August 03, 1999

A Look at... The Apostle - THE COMMENTARY

By Joseph Planta

The 70th Annual Academy Awards held in March of 1998, will forever be known as the James Cameron show. It was the ceremony where Cameron’s epic Titanic swept the Oscars. In the Best Actor category, Leo went unnominated and so became one of the few categories where Titanic would have no nominees. The category also received a certain deal of attention, because the average age of the nominees was 50+. A 27 year old Matt Damon was nominated for Best Actor in a race that pitted 4 other actors who’ve been nominated for Oscars in the past and were over the age of 55, 3 of them winning 5 Oscars between them in this very category. Damon nominated for his brilliant performance in Good Will Hunting, faced Peter Fonda who was nominated for his comeback role of sorts in Ulee’s Gold, Jack Nicholson, who won for his funny, but undeserving role in As Good As It Gets, and Dustin Hoffman for his chillingly good turn as a movie producer in Wag The Dog. The fifth nominee was perhaps the most deserving to win, Robert Duvall. Duvall not only starred, but wrote, directed and produced one of the most powerful films of the decade, The Apostle. In The Apostle, Duvall gives the greatest performance of his career and arguably one of the greatest performances in recent film history.

Duvall plays Sonny a minister in one of the South’s bible belt churches. After his wife, played by a remarkably bearable Farrah Fawcett, falls in love with Sonny’s junior minister, Sonny loses his ministry and in turn does physical harm to his wife’s lover. He then sets off on a journey, leaving his unfaithful wife, kids and mother, to try to redeem, change and begin a new life for himself. He christens himself the apostle E.F. and realizes his need for the pulpit. He meanders his way to Louisiana and sets up a new ministry that galvanizes the town and its people. One scene that is most poignant is where a racist bigot, played with great ability by Billy Bob Thornton, comes to a church picnic with bulldozer in tow wanting to knock the church down, because E.F. preaches to both whites and blacks. We see in this most revealing scene the power of an upper power, if there is such a thing, and the power of E.F.’s persuasion.

This film is beyond good. It transcends the border of who we are and who these characters are. It examines vividly our needs, our desires, redemption and obsession. It is thought-provoking, chilling and moving. It doesn’t fail to move, and regardless of one’s religion it explores our need for a belief in a higher power. It gives the viewer a vivid look at who we are and what we would like to be. Robert Duvall should have won the Oscar a year ago, and why he didn’t is beyond me. Rent The Apostle.

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