Marjoe Gortner was a child Evangelical Preacher in the 1950’s, where at the age of four performed his first wedding ceremony. He came from a long line of Evangelical Preachers and was groomed early, the archival footage of which will make your hair stand up. In his teens he became disinterested in the church and disillusioned with his parents (and his earnings disapprearing) he went into religeous retirement.
Then in the early 1970’s he decided (as a dope smoking, free-loving, long haired non-believer) that he would go out on the revival tent circuit strictly to earn money. And he brought a camera crew.
The results are in a word: Amazing.
His performaces are astounding, he is really good in front of a crowd. Singing, praising, faith healing, chanting down Babylon and such. And then you get to see him back at his hotel room counting out his money and talking about what he really believes spiritually and how he draws inspiration for his sermons from Mick Jagger.
Marjoe is very charmismatic. It’s why this documentary works, and how he got away with this in the first place. Another major force in this films favor is that it is very well shot. The camera work and editing feels very modern and savvy for the time. And as mentioned before, the archival footage of him preaching as a child is astounding. Real David Lynch type shit, and I realize that sounds like a lazy description, right up there with “….its like blah blah blah, On Acid!”. But for real. Feels like Blue Velvet.
The energy in the audiences and the music during the revivals is totally infectious. I don’t think this American experience exists today, so thank goodness this got put down on film. Even as an Athiest, I love a good Gospel tune. And seeing Marjoe give the churchgoers exactly what they want and then take off the persona like a jacket at the end of the day didn’t seem particularly unethical to me. He isn’t making fun of them, and he certainly isn’t taking any more advantage of them than another preacher who really “believes”.
Marjoe went on to act in such films as “Food of the Gods”, “Starcrash” and “Earthquake”.
This won the 1973 Academy Award for best documentary, for good reason.
