Marjoe

In 1948 Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner of Long Beach, California became an ordained preacher for the pentecostal church. He was four years old. A gifted preacher, Marjoe reached some fame and notoriety in the American South and earned his parents an estimated $3,000,000 before the novelty had worn off in his teen years. It was around this time that Marjoe became part of the Hippie movement and took stock of what had happened to him, his childhood and the money he never saw. At twenty and struggling to get by, Marjoe fell back on his greatest talent and again began to preach. He wasn't a true believer, but they believed in him. They flocked to see his Jagger swaggering sermons and paid well for the privilege.

This documentary joins Marjoe in 1971 when he is 23 years old. A crisis of conscience has led him to not only give up preaching for good, but also to show us the preaching racket as it really is. We follow Marjoe for one final tour with a documentary crew under the guise of promoting the church. The film introduces the real Marjoe through a series of interviews interspersed with footage of the sermons he holds. The contrast between the two sides of his character is quite startling and to have this captured on film is quite special, some might say it's a small ironically occurring miracle. The content here was so powerful that at the time it wasn't distributed in many of the southern states. That didn't stop it taking the 1972 Best Documentary Oscar and although it did fade into obscurity for a while, in 2002 the original negative print was found and recaptured for digital release.

Marjoe is a charismatic lead, talking us through his life story and giving us a window into this world. He has an implicit understanding of preaching techniques and the lucrative business behind the scenes. What is shown here feels like full disclosure, we see Marjoe briefing the crew on how to act when in church or that they should cut their hair to fit in. We see his home life and relationships, his real life outside the church and his on stage persona. I read that he was looking to become an actor (and did, sort of) and to leave this life behind him and game some publicity this film was made. Utterly unique and as relevant as ever. Even today it embarrasses the born again crowd better than Jesus Camp and that's saying something. Of course when it comes to the religious right nothing has changed, it's only gotten bigger.

Former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner lays it on the line, presumably, in this riveting true story of his life as a traveling Pentecostal preacher in the early 1970s, long before cable TV and the "electronic church". Gortner, a tall, charming, and charismatic guy talks to a documentary film crew of counterculture hippies about his techniques and tricks of the trade. "If you're going to get into big time religion, this is the game you gotta play ... you work it as a business ... The (preachers) who are successful ... they're just businessmen; they're like Madison Avenue PR men".

The camera follows Marjoe as he preaches in various settings, including an old fashioned big tent revival meeting. He shouts hallelujah a lot, prances back and forth in front of his prey, and spews out general gospel gibberish. And, of course, there's the inevitable request for ... "a love offering". At one meeting, he intones, earnestly: "Would you get out your checkbooks tonight; would some of you get out $5 or $10; bring what you would ... come on". After everyone has left, we see him sitting on his bed counting wads of cash.

The film's technical elements are fine, although there's a tendency to dwell too long in some settings. We get the idea; truly, we do.

To watch these swindlers is infuriating, in that their con is aimed at vulnerable people, those who are in varying conditions of physical and/or mental pain. Most of these victims are low-income, poorly educated folks who cannot afford to throw their money at flimflam artists. Accordingly, viewers must surely appreciate Marjoe's successful effort through this film to expose the motivations and manipulations of these "salesmen".

Of course, a performance is a performance whether it's aimed at true believers in some revival tent, or at an audience watching a film documentary. In "Marjoe", Marjoe puts on a good show. But is his message credible? I think events of the last 35 years have shown that, for the most part, the answer is yes ... his message is credible.

This is of the finest documentaries I've seen, and I've seen quite a few at festivals in recent years. Not only is Marjoe Gortner as intriguing as any of the great charismatics and eccentrics of documentary cinema, but the documentary technique is top notch. The cinematography in the church scenes is dynamic yet sharp and focused, and the editing keeps the momentum with a steady stream of insights and revelations, culminating in the more honest and confessional final act. It's a relatively long movie, and the goings-on inside the church take up a large proportion of the runtime, but they're shot so expertly, with brave intimacy and varying points of interest, that they never become unbearable. The music, while painfully dated, is totally authentic.

The strange interplay and connectivity between the mainstream youth counter-culture, exemplified by the film crew and Marjoe in his interviews, and the Pentecostal subculture provides most of the thematic interest. There's nothing novel about relating fervent religiosity to the kinds of drug use prevalent in the 70s, but Marjoe's embodiment of this cultural duality, and the ease with which he transitions from ecstatic evangelical to a paragon of counter-cultural values, suggests that these two polar inclinations in American culture are not as disparate as imagined. Marjoe would rather have been a money grabbing rock star like Alice Cooper, and might have been given a different upbringing, but this is as close as he can get. That he's manipulating the spiritual passions of his audience is a fact subordinate to the satisfaction of performing and connecting emotionally. And even as he spouts religious rhetoric that means nothing to him, and takes the money of those expecting miracles and salvation, is he not giving the people exactly what they want, performing the spontaneous and charismatic rites of Pentecostal Christianity in a manner that is skillful and respectful of the traditions and expectations of that faith?

I don't think I can find a single glaring flaw in the film, even as it approaches ethically questionable territory on account of its complicity in Marjoe's act and the necessity to mislead those who are being filmed or interviewed. Certainly, more interactivity with the Pentacostal churchgoers would have been welcome. One questions whether Marjoe is being completely honest in his interviews, but for someone for whom performance and chicanery are inseparable aspects of life, do the filmmakers really need to press the question? Even without a narrating voice, the point comes across with the utmost clarity.

This film actually won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1972 and profiles former child evangelist Marjoe Gortner as he re-enters the seedy world of preaching across the US for money. Gortner is very open that he is doing it for quick cash and exposes the tricks of the trade. The filmmakers make sure to hammer this point home by juxtaposing shots of dudes counting stacks of money with sermons. I would have preferred more on Marjoe the man as they barely scratch the surface. For instance, he speaks briefly about the relationship with his father (also a preacher) but the filmmakers never dig deeper. The sermons/preachings highlighted are overly drawn out as well, running 20 minutes at a time which makes them tend to get repetitive. The end has Gortner contemplating a move into acting, something he was able to do for the better part of the 70s and 80s.

Marjoe Gortner was a child preacher. He came from a family of evangelists, and was performing marriage ceremonies and traveling the country telling congregations to give up their money to Christ before he was old enough to shave. As a teenager, he gave up that life for a while, then returned to it as a young adult because he needed the money. This film profiles him in those latter days of his preaching career, as he recounts his troubled childhood and exposes the tricks of his trade to the documentary crew.

Marjoe cuts a fairly sympathetic character for somebody who made a living manipulating gullible people into thinking that Jesus could heal their cancer. His body language while addressing the flock is closely modeled after Mick Jagger's, and after this film was released, he became an actor and had a decent run on Hollywood's B-List. Nowadays, he produces celebrity charity events. So his story is not without hope, but there are times at which this film verges on dark comedy, as Marjoe sells people again and again on the patently un-Christian notion that they can simply buy their way into Heaven.

For the record, when a man asked Jesus what he must do to be saved, he said, "Sell all your possessions. Then come follow me." The evangelism industry is still alive and well in America, which makes this film as relevant as ever. I feel for Marjoe. I hope that some of his followers might have eventually realized that what you do outside of church matters more than what you do in church. Highly recommended.