I have little knowledge of the "Holiness" Christian subculture, but it certainly seems to me Duvall's portrayal was right on the money. He was really in this film, absorbed in the culture it portrays so that were one to tell me the segments of his tent preaching consisted of footing from his preaching at real Holiness gatherings (the audiences being unaware he was an actor), I would certainly believe it. He was as good a Holiness preacher as any such preacher. And those audiences, indeed all the subsidiary characters in the film, were absolutely true to the bone.
The film would have been a disaster had the protagonist been just another hypocritical fraud with no real belief in a God but who merely aimed to fleece a poor uneducated flock. It also would have been a disaster had the protagonist become an incorruptible hero, a Forest Gump of Pentecostalism. The film just took a fella, a sincere but flawed man, and presented him as he is. "The Apostle," while a man of volatile character, really loved God, believed in Him. He loved his flock also. The film was about as flawless a film as I have seen in recent times, though the subject matter did not leave me with a full and happy heart.
>I would also recommend [a list of great films, no doubt].<
Well Neocon, you know my standards. Bad language is acceptable to a point (one cannot very well have all gritty reprobates speaking with flowered tongues), violence is acceptable if it is integral to the film, and flagrant sex scenes are unacceptable regardless of the point. If I find some of these films fail my standards I will have to skip them, simply accepting on your word that they are otherwise very good (unless the sex scene is isolated as it was in Braveheart, in which case I will just FF it. I do not want to so much as see a naked person in a film except in very rare instances).
When I get time, I will be sure to check out each of these films that I have not already seen. |
