Critical acclaim includes awards ranging from the National Society of Film Critics to the Los Angeles Film Critics Association to generous spreads in newsweeklies like Time. Commercially, it was the hottest per capita seller last weekend - not surprising, given the buildup. If we only did half that well, we'd be happy. But he is also a sincere man of the Word who prays, it seems, nearly every moment of his waking life. It's Dostoevskian, something deeply theological, not churchy.
Sonny kills the man with a baseball bat, then flees to Louisiana.
Together, the two restore a battered church, which benefits from the spiritual growth of the Apostle as he faces up to his crimes. Duvall, whose father was a Methodist and whose mother was a Christian Scientist, is no stranger to alternative films. Yet the actor is best known for sharply defined characters who wrestle demons, or are demons. Kilgore, has become an American classic. Sonny's sensibility is shaped by black Pentecostals, and the film presents the Christian message as universal, extending to all races and classes.