. The "Amen"s feel real. The revivals are energized. E.F.'s final sermon is a wonder of ebullience.
I don't have much patience for religious snake-oil salesmen, but this film isn't about religion. It's about the Apostle E.F. lost and found; redeemed but tainted. As those preachers of a different faith said, it's a long strange trip.
[This appeared in the 3/5/98 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at redman@bvoice.com]
-- mailto:redman@bvoice.com This week's film review at http://www.bvoice.com/ Film reviews archive at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman
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