Robert Duvall has acted in all kinds of different movies. He has even put a few of them together based on his own ideas. I just finished watching a video of a film that falls into the latter category. It's a film about a preacher gone wrong and what happens to him. The title of the film is The Apostle and co-stars Farrah Fawcett. Duvall got a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for the film.

Duvall plays Euliss "Sonny" Dewey, a down home, Texas based Pentecostal preacher. He goes all over the place and preaches the Good News. Sonny has been doing this ever since he was a child. There are flashback scenes that show Sonny recovering from a deadly childhood illness and becoming an evangelist. From his youth through adulthood, Sonny is on fire for God.

But all is not well with Sonny. It seems that Sonny has a very pretty wife named Jessie (Fawcett). She is tired of Sonny and his messing around. It seems Sonny has a wandering eye among other things. Jessie has taken up with the Youth Pastor from their church, Horace ( Todd Allen). Sonny comes back early from an evangelism tour and finds Jessie's car parked at Horace's house in the middle of the night. Sonny breaks a window to let them know he found them out. Jessie then asks for a divorce.

Jessie also has Sonny removed as the head of their church. That doesn't set well with some members of the congregation, including Sonny's mother, Mrs. Dewey, Sr. (June Carter Cash).

In a fit of drunken rage, Sonny attacks Horace with a ball bat and then leaves the area. He wanders around a bit and then comes across an old man by a river. He lets Sonny stick around and ends up telling him about his old pastor who was really a great man.

Sonny reinvents himself as the Apostle E.F. and devotes himself once again to God. He decides to go to look up this great preacher down in Bayou Boutte. Brother Blackwell (John Beasley) has done great things in his life but is retired and his flock has gone elsewhere. E.F. convinces him that they could rebuild a church.

After a time, no life that E.F. touches remains the same. From the head of the local radio station Elmo(Rick Dial), to the two ladies who help lead the new church , Sister Johnson (Zelma Loyd) and Sister Jewel (Sister Jewel Jernigan), each one of them are infused with the gospel according to Apostle E.F.

Billy Bob Thornton has a small role as a man who wants to shut down them down and Billy Joe Shaver is a young man who ends up seeking grace in this new church of E.F. and Brother Blackwell's.

The Apostle is a very good film. It shows that there is redemption after all when you have gone down the wrong path. It is a wonderful character study of a man who goes astray and then comes back to his faith. If you had to compare this film to another, it might be Tender Mercies, another Robert Duvall project.

If you want to watch a film that will stir your spiritual senses, The Apostle is one not to miss. When E.F. gets into his preaching, you just about want to jump up and shout "Amen, brother!"

The Apostle is rated PG-13 for violence and mild profanity. It was released by October Films.

Copyright © 2000 Bruce E. Von Stiers