NEWS SIDEBAR:  Some films about preachers as con artists, hypocrites

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _”The Apostle”may be Hollywood’s first warm, positive portrayal of a Pentecostal evangelist in decades. Meanwhile, in the past five years Tinsel Town has produced three moving portrayals of the beauty of Buddhism (“Kundun,””Seven Years in Tibet,”and”Little Buddha”). What gives? Veteran actor Robert Duvall says simply,”Hollywood doesn’t understand the subject […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _”The Apostle”may be Hollywood’s first warm, positive portrayal of a Pentecostal evangelist in decades.

Meanwhile, in the past five years Tinsel Town has produced three moving portrayals of the beauty of Buddhism (“Kundun,””Seven Years in Tibet,”and”Little Buddha”).


What gives? Veteran actor Robert Duvall says simply,”Hollywood doesn’t understand the subject matter.” Here’s a brief look at some of the most important films in the preacher-as-con-artist-and-hypocrite genre.”Elmer Gantry”(1960): Based on the 1927 Sinclair Lewis novel, this film classic teams a garrulous salesman with a female evangelist for a damning look at the religion racket. Burt Lancaster won one of the film’s three Academy Awards for his over-the-top performance in the title role.”Marjoe”(1972): This documentary about a former child evangelist, Marjoe Gortner, who still frisks the flock even after losing his faith, won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.”The Disappearance of Aimee”(1976): This made-for-TV film tells the story of famed-evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson’s controversial absence in 1926. She claimed it was an abduction, others ascribed it to hanky-panky.”Wise Blood”(1979): John Huston’s adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s 1952 novel about religious fanatics in the South is the only film Duvall thinks”get’s it right.””Pray TV”(1980): A made-for-TV movie in which an idealistic young minister becomes entangled with a dynamic TV evangelist and experiences the pitfalls of celebrity.”Leap of Faith”(1992): Steve Martin isn’t very convincing as traveling evangelist/scam artist Jonas Nightengale. But his technique of receiving divine”revelations”about revival-goers from co-conspirators through a hidden ear piece was copied from a real-life religious con man.

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