The Apostle

Plot synopsis:
Euliss F. "Sonny" Dewey (Duvall) is a charismatic Pentecostal preacher. His wife Jessie (Fawcett) has begun an adulterous relationship with a youth minister named Horace. She refuses Sonny's desire to reconcile, although she assures him that she will not interfere with his right to see his children. She has also conspired to use their church's bylaws to have him removed from power. Sonny asks God what to do but receives no answer. Much of the congregation sides with Jessie in this dispute. Sonny, however, refuses to start a new church, insisting that the one which forced him out was "his" church. At his child's Little League game, Sonny, in an emotional and drunken fit, attacks Horace with a bat and puts him into a coma; Horace later dies.
A fleeing Sonny ditches his car in a river and gets rid of all identifying information. After destroying all evidence of his past, Sonny rebaptizes himself and anoints himself as "The Apostle E. F." He leaves Texas and ends up in the bayous of Louisiana, where he persuades a retired minister named Blackwell (Beasley) to help him start a new church. He works various odd jobs and uses the money to build the church, and to buy time to preach on a local radio station. Sonny also begins dating the station's receptionist (Richardson).
With Sonny's energy and charisma, the church soon has a faithful and racially integrated flock. Sonny even succeeds in converting a racist construction worker (Thornton) who shows up at a church picnic intent on destruction. While at work in a local diner, Sonny sees his new girlfriend out in public with her husband and children, apparently reconciled. Sonny walks out, vowing never to return there.
Jessie hears a radio broadcast of the Apostle E. F. and calls the police on Sonny. The police show up in the middle of an evening service but allow Sonny to finish it while they wait outside. In the poignant finale, Sonny delivers an impassioned sermon before telling his flock that he has to go. In the final scene, Sonny, now part of a chain gang, preaches to the inmates as they work along the side of a highway.

Tags: dramatic, violence, boring, murder, flashback

Review:
But I think that, if one is not distracted or confused or simply put off by the loud, emotional, sometimes corny religiosity portrayed here, one can see a strong, compelling story of a seriously, ultimately fatally flawed man whose faith in God and in God's mission for him reaches to his very core.On the surface, one can view Sonny Dewey as just another example of a certain type of religious fraud:  the backslapping, perpetually-grinning, wisecracking good old boy who uses religion and exploits his flock for his own selfish ends.
But he makes no excuses for them and, in the end, he knows that he is going to pay for them.What really draws me into the film, and what really makes  Sonny interesting for me, is the way Duvall has made him such a complex character.
But some of the more revealing moments of the film are not when Sonny is in front of a congregation, or even with other people generally, but when he is alone with God:  ranting at God in anger; dedicating himself to God in the moment that he becomes the Apostle; the soul-searching moments when he forgives his wife and resigns himself to his fate.The no-punches-pulled realness of Sonny's struggle is a refreshing departure from the usual film portrayals of religious figures:  plaster saint, con-man, one-dimensional milquetoast.
And while the well-known actors in the film (Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton, Miranda Richardson) all turn in fine performances, it is the unknowns --the church members and townfolk -- that really give the film an added authenticity..
He must of seen a lot of southern preachers as he grew up, because he wrote this as well and the role suited him to a tee.The supporting cast is fine, with Rick Dial and John Beasley getting kudos for their work, but the movie is first and foremost about The Apostle.
Robert Duvall is an ambitious actor and film maker, and The Apostle hits home with its perceptive and loving portrayal of country people in the United States.
It's said by some folks that Robert Duvall has been trying to make this film for a lot of years, and there are parts of The Apostle that contain faint echoes of his 1983 project Tender Mercies.
Duvall's story is engaging and beautiful in the way it shows the flaws amid great talent in a man who chooses for himself the calling of Apostle.
I love this film, the accurate portrayal of some aspects of southern U.S. life and culture, and especially Duvall's performance..
Here is a few thoughts to help capture this wonderful creationEulis `Sonny' Dewey is a Southern Pentecostal Holiness Evangelist and Preacher from Texas living a seemingly happy life with his wife Jessie and his two `beauties' (children).
Another subtle example is when he is doing his charismatic preaching on the radio, while the secretary is watching his intensity, and he follows it by preaching to her, (meanwhile, there is this calculating sales pitch with sexual sub-text between the two people).A subtle but revealing example of Sonny's character is shown by Duvall's acting in two `sales-like, asking for the order' scenes.
Sonny and members are having an `altar call', and have been singing, `Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling', and as a final plea to a parishioner to accept Jesus into his life, Sonny keeps using his sales phrase `Come on now!'  Even though the words are previously used for his earthly desires, in this scene he captures his passion to perfection and his tears are genuine as he pleads with all his heart.In my mind, I can describe Robert Duvall's Academy Award deserving character acting as a poignant, perplexing, portrayal of a paradoxical, problematic, passionate, preacher.
Even though I could also choose Jack Nicholson's role in `As Good As It Gets'(who won the Oscar), the depth and breadth of Nicholson's acting don't measure up to the job done by probably America's greatest actor, Robert Duvall.
I believe this technique of documentary style filmmaking places the burden of carrying the movie on the acting and solely on Robert Duvall's Academy Award winning shoulders, and he delivers.
Duvall's performance was so convincing that had he performed this role live I'm sure he would have moved the whole audience to tears.I resisted seeing this film at first expecting that it would be the usual tired, antireligious stereotype that late twentieth century script writers revel in.
Highly recommended movie with great acting, a story that makes you think and a balanced portrayal of evangelical Christianity..
The Apostle is based on straightforward storytelling, great character development and nice, gentle pacing - but with a strong kick.Robert Duvall, one of the best actors of the last thirty years, gives a powerful performance as the preacher driven by his inner demons - and gods.
Ranging from his most charismatic (doing a Joe Dolan impersonation?) to his most personal, one feels that Sonny (the apostle EF) is real, believes what he is doing is real and is confident in his destiny - no matter how odd or quirky he appears at times.The film is character driven with a good sprinkling of incidents throughout.
Story points introduced early on and developed before half way give the film a strong feel of The Fugitive, the TV series - laid back, story based but with the undercurrent of "a ticking bomb under the table" (Alfred Hitchcock).Minor quibbles: Miranda Richardson's character is a little too young for Robert Duvall's.
Robert Duvall gives a great performance as the sincere but flawed Pentecostal preacher, Sonny Dewey.
Here, he changes his name to "The Apostle E.F." With the help of a local Black preacher, The Apostle starts a new church, called the "One Way Road To Heaven" Temple, a tiny wooden building out in the middle of nowhere.As good as Duvall is in his performance, reinforced by a brilliant performance from Miranda Richardson in a support role, the film's non-actors, local people brought in to add authenticity to the setting, are even more convincing.
This movie is another powerful exhibit in the case for why there *should* be an Oscar category for Best Casting.Apart from Mr. Duvall's identifying acting, so rightly hailed elsewhere on this forum, what truly makes this film stand out as so genuine, so founded, so real, is the casting.Take the radio guy, right down to his supermarket-style glasses.
The Apostle is a wonderfully constructed work that deals with a few intense issues including faith and the Christian's relationship with God. The director uses small scenes and sequences to illustrate how Sonny lives out his faith and to help the viewer experience Sonny's life more fully.
Though The Apostle is a work of fiction, it does a great job of presenting faith that is shunned by the world and continuously proved by God. When Sonny stops to pray at a car-crash, it appears that the wife is probably dead and the husband is in fairly critical condition.
As Sonny is leaving, the viewer sees the wife's hand grip her husbands, presumably showing God's work in the situation; Sonny's reply: "Momma, we made news in heaven today." Duvall's film also deals greatly with the humanity of Christians.
I am not a Billy Bob fan by the way, but even his character, that came to destroy Sonny's church, and ended up changing his own life in that process.
I have always appreciated Robert Duvall as an actor, but everything he's ever done pales in comparison to his performance as "The Apostle E.F." in this movie.
Thank you to Robert Duvall for this powerful performance.The movie had flaws.
In his most ambitious project, `The Apostle,' in which he directs, is a screenwriter, acts and is an executive producer, Duvall finds himself in uncharted movie territory as a preacher whose unhealthy obsession with God and his church leads to his own downfall.
`The Apostle' is the story of Eulis `Sonny' Dewey (Duvall) who parish is taken away from him when his adulteress wife Jessie (Farrah Fawcett) decides to leave him and take their children away for a younger preacher in the same parish.
Duvall comes off as both enlightening through his sermons and utterly terrifying through his anger towards his wife, her boyfriend, and to an unruly member of society (Billy Bob Thornton) who doesn't want the Apostle E.F.'s church around.
An engaging story driven by a very powerful performance from Robert Duvall.The story of a minister in a evangelical Christian church who starts a new life after committing a crime.
The service was very structured and organized, and a long story short I found myself at home in a place with a much more reserved style of worship experience.But with that going on in my personal life at the time, it made it difficult for me to want to see "The Apostle", a film that to me looked like it was promoting the style of religion that I had struggled with all my life.
As the movie progresses Duvall has several extended scenes where he's preaching in church, and the performance is amazing.
It's a bit eerie in a sense, and some might find it uncomfortable given the subject matter--but then you realize that this is the same guy from "The Godfather" movies, and that's when it hits you that this is an amazing feat of acting in a well made film.All that said, "The Apostle" may be a bit foreign and hard to watch for some people who have an averse reaction to matters of faith or who are uncomfortable with Christianity.
Robert Duvall's performance makes this movie worth watching to see terrific acting.
Robert Duvall's performance makes this movie worth watching to see terrific acting.
However although it is not a masterpiece nor does it use any special effects, it is really a powerful movie who tells us a very simple story of a man who not only strongly believes in what he preaches but also has the power to convince other people by his words.
He also proves himself to be a competent director, even though that hasn't been a calling he's pursued subsequently.It's just criminal that Jack Nicholson beat Duvall for the 1997 Best Actor Award with a performance like the one he gives in "As Good as It Gets." Grade: A.
I had heard many good things about this film, not the least of which was Robert Duvall's performance.
Created by Robert Duvall as a fiction film, but worth taking in as a documentary, 'The Apostle' is a striking commentary on contemporary Christian Americana.
a Latino who takes you to the old time revial tent days with an extremely accurate portrayal of the real deal Hollyfield southern church scene....I have never been so moved by a movie in all my day ...being Afro American and growing up in the church, I'll tell you he really done some serious Homework!!!....there is no faking the hollyspirit...BUT Duval pulls it off in AAA 5 star fashion..this one should have got an Oscar!!!!!!!!!booooooooo!!!
Writer-director-star Duvall plays `Sonny' Dewey, a Pentecostal preacher in Texas who suddenly loses his church and family when he accidentally kills his wife's lover (his own youth pastor) in a fit of anger.
Sonny takes to the road and re-baptizes himself as `The Apostle E.F.,' and eventually rallies the citizens of a tiny Louisiana hamlet and starts a new church, zealous as ever to serve God in spite of his all-too-human flawsand a past that is slowly catching up with him.Southern preachers are a staple of Hollywood, usually portrayed as frauds, hypocrites, and loonies.
And did a good job writing his character to be realistic, like how southern preachers act, as in how they preach to the congregation.
Duvall chose to portray the good with the bad, and enabled movie-goers to experience what comes from powerful stories portrayed by a wonderful supporting cast.I found John Beasley's performance the strongest I have seen from a supporting character, possibly ever.If only Hollywood and the movie moguls could make more human stories like this, life would be too sweet.
In the time of high predictability in movies, this one had small surprises, some good, some bad - all very real!Kudos to Duvall for going that extra mile on his one way trip!.
Duvall`s amazing performance both as an actor and director,one of his career`s finest!The story is focused on a small comunity preacher and his maniac attraction for preaching.Unfaithful wife(Farah Fawcett)is just "match in the gasstank".Under a new id(as apostle EF)he is given the chance to perform again as a preacher,which seals his faith in the end as a fugitive,after having murdered.A both moral and dramatical brilliant performance,which why exactly didn`t deserve the Oscar?
This movie is intense & comes uncomfortably close to reality at times, Due in large part to Robert Duvall's riveting performance in the leading role as the Apostle E.F.
Watching the preaching sequences, you completely forget he's an actor playing a part - he's just Sonny the charismatic full gospel man of God. During those scenes I found myself hunting around the theater for one of those old timey cardboard fans to cool down with & nearly shouted 'Amen' a couple of times.
This movie is totally ABOUT the Apostle E.F., a holy madman seeking to do all the good he can before the payback he knows is coming for his greatest sin, killing his wife's lover in a moment of rage (pure Darwinism - he warned the silly ass in no uncertain terms to stay out of his face!).E.F. is an acting tour de force for Duval, and why he didn't get an Oscar is beyond me though I haven't checked what he was up against.It helps to be a Christian (even a wimp liberal mainstream one like me) to really appreciate this movie - at the beginning you sort of have him figured for a phony and it becomes more and more apparent that he believes in God and his mission all the way down to the core despite his many failings.
How many people have I met like the Robert Duvall character in this film?
The apostle is a realistic tale of a man's struggles with his flesh nature in contrast to his heart for Jesus while capturing the sheer uniqueness of Sonny's character then delivering a powerful, inspiring and truthful film.
The Apostle is a showcase movie for Robert Duvall, who gives a flawless, intense portrayal of a flawed tragic hero.
Robert Duvall gave the finest performance of his career playing a woefully inadequate christian at war with his feelings and desires versus his commitment to God. I can't believe he actually made me feel sorry for him by the end of the movie!
To me, cinema is the same way:  you could make a perfect film, with > perfect direction, photography, writing and performances, and still not have a great movie, or even a good one.
Growing up Southern Baptist (and by the way, the Duvall character in this film is a Holiness preacher for those who can't seem to tell the difference between it and Baptist), I witnessed many revivals and church meetings in which people were "saved." As I grew older, I grew apart from religion in general and am an Agnostic now.
Robert Duvall gives an Oscar-worthy performance as the Apostle on his way to redemption, but the crime he commits you do not blame him for, in the film you are constantly rooting for him and hope that he makes it in this new town.
He finds it in a small town in Louisiana, where an abandoned church provides a new source of hopeAll of this makes the film sound like a smarmy story with lots of exclamations of "Praise God!" and "Amen!" as people clap and sing in the small church to Duvall's leading.
I love a movie that moves at the pace of a good book, As you move through a book page by page absorbing the emotions, the feel the atmosphere, you become absorbed by the pictures the words paint, well congratulations Robert Duvall for painting a masterpiece on using film as your medium.
The Apostle takes the subject of good old revival style southern preaching, and patienty explores it through an in depth development of Robert Duvall's superbly acted character, "Sonny" the Apostle E.F.
It is true we see Sonny, or E.F., as a flawed but recognizable human, and Duvall not only distances his character from the racism the South has been accused of, but also the intolerance of other religions(the scene where he watches a different service and says in essence, "You got your way, I got mine, but we both want the same thing." shows his tolerance).
Robert Duvall comes through big in this film about the life of a fascinating man who makes a mistake and decides to start off anew.
"Sonny" (Robert Duvall), winds up starting a rural church from scratch in a small town in Louisiana, and is eventually discovered and sent back to Texas to jail.Duvall gives a tremendous acting performance in here, one of the best I've seen on film.
Also shown are supporting characters who are all sincere, good people who help "The Apostle E.F." (Duvall) build the church and help make it grow.In the end, despite all his flaws, Duvall's character turns out to be one of a sincere evangelist who truly loves God and wants to do His work wherever and whenever, even on a chain gang as the ending credits attest.The more I watch this movie, the more I appreciate the cinematography in here.
He runs off to Louisiana, becomes part of a small community, and starts a new church where he brings hope and salvation to his loyal followers.Robert Duvall is a powerhouse; he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this movie - and it's wonderful.