director/screenwriter
Robert
Duvall
producer
Rob Carliner
cinematographer
Barry Markowitz
music
David Mansfield
editor
Stephen Mack
cast
Robert Duvall (Sonny Dewey)
Farrah Fawcett (Jessie Dewey)
Billy Bob Thornton (Troublemaker)
June Carter Cash (Momma)
Miranda Richardson (Toosie)
Todd Allen (Horace)
John Beasley (Brother Blackwell)
Rick Dial (Elmo)
Walton Goggins (Sam)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 134m
u.s.
release: 12/17/97
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
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The Apostle, an enthralling do-it-yourself labor
of love by Robert Duvall (he wrote, executive-produced, and directed
it, and paid for it out of his own pocket), makes most "independent"
movies look like the pretenders they are. At a time when every
hipster with a viewfinder is doing rip-offs of Reservoir
Dogs or Clerks
or Friends (or an unholy combo of the three), Duvall dares
to build an entire film around the subject of religious passion
and redemption -- a subject that invites disdain or indifference,
because so few movies actually get it right. The Apostle
nails it.
Duvall is also courageous enough to play the protagonist, Pentecostal
preacher Sonny Dewey, as a study in extremes and contradictions.
Sonny spreads -- no, make that shouts -- the word of God,
but he's also a sinner, a smoothie who cheats on his wife (Farrah
Fawcett) and also beats her; when he finds out she's been having
her own affair, the way she recoils and says "Keep your
hands over there" speaks volumes without our having to see
the abuse. Sonny is also about to be ousted from his own church;
enraged, he does some damage to the church's upstart minister
(who's been sleeping with Fawcett) and promptly gets out of town.
At the start, Sonny seems like a madman -- a violently confused
man hitching his passions to God's wagon, justifying his sins
because he's been "saved." But Sonny isn't the kind
of Bible-thumping hypocrite we usually meet in movies. He's serious,
and Duvall plays Sonny as a flawed saint in the throes of religious
mania. Sonny has a powerful effect on churchgoers, who believe
that God is working through him -- and if they believe it, then
his impact on them is the same as if he really were God's
instrument. The movie is about finding faith in the unlikeliest
places and having faith in the unlikeliest people.
After the incident with the minister, Sonny leaves his former
life and settles into a Louisiana bayou town, where he adopts
the name "E.F., the Apostle" and starts gathering a
new flock. With the help of a motley crew of believers -- a retired
minister (John Beasley), a young mechanic (Walton Goggins), a
radio DJ (Rick Dial) -- Sonny sets up a modest church immodestly
named One Way Road to Heaven. He also pursues a secretary at
the radio station (Miranda Richardson) -- a rather aimless plot
thread that could have been pulled out without unraveling the
movie.
The Apostle builds up steam as the church gains
more converts (watching a community built from the ground up
is one of the basic, satisfying pleasures in rural movies). It
leads to a great scene with Billy Bob Thornton as a racist lout
who threatens to demolish the church. We know that Sonny's fearless
stance against the racist isn't just noble: He isn't about to
be chased out of another church. Sonny goes to work on
Thornton, trying to convert him, and I felt a stab of worry;
scenes like this never work. But this one does. Duvall and Thornton
play it with the conviction of men who understand the pain
of salvation -- the overwhelming mix of relief and vulnerability
that born-agains are said to feel when they "give it over
to Jesus."
This is also one of the few showboat writer-director-star films
that don't feel like a vanity project. Duvall's integrity and
intelligence shine through his movie and his performance. Funny,
tender, menacing, exuberant, sometimes all at once, Duvall makes
Sonny a man possessed by divine love, earthly passions, and all
the angels and devils in between. We never really know Sonny
(Duvall keeps him a mystery to us), but we understand him perfectly.
The Apostle digs into the souls of the intensely devoted
ex-sinners you sometimes meet, the former addicts whose current
drug of choice is God. By painting Sonny in complex, conflicting
colors, Duvall respects his humanity, and so do we.
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