The Eyes of Tammy Faye

..and Tammy Faye through ours. Saw this tonight and it was so deliciously campy and downright funny ! TF is an accidental hoot most of the time as she takes herself so seriously and it is impossible for the audience to do so. I mean anyone who looks at the camera with 2 inches of industrial strength make-up on and says in all seriousness that she likes things real and natural is an unintentional standup comic. Did not like the gimmicky hand-puppets intro to each segment of the Jim and TF sorry saga. Liked how this gutsy, never say fail woman comes across, there's a naivete and sadness to her tackiness coupled with her real devotion to the lord. You just have to like her by movie's end.

In a year where its easier to form a ten worst list than a ten best list, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale landscape of formulaic, uninteresting, and generally BAD productions made by the Hollywood machine.

But, "Eyes" is more than simply the recent Biography of Tammy Faye on the big screen. No no no! "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" tells a solid story about a family's reversal of fortune, and one woman's really hard struggle through a life which is far from being complete. And the best (or worst, depending on who you are) part is, its a true story. There aren't any plots to "buy in to" or any storylines that make you go "huh?".

For the most part, the story is very first-person, although Drag Queen Ru Paul Charles helps us along in times when the story needs that next advance.

Its a documentary which reads more like a movie... and, as one IMDB reviewer has already said, you laugh, you cry, you NEED the waterproof mascara.

The filmmakers, whilst it appears at time are getting their kicks out of putting Tammy Faye on the big screen, are (for the most part) sincere in their telling of the tale. They treat Tammy Faye with dignity, but also acknowledge a certain "kitsch" there is to the whole PTL saga.

Whether you love her, hate her, or are totally uninterested in her, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" will bring you closer to Tammy Faye, and provide golden nuggets of insight in to who she really is as a person. In the end, you leave feeling ashamed... she's no different than anyone else, trying to carve out their mark in the world. And if you feel that, if you can immerse yourself in split-seconds of guilt throughout the film, the filmmakers have accomplished their goal. She is no longer an enigma... she is human. She is, Tammy Faye.

10/10

This "Eyes of Tammy Faye" bio-documentary (from 1999) actually turned out to be a whole lot better than I had initially thought it would be.

The one thing that impressed me the most about this presentation was that is producers/directors, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato did not shy away from clearly exposing all of the eye-opening "behind-the-scenes" fraudulence, corruption, and vicious back-stabbing that existed back then in the "holier-than-thou" realm of TV Evangelism.

Anyway - This documentary's star interviewee, Tammy Faye Messner died of cancer (in 2007) at the age of sixty-five.

I expected this movie to be either a sensational, supermarket-tabloid, scandal-spewing freak show; or a cruel, cynical put-down - like an extended Saturday Night Live skit with her as the guest host, an unwitting stooge playing herself for ridicule. It's neither.

I'm surprised and delighted to find that - far from being either sentimental or campy, or sensational, OR abusive - this movie treats Tammy Faye with the seriousness and respect she deserves. It approaches her as a person worth getting to know, and it proceeds to let us get to know her.

It's a fascinating movie about a fascinating, one-of-a-kind human being. Underneath the (tattooed-on) makeup and behind the notoriety, she was - all along - a sweet, gentle, loving, extravagantly generous woman, eager to share God's love and (even more important) her OWN love with the whole wide messed-up world.

She embraced gays - with AIDS – when AIDS was still new and terrifying, when all her "Christian" peers were preaching that we deserved what we got. She was never afraid of looking like a fool or of confronting her own and other people's flaws; and she never wallowed in resentment or self-pity - after her whole world imploded she got up and she got out and she DID.

I thank the producers of this movie for showing her exactly as she was. The Christians who despise gays are no more hypocritical and evil than the secular people who despise Tammy Faye because she's different.

She fits no stereotype, any more than I fit any stereotype of what a gay man should be. Even at the height of her success she was an outsider at heart, a misfit, an oddball. Just like me. But unlike me she was an open-hearted, inclusive, insanely compassionate and loving person. I admire her greatly, and I love her a lot.

The recent and untimely death of Tammy Faye was both unfortunate and sad. Whatever faults and foibles she may have had, she was an inspiration to millions of down-home folks, a person who seemed genuinely loving, someone who wanted to reach out and hug everyone she met. There are very few religious fundamentalist leaders whom I would describe in those favorable terms.

"The Eyes Of Tammy Faye", a documentary about the little lady with the big eyelashes, the running mascara, and the child like voice, likewise presents a woman who was sincere, surprisingly intelligent, energetic, persevering, and of course ... emotional. It's a worthwhile film to watch.

In the film she describes herself as "a small town girl, at heart", ironic, given the opulent lifestyle she led with former hubby Jim Bakker, during the heyday of their electronic church empire in the 1980s. Much of the film covers her view of that era; and she has words that are none too flattering about the oily Jerry Falwell, a view that is almost certainly justified.

One of the traits about Tammy Faye that I liked was her genuine compassion for unpopular people and causes, especially gays. In the film she makes it clear that she does not morally judge others. "I don't label people ... We're all just people, made out of the same old dirt; and God didn't make any junk". How many other fundamentalist leaders have that kind of heart and soul?

Through all the heartache and suffering in her life, she maintained a good outlook. "You cannot go forward looking in the rearview mirror of your life; just drop it all, and move on; it's the only way in life that you'll ever find peace, joy, and victory". Wise words indeed.

She was a one-of-a kind person, someone unique in popular culture. She will be remembered for that reason. Yet, underneath all the gobs of makeup, and quite aside from her flair for showmanship, she was a person of humanity, love, and compassion, and as such, a credit to the human race.