the religion addict
by Douglas Messerli
Howard
Smith and Sarah Kernochan (directors) Marjoe
/ 1972
There are at
least two ways of perceiving Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan’s 1972
documentary on the evangelist, faith-healer Marjoe Gortner: to see it as the
story of a con-man revealing his tricks and, in the process, trying to con his
new movie audience into believing him to be a good actor; or to see it as a sad
documentary of an abused child who grew up to regret his continuance of the
only career for which he had been trained. In fact, the human being, Marjoe
(much like his “combined” name, based on Mary and Joseph) encompasses both of
these stories, which is what makes him so interesting to watch.
If Gortner is a con-man, ripping off some
of the poorest of Americans—which, self-admittedly he was, at one point
estimating that he had earned nearly 3 million dollars, much of which his
father later absconded with, leaving him and his mother in the lurch—he also
worked incredibly hard and gave his audiences a great show. As a child, he was
tortured by his mother, smothered in pillows and half-drowned if in rehearsals
he forget his lines. None of the money he earned during those years, he
insists, went to his pockets (although that is obviously to ignore his clothing,
meals, and boarding). And, it is hard to know, given the fact the documentary
shows only a few momentary clips of his childhood Pentecostal gatherings, if he
was a truly effective child performer. But there is no question that the thin,
strutting, dancing, singing, shouting, and praying 27-year old we observe in
the four gatherings shown in this movie gives the crowd a lot for the 20 and 10
dollars he asks of them. Along with the choruses, the dancing of attending
children and even some parishioners, as well as the antiphonal Sprechstimme of the other pastors, the
Pentecostal audiences are awarded a grand participatory theater experience that
few Broadway musicals could ever match. And then, there’s always the chance,
that the church-goers might get the opportunity to fall into a trance, speak in
tongues, and roll upon the ground in rapture!
Nonetheless Gortner feels guilty, and
takes the opportunity of joining up with a film crew to reveal both the
hypocrisy of his acts and his manipulation of the believers. In these scenes—
wherein Gortner gives up his secrets of how he has based some of his dancing
movements on the performances of Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones and how to
beg for every last penny the faithful have in their purses and pockets, and
provokes others to admit (forgetting perhaps that they are on camera) how they
use the media to successfully line their pockets with enough money buy
Cadillacs, expensive jewelry, and even virgin land in Brazil—the likeable and
charismatic Marjoe suddenly is transformed into a cynical, girl-chasing,
hippie, dope-head who leaves us cold.
In other words, it’s only when he pretending that we can really like the man;
as a real everyday figure Gortner is a bore.
Wisely, the film-makers give us only a few
moments of the hipster rolling about on waterbed and speaking empty stone-out
babble with late-night friends, and mostly concentrate their cameras on his
spiritual performances. Smith and Kernochan, moreover, we blessed with the
unexpected appearance of Gortner’s formerly-preaching father at the final
event, where we see the usually unperturbed Marjoe sitting in near agony over
another face-off with the grandest thief he could have even known—the father
that stole not only his money, but his youth, his love, and, one might argue,
left him as the hollow man he has become.
Despite a great deal of attention this film
received upon its premiere in New York and Los Angeles, which included winning
an Academy Award for the best documentary, the film was not shown throughout
most of the rest of the country, and, with the death of its disinterested
distributor, Donald Rugoff, was almost lost. Sarah Kernochan—apparently the
more involved of the two directors—had only one deteriorated and unusable copy
of the film. It was only in 2002, quite by accident, that, while meeting at the
building in Marjoe was first
processed, someone mentioned to her that they were cleaning out their archives,
where she found a negative, trailer, outtakes and other materials which allowed
the film to be brought into a DVD. And only recently has the film been
recognized for its quality.
Marjoe Gortner went on to act in 15 later
films, but none of them were of significance; his abilities as an actor, it
became clear, were minimal. And in retrospect, we realize, that the charismatic
boy and young evangelical adult was not acting as much as miming the role of a
preacher man. Gortner, apparently, could perform no other role with such
vivacity. Is it any wonder, as he himself admitted, that, despite is inability
to believe, he had become “a religion addict.” As one woman quietly asked him
on his last tour: “Have you ever thought that maybe Jesus really is working
through you?” Marjoe’s seeming inability to think things out, ultimately, is what
leaves a somewhat bitter taste in this viewer’s mouth.
Los Angeles,
September 17, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment