Marjoe

Watching this documentary was painful; despite that fact that the audience wanted to be taken in, was only too willing to be credulous, it was no less painful watching them give away their intelligence and self-respect along with their money to believe the outrageous things that Marjoe does to demonstrate evangelistic hucksterism.

Marjoe's personal story is even more painful; his early childhood literally stolen from him by his cynical and cold-blooded parents, who used to smother him with a pillow or drown him under tap water until he agreed to do their bidding (they used this form of torture because it left no marks on him). He finally got away from them at age 17. His parents kept all of the money he made for them, by the way; it didn't go to charity or even to the church.

Marjoe courageously faces all of his demons, and recreates all the tricks he was taught as a child, to drive the all-too-willing audience into a frenzy of mindlessness as they throw their money at him in hopes of a personal miracle.

And what was the result of exposing the fraud? Nothing. Not one thing changed as the result of this fearless documentary. Evangalism continued to grow even bigger, its stars grew bigger, and when they were finally brought down by their own excesses, instantly replaced. The distributors didn't show it in the South because they were afraid of the outrage. Nice courage there, guys. They should have Especially shown it in the South. Maybe a few people's eyes would have been opened.

People want to believe so badly that there is a quick answer for them, that they will continue to throw money at fraud after fraud, despite being shown exactly how they are being bilked. So are the hucksters the only ones to blame?

Hmm... how do you do that "cross" trick again? Can I get an "Amen!"? How about your Visa number?

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.

Filmed before the televangelism phenomenon, this film, part biography, part expose, details the rise, fall, and self-exposure of Marjoe Gortner, a one-time child evangelist who became a church tent preacher. This film details the seamier side of what Gortner calls "the religion business", and even earned Gortner a number of death threats.

A rare find, if you can locate it, but a worthy viewing.

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.

I was fortunate to have a liberal minded college professor who showed this documentary in my freshman Religious studies course. Throughout, and after the viewing my classmates and I could not help but laugh at the TRULY strange character Marjoe is (the 70's garb helps). Some of us outright cracked up. Others were offended. He is so glib about bilking the masses. You find yourself sitting back at some point in the flick and saying, "See, I told you." Charisma is awesome and it is rarely seen as strong as Marjoe possesses it.