Marjoe / Thoth
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Movie Reviews of Marjoe / Thoth
Movie Review: Can I git an Amen for Brother Marjoe!
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent doc that is stranger and more interesting than fiction. This movie hilariously exposes the Evangelical preacher circut throught it's star Marjoe Gortner.The tone reminds me of E.Morris' early films (Gates of Heaven & Vernon, Florida). Well worth it for fans of documentaries. And Troth is a nice bonus.Movie Review: Interisting and cool
Summary: 5 Stars
Not only for christians but for critics an interesting report. I feel sorry for Majo, loosing his faith, or even never had a chance to get a good and healthy realationship with God.Movie Review: Thought provoking if not comprehensive
Summary: 4 Stars
When I was little I always enjoyed it when I saw Marjoe Gortner act in whatever television show or movie I would catch him in. He had a lot charisma. Not only was he dynamic in his acting he had a very distinctive voice that was both commanding and endearing. Back then I didn't know he honed his talents along the Bible Belt as a child preacher. Now that I am older and have read the biographies I can see where all of that charisma came from. This documentary gives us a taste of what Marjoe was going through in his early adult life when he decided that he didn't like the path he took. Instead of just walking away he decided to expose this double-life to the world in what ended up being an Academy Award willing documentary.
Now as far as documentaries formats go this one is as dry as they come. In other words what you get is essentially raw footage with no serious editing of the content. There is no voice-over narration explaining what you see except for maybe the footage of his child years, and even then what are you are getting is an interview with Marjoe dubbed over the footage.In one way this makes the documentary a pure and untouched resource. On the other hand it does leave some footage left to interpretation by the viewer. I'm not saying that's a bad thing by any stretch. Just want all of you to know what you are getting into.
The beauty of this documentary is that you get footage from both on the pulpit and backstage. Marjoe explains how he was raised and how he sees himself as a pastor. It's interesting to hear how he never really thought of God when he's preaching and how it was all trained by his parents. It's also interesting the ultimate message he says he is trying to portray: You don't need a spiritual figurehead to experience God. Unfortunately that message was brief and drowned out by the rest of the experiences in Marjoe, but keep it in mind when watching.
The purity of the footage can also be a potential issue with the documentary. Mainly in that most of the footage is Marjoe preaching in various churches and tent revivals in his final tour. After a while the footage feels like it's getting drawn out as you see much of the same thing over and over. I will admit it's not quite as bad as I make it sound, but I do know my wife fell asleep halfway through and her exact words were, "it was getting boring seeing the same thing over and over". Still running at around an hour and forty-five minutes it's not such a long thing to watch. So take that as you will.
Now this documentary has been out of print and practically missing until the negatives were found in 2002. The resulting transfer is great. This isn't one of those instances where you get a DVD with crappy 3rd or 4th generation theater film or a VHS transfer. The images are as crisp and clear as you can get from a documentary in the early 70's. Visually it's actually much better than I thought it would be knowing I'm seeing a restoration from the source negatives. Maybe the upscaling from my player has something to do with that, but even then this is a very clean transfer. Audio is about as good as you can get, which means it's clear with very little distortion that likely came from the source microphones to begin with. All in all I would be hard pressed to think you can get a better copy.
The DVD doesn't have that much in the way of extras. There is a brief biography of the directors, but nothing on Marjoe's contributions to the film. No little bios of any other crew members either. Kind of a shame since that wouldn't have taken much work aside from research to add them in and the space on disk would be negligible. You also get an exhaustive list of documentaries from the company that include a synopsis and some even have a trailer you can watch. No setup menu that I recall. No other languages but English and no subtitles.
Marjoe is a really good documentary that delves into the seedy side of evangelism that is still alive and well today (word of advise, when a preacher tells you miracles and blessings will happen to you IF you give him money walk away... God doesn't work that way). Doesn't matter if you're an atheist looking for more ammo or a believer who isn't afraid to see what can be wrong with religion; this is a good documentary with a great restoration and well worth a look.
Movie Review: God Wanted Me to Have a Cadillac!!!
Summary: 4 Stars
Marjoe Gortner was born into a family of evangelists in 1943. Before he was four years old, Marjoe was preaching the Gospel - and making money. Eventually, Marjoe's conscience caught up with him and he decided to leave preaching. Before he did, Marjoe worked with a film crew recording the evangelical ministers' scams. The result was the Academy-Award winning 1972 documentary Marjoe.
The filmmakers struck gold in finding Marjoe. He is candid about his frauds, but describes himself as "bad, not evil." Whatever one thinks of Marjoe, he is charismatic and he works an audience like a master. He admits that he borrowed some of his "stage moves" from Mick Jagger. One of Marjoe's sermons goes like this - "For seven years, I was a heroin addict... pill popper, LSD tripper... high risin' and low slidin'... bustin' heads and droppin' reds... kickin' in doors and bangin' whores... settin' fires and slashin' tires... but then I met a man who was hung up for my hangups."
Some of the tricks that the evangelists use to pry money from the faithful seem obvious. In one scene, an evangelist at a tent revival says that he drives a Cadillac because he could not work a deal at any other dealership. God, in all of His wisdom, wanted the evangelist to have that Cadillac.
I wish that the film had an update on Marjoe. He had a career as an actor-musician, but we learn nothing about it. Also, I would like to know how evangelicals reacted to the film.
Marjoe is both a character study and an expose of religious hucksters. The film succeeds on both levels, but I found Marjoe to be the main attraction. There have been so many religious scandals since 1972 (the Bakkers, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, etc.) that I expected the ministers to be phonies.
I highly recommend Marjoe - it's entertaining and it makes you think.
Movie Review: "This is a business..."
Summary: 4 Stars
...and, over the course of 90 minutes, Brother Marjoe and his intrepid crew out the bizarre and wild world of Pentacostal hucksterism. What a weird circle of exploitation...no wonder he decided to come clean. Just try not to look as the toothless man screams in tongues during a sermon! Regal at the close-ups of the gaudy (and no doubt pricey) necklace worn by Reverend Taylor as she preaches that her ministry doesn't spend the congregants money on "foolishness"! Why, it's like rubbernecking at a car wreck and watching a gang of battered old drunks waiting for the state store to open rolled into one! Heck, this is almost as good as the psuedo-documentary of Idi Amin, and nearly as sad. It's hard not to feel pity for the way these rubes are being duped, and from the looks of it they're pretty oblivious. One minister candidly talks about his upcoming trip to Brazil. He owns land there, which he tells Marjoe a food processor is interested in. Bought and paid for with your generous donations, praise Jesus! Marjoe helpfully describes some of his carny tricks, like drawing red crosses with sweat activated ink, and the radio/televangelist method of turning "prophecies" into maximum financial return. He evens throws a smoke bomb (shown in a short clip near the end)! Yeah, Marjoe may have been a pretty dispicable con man too, but at least he did his best to expose this nonsense when his conscience got to him. If my parents pimped me to church folks for a living from the age of four, I'd doubtless do the same, and probably with a ton of venom that Marjoe never displays (at least for the cameras). Highly recommended viewing...invite your prayer group over for popcorn and Dr. Pepper!