Marjoe / Thoth
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Movie Reviews of Marjoe / Thoth
Movie Review: Fantastic! Swaggart/Haggard meets Jagger. Evangelical hucksters exposed.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is stunning in every way.
First, there are the clothes and the hairstyles which are the epitome of the high water mark of 70's bad taste.
Then there are Marjoe's "behind the scenes" tips where he coaches the documentary crew as to what to watch for.
And the services! The music is awesome, Marjoe's preaching is awesome, and the audiences are swooning, twitching, babbling, and coughing up cash like nothing you've ever seen.
Marjoe's sermon in the Gospel Church in LA (Can God Deliver...My God Shall Supply) is my favorite overall performance. His delivery, his cadence, his antics and gestures are just unbelievable and give Jimmy Page and Robert Plant a real (tax free) run for their money.
And Marjoe's sermon on the humanity/divinity of Christ (Do You Know Who Jesus Really Is?...Because He was human...Because he was divine) is the finest sermon I've ever heard on the Dual Nature of Christ, bar none. (Personally, I don't believe that Jesus was either a real person or a god. See Earl Doherty's excellent book, "Jesus: Neither Human Nor Divine - the Case for a Mythical Jesus" for an exposition of this viewpoint.)
Marjoe's expose of the "business" aspect of religious hucksterism is incredible. Preachers have to have a gimmick, or as they call it a "ministry" in order to collect big offerings. How these preachers keep receiving contributions from their gullible flocks baffles reason.
Finally, you can see in this film that Marjoe does have true healing ability. His energy, his enthusiasm, his charisma are able to put crowds into a state of ecstatic frenzy and the people he touches genuinely feel better. As Marjoe says, "if only I could do this without all the 'hell' stuff and the 'sin' downer I would love to have remained a preacher."
Tagline: You keep the Faith - Marjoe keeps the Money!
Movie Review: Wonderfully revealing
Summary: 5 Stars
Having first heard of "Marjoe" in "God is not Great", the new Christopher Hitchens book, I was compelled to have a look. "Marjoe" is as deserving of the Oscar it received as any documentary I've ever seen. Marjoe, the boy, was raised to deliver and deliver he did. The early movies of his sermonizing are terrific and shocking. That he could actually perform weddings (also shown) is amazing.
To Marjoe's credit, he allowed us a peek behind the wizard's curtain while in his late twenties. Having had a second awakening of sorts as to the fraud he was perpetrating, he shared it with a film crew in behind-the-scenes admissions. No sooner does the viewer learn the tricks of the trade then we see Marjoe out performing his shtick. The faux southern accent and perfect timing work like a charm as he seduces his audience minute by minute. Of course, there's always the appeal for money, which Marjoe gleefully counts out later, once with a colleague and once in his motel room. One of the best scenes is captured as he has dinner with a Texas family who supports him. He mentions other "phony" ministers and the adoring family concurs. All the while, Marjoe lets on not a peep about himself.
This film draws on so many emotions it's hard to know where to draw the line. Toward the end of the film, Marjoe, himself, weighs in on his own morality. Is he bad or evil? In the end he declares himself to be simply "bad", thus delivering himself from any harsher judgment. "Marjoe", the film, is particularly timely today. Ever wonder if Pat Robertson is missing something?
Movie Review: Equal parts comedy and tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a documentary done in the early 1970s by a man named Marjoe Gortner, who was raised by televangelist parents in the 1940s and 50s. The couple trained their son to follow in their footsteps, and by age four he was preaching and performing wedding ceremonies.
Unfortunately, the Gortners were more interested in making money than saving souls, and Marjoe learned their tricks of crowd manipulation and fund raising. He eventually left the "ministry," but not before hiring a film crew to follow him around on his last tour, during which he revealed to them the methods he used. He also gave a shocking expose of just how far some so-called ministers will go to part people from their money.
The result is this film. Marjoe is a very likable guy and you will enjoy watching him as he leads you on a tour of American sideshow religion, where entertainment passes for ministry and preachers laugh together as they split the profits from the evening service. The movie, which was made in 1971, also features the funky clothing and hair styles from that period.
You may also cry a little, or just get mad as hell, when you see just how vicious and greedy religious con artists can be. Marjoe shows it all: the fakery, the brutality, and the sheer gall exhibited by these hucksters in clerical garb. The result is a movie that is tragic, comic, and highly informative, but never boring. Very highly recommended.
Movie Review: Praise the Lord, Marjoe is back!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have waited and waited and waited and waited for this release on DVD. Marjoe won the Oscar in 1972 for best documentary and rightfully so. He went out on a limb, admitting he was a fraud and an entertainer, and brought a film crew to capture it all. I love this film, the way he shows traveling evangelists are mainly cons who make off with a lot of money from people who don't have any to begin with. The segment with the preacher woman who breathes into her mic is crippling--telling her congregation she knows they have bills to pay and have set aside money for a winter coat but the church needs that money more. Ugh... It's incredible to watch him perform and preach the word at these revivals--he's very much a rock star--and even though he's taking this money, it's easy to sympathize with him. He was thrust into preaching at the age of four by parents who exploited and abused him to make money for the family--and ultimately, the film itself is his confession and he's genuinely sorry. I needed this movie when I saw it ten years ago. May it find more viewers who are in a bad way. Marjoe is the court jester of evangelists, and I thank him for doing this film and tarnishing his name on the Pentecostal circuit by doing so. He's helped some of us decades after he took that leap.Movie Review: Marjoe
Summary: 5 Stars
Like a lightning bolt to the heart, the Oscar-winning "Marjoe" hits its mark with illuminating mercilessness. Opening with old videos of Marjoe preaching hellfire at age 4(!), Smith and Kernochan give us a taste of what the openly fraudulent evangelist, a flower child who professes no spiritual belief whatsoever, can accomplish with a microphone, as he works his congregations into a moaning, epileptic fervor. Even more fascinating is how honest the narcissistic Marjoe is about his personal misgivings, his atheism, and the profit motive behind these Pentecostal meetings, which he headlines with a mix of rock-star bravado and sanctimonious humbuggery. "Marjoe" is infuriating, but also wonderfully cathartic. Hallelujah!