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The Apostle
(1997)
 | Information at Internet Movie Database |
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Cinema in Focus,
a social and spiritual commentary by Hal Conklin and Denny Wayman. |
| Hollywood
Jesus visual review |
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Discussion and Study Guide, Gordon Matties, Canadian Mennonite
University. |
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"The Apostle
Makes No Apology," Amanda Caldwell, TheFilmForum: Christian
Conversation about the Movies. |
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Looking Closer, review by Jeffrey Overstreet, "searching for truth, beauty
and meaning in the movies." |
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Movie Parables
review. |
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Review, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Health -
Spiritual Practices for Human Being. |
| Themes
 | Baptism
 | Pentecostal pastor Eulis "Sonny" Dewey learns that his
wife is sleeping with his youth pastor (or associate pastor, I
don't recall). Under the influce of alcohol, Sonny hits the
younger pastor with a baseball bat, knocking him to the ground,
where he stays. Sonny leaves town, running from the consequences
of his actions. In a small tent that night, he fasts and prays.
The next morning he baptizes himself, renaming himself The Apostle
E.F. I noticed that he baptized himself twice: once in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and once in the name of
Jesus. (David K. Miller) |
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| Bible
| Sonny actually lays an open Bible on
the ground in front of the bulldozer. It is the actual power
of the book itself that discourages the driver, played perfectly by
Billy Bob Thorton, from destroying the church. (Mike
Clark, Hamilton Canada) |
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| Call
| Pentecostal pastor Eulis "Sonny" Dewey,
using the name The Apostle E.F., enlists three people to help him
start an interracial church in a Southern small town. First he goes
to a retired African American pastor, asking to use an abandoned
church building. Then he convinces a radio station owner to give him
air time, as long as he doesn't speak in tongues. Lastly, he
recruits a young mechanic to help fix up the church building. They
become the core of the new church. (David K. Miller) |
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| Conversion
| Pentecostal pastor Eulis "Sonny" Dewey
happens upon a car accident. Taking his Bible with him, he
approaches one of the cars and finds an apparently dead young woman
and a dying young man (a boy, really). Sonny tells the boy that it
looks too late for his companion and that the boy himself might be
slipping away as they speak. He says that Jesus is waiting so that
the boy, whether he lives or dies, can have eternal life in heaven.
He asks the boy if he wants that. The boy nods in assent. Sonny asks
the boy if he is ready to follow Jesus for the rest of his life,
whether his life were to last for years or just for a few minutes.
The boy again nods. Sonny leads him in prayer while kicking away a
police officer who is telling him that he isn't supposed to be
there. Sonny gets back into his car and tells his mother that they
won one for Jesus. (submitted by David K. Miller) |
| Pentecostal pastor Eulis "Sonny" Dewey learns that his
wife is sleeping with his youth pastor (or associate pastor, I
don't recall). Under the influce of alcohol, Sonny hits the
younger pastor with a baseball bat, knocking him to the ground,
where he stays. Sonny leaves town, running from the consequences
of his actions. In a small tent that night, he fasts and prays.
The next morning he baptizes himself, renaming himself The Apostle
E.F. I noticed that he baptized himself twice: once in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and once in the name of
Jesus. (submitted by David K. Miller) |
| Pentecostal pastor Eulis "Sonny" Dewey, using the name
The Apostle E.F., starts an interracial church in a small town.
While the new church is having a picnic, a local man drives a
bulldozer onto the church grounds with the intent of demolishing
the church. E.F. talks the man from the bulldozer, convincing him
that he doesn't have to lash out at people in violence. The man
breaks down weeping and E.F. leads him to accept Jesus as his
savior. (David K. Miller) |
| Pentecostal pastor Eulis "Sonny" Dewey, using the name
The Apostle E.F., after having started an interracial church in a
small town preaches his last sermon there. A young mechanic who
had helped E.F. start the church responds to the altar call,
deciding to give his life completely to Jesus. (David
K. Miller) |
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| David
| The Apostle as David: "So here’s King David, the great poet of the Psalms that
we laud and he did something that was far worse than anything this present preacher would
do. But because this is today, and not removed romantically to the past, we judge Sonny
quickly and harshly. But, you know, he’s just an ordinary guy. He did not commit
premeditated murder. He didn’t go to that church social and the baseball game with
the intention of killing the young preacher. It just happened. Smack!" (From "The Apostle: An Interview
with Robert Duvall," Bill Blizek and Ronald Burke, Journal of Religion and
Film, 1998.) |
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| Faith
| "Sonny always has one foot in really trusting what he believes in, even
though he errs. If someone took your church, like Jessie took his, and if someone took
your wife, like the youth minister took Jessie, it would be a hard thing to deal with. He
didn’t intend to kill anybody, but it happened on the spur of the moment. ‘Oh,
my God!’, he knows he’s done something wrong. ‘I gotta leave,’ he
thinks; ‘what do I do?’ ‘Lord, lead me,’ he says. He still depends on
the Lord, you know, even though he has sinned. So he begins an odyssey, the whole film is
an odyssey journey. (From "The
Apostle: An Interview with Robert Duvall," Bill Blizek and Ronald Burke, Journal
of Religion and Film, 1998.) |
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| Human Condition
| "No, he was never a bad guy. He was a good guy. But he did
something bad. So he is full of good and bad. Sonny’s a good guy; he believed he had
a calling from the time he was twelve; and he errs like most characters do, you know? He’s
a kind of percentage mixture at the beginning and at the end. There’s a certain
percentage chance he will do good and a percentage chance he will again err. But he knows
he has erred and that he needs confession and redemption." (From "The Apostle: An Interview
with Robert Duvall," Bill Blizek and Ronald Burke, Journal of Religion and
Film, 1998.) |
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| Journey
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E.F.'s continuous journey of faith, symbolized by moments on the road, talking to God. |
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| Peace
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Early in the movie, Sonny' s life and
ministry begin to fall apart. His sin has ruined his marriage and his
pastorate. In this particular scene, Sonny is upstairs in his bedroom,
praying out loud to the Lord. Like the psalmist, he cries out to God
and questions Him. In his prayer, he asks to understand God's will, but
if Sonny can't understand (or agree) with God's will, he asks for God's
peace, so that he might accept it. A wonderful clip for honest prayer
and the yearning for internal peace. (the Rev.
Steven B. Borst, Irvine, CA)
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| Prayer
| Euliss "Sonny" Dewey prays with a
severely injured young man at the scene of an automobile crash. (David K. Miller) |
| After leaving his wife upon learning of her infidelity, Euliss
"Sonny" Dewey prays while pacing in his mother's attic. (David K. Miller) |
| Running from the consequences of hitting his wife's lover with a
baseball bat, Euliss "Sonny" Dewey stops an
intersection, gets out of his car, kneels, and asks, "Which
way, Lord? Which way?" (submitted by David K. Miller) |
| On the run after hitting his wife's lover with a baseball bat,
Euliss "Sonny" Dewey spends time in a pup tent fasting
and praying for transformation and restoration. (David K. Miller) |
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| Repentance
| "Sonny doesn’t escape punishment. But he’s a man of
action. After killing the man, guys like us would probably wait around to be caught, but
Sonny takes action. He knows he’s done something wrong. It happened involuntarily,
and so he leaves. He kneels at the crossroads and prays, ‘Lord, lead me.’ He
abandons his car and goes off to do something to make himself better." (From "The Apostle: An Interview
with Robert Duvall," Bill Blizek and Ronald Burke, Journal of Religion and
Film, 1998.) |
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| Sacrifice
| "He’s working in the restaurant in Bayou Butte, Louisiana
and he sees his new woman-friend, Toosie (Miranda Richardson), whom he has dated a couple
of times. She’s together again with her family at the restaurant. That really hits
him. He suffers a broken heart. Humanly, he knows he has defeated himself. He has himself
sent her back to her husband, back to her family. But that "success" hurts him.
He has the pain of a man losing something, his relation to Toosie. It was something he had
thought might become beautiful. But he knows it’s right that she’s back with her
husband and her children." (From "The
Apostle: An Interview with Robert Duvall," Bill Blizek and Ronald Burke, Journal
of Religion and Film, 1998.) |
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| Transformation
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E.F. recreates himself after he murders the youth leader |
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Index of Movie Themes
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