The movie was a first of many for me. (1)This is the first time in my life that after the movie was over I actually felt like I had watched a documentary. Think about that for a minute. Duvall had pulled off his own "Citizen Kane" if you will. I actually felt and thought that Duvall was Preacher Euliss Sonny Dewey - the character he played. That is the only way I can explain how incredible his performance was. Like Orson Wells in Kane, Duvall did everything for this movie- director, executive producer, main actor, and wrote the entire script. He had the script done in the 1980's but not one studio would touch this movie. Duvall ended up spending $4 million of his own money to get it going. His performance was nothing less than miraculous. He was nominated but didn't win an Oscar. The way he delivered his lines, the way his body movement was throughout the show, I mean literally he prepared for this character for years. I can't even tell you how incredible he was in this movie. Amazing. (2) Another first for me is how dumbfounded I am at the rating of this movie. When it released it was rated R. Netflix has it as PG-13. I would rate it somewhere between G and PG. There is no swearing. There is no nudity. There is one kiss and it last 1 second. There is nothing gross in it. It is about a preacher and his life. There is one scene where someone is hit by a baseball bat. I have no idea how this movie was rated R unless they have taken stuff out from the original movie before releasing it on DVD.
5 Stars. In my top 100 and it wasn't ever in question of that. What is so incredible about this movie is the layers that the audience is able to see of Duvall's character. His performance allowed us to see that. He wasn't just a preacher. He was a human being who worked as a preacher for a living. He had temptations, he had a temper, but above all this man loved God and loved being a preacher more than anything. He healed people but couldn't fix his own life. I cannot think of one flaw in this movie. Well done Duvall. This may actually go into my top 10 movies of all time.
1 comment:
I have just completed this movie...where to begin? Evangelical Christians scare me to death. The ones I have had contact with (primarily in Northern California) were hateful, judgmental, and violent towards those who were not of their faith, so to go into this movie with an open unbiased mindset was difficult for me. That aside, Robert Duvall was amazing as usual; it was as though I was actually watching a documentary (just like you said).
I did not love this movie like you did, but it was worth the watch.
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