Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism". Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
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Marjoe was a dazzling performer. Seeing him become this character and strut around like Mick Jagger preach rapping non-sense is nothing short of wizardry. It made me think about the misdiagnosed hysteria that is mistaken for the holy spirit. What they're paying for is a catharsis that will absolve the repressed emotional sarcophagus that has been held hostage by the institution of Christianity. Marjoe profits from hitting old ladies in the face. They fall over, convulse on the floor and probably leave feeling better. Marjoe Gortner was providing a service. A huckster and an artist.
This movie contains the best visual description of "The South", that I've ever seen:
Marjoe Gortner paces the stage like a lanky tiger. The outer ringlets of his white-boy afro are soaked with sweat from preaching of the fiery and passionate love that can only come from JEE-SUS and the 94 degree August nights that always seem to accompany a tent revival. The line to receive his healing touch is growing longer and more feverish by the second, like children anxious to tell Santa their secret desires, all hopped up on Salvation sugar.
A tiny, grey-haired woman, half as wide as she is tall, steps up to Marjoe with a tearful and pained expression hiding behind her cat's-eye glasses. The…
A fascinating if distasteful documentary about Marjoe Gortner, whose parents groomed to be a Pentecostal child preacher (from age 4!). He grew disillusioned after they made millions on him and stopped in his teenage years. But he then returned to it in his 20s - without any real faith or belief - but becoming a superstar of the revival/tent meeting/healing crusade circuit. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1972.
Although there are some clips from his child preaching days, the film focuses on his return as a young man. He brought a film crew to actual meetings but not letting the promoters or participants know it would be critical. As a result, we get a bird's eye…
Not a particularly good documentary – it basically has one idea that it hammers home repeatedly – but when the subject matter is this compelling that doesn’t matter very much.
Everyone knows evangelical Christianity is bullshit, but it’s still breathtaking to watch this charismatic young man preach so fervently, passionately, eloquently, bodily – punching the air and pouring with sweat, whipping up parishioners into a frenzy – and then to hear him casually explain that he’s never believed in God and is just doing the rounds of evangelical events to make some quick cash.
The footage of Marjoe as a child preacher is genuinely chilling – seeing this tiny kid perform a marriage ceremony for two grown adults or pontificate…
sympathy for the devil
"...you're already dead, and you don't know it."
My father was a fundamentalist minister for the Church of Christ and my husband of 19 years is a former professional Christian music singer whose father was also a minister for the Pentecostal Assemblies of God, the particular faith under observation in this documentary about former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, who uses the film as an exposé of his own charlatanism. I mention my own background with this type of religion (though mine wasn't as demonstrative as the Pentecostals) just to show how my familiarity with the subject informs my opinions on the film. You may be familiar with Gortner from his film and television acting, primarily in the 1970s & 80s, which is what he turned to after the success…
This is way too freaked out by the spectacle of the revival tents to actually investigate why or how they work, so we just get endless footage of the ceremonies. But Gortner himself is such a live wire and complex presence that the filmmakers' lack of skill and curiosity in exploring him and his con doesn't matter as much as it might. The first ten minutes of this, where we see a four year old Marjoe marry a couple and then see his adult self say "nah I never believed in it" is WILD.
Big ups for the shirtless 70s sound tech with a cig hanging out of his mouth.
Truly fascinating Oscar-winning documentary, that profits from the filmmakers having complete access to a subject that is very charismatic, and at a pivotal moment in his life.
Marjoe Gortner was the child of an evangelical preacher who has been drilled by his father and mother to be a child preacher since the age of four, turning him into a large moneymaker for his parents. By the time this film was made, he was in his twenties - and he was ready to quit evangelism in the most spectacular fashion, by inviting a documentary crew to film his public appearances, while also giving them completely candid behind-the-scenes interviews in which he exposed his brand of evangelism as the sham he was.…
The 1972 - Oh no five-oh challenge #17
Marjoe Gotner is someone many of you will come across if you enjoy a b movie or two. You might remember him as a national guardsman in Earthquake, from video nasty Mausoleum, the infamous Italian Star Wars rip off Star Crash or as the villainous Cobra in American Ninja 3. What you might not know is that he was an ordained minister by age 4, then driven on by a cruel mother to be a child evangelist, had a break from it all before returning as a young adult as a charlatan/huckster evangelist and dissolver of cancer in revival tents across the American bible belt.
This documentary follows Marjoe on his final…
Whooee, look how far the yodeling walmart kid has come.
