esrosedotblog

THE APOSTLE(1997)Rewritten 18:25 PDST

Today's movie; NYTimes1000Best; WOW!!!. I am committed to watching all of all of the 1000 Best films and, sometimes, this commitment scares me a little. I did not approach this one with a lot of positive anticipation. Fooled. Wrong. Contempt prior to investigation.

It is an astonishing film; astounding! I was 'wet-eyed' through most of it; not sadness, just feeling; most of it good. It is touching, funny, sad, exciting, suspenseful. Duval has this role knocked from the beginning; a human preaching machine. He does it in a way that takes you inside the man. He is no saint and knows it. He gets in trouble. He gets out of it. He is on a journey.

I would say that anyone watching this film would have to drop their shit about Jesus and preachers and churches; but I have to admit that my shit just dropped away in the process of the early scenes. I became available for this wonderful film by just relaxing and taking it in. No. I have not been converted. The 'shit' is back and that is OK too. It is funny/weird. We just saw Duval do his Colonel Bill Kilgore in APOCALYPSE NOW and the two guys are not too far apart; just opposite sides of the same coin. A familiar phrase. I keep seeing people, places and things as the opposite side of the APOCALYPSE coin.

OK. What else? Who else? Billy Bob Thornton in a small, important role--a disruptive red-neck; June Carter Cash is Duval's mom and sings; Farrah Fawcett as the wife who takes it all away from the rev; Miranda Richardson is just marvelous as a girlfriend along the path; and a whole bunch of (I bet) non-actors fill the scenes with a gentle sweetness that is just transforming. The music is great throughout. These are jubilant Christians; nothing dour about them; Pentecostals; holy rollers for sure and not to be made fun of. They sure do rock. Duval, who wrote and directed has treated his subject and his people, all of them, with respect and finds the dignity beneath the drama. There are no caricatures or cartoons; none.

OK. I give it a 5 out of Netflix5. That is two 5's in three days. But I am down about the next A=ARTHUR. Now, I just know that I am not going to like that one.