Marjoe

This is good for so many reasons. First off it's just a well done and to the point documentary, but the main reason it is good is because it exposes the truth about these faith healers out there in the world.Some would say that its true that this film shows that marjoe was a fake but that doesn't go for all the faith healers out there. Here is why i believe it outs all the faith healers as fakes. Marjoe was able to do all the big things they do.He could Touch people and have them fall over and not only that but he had people shaking on the floor and speaking in tongues. Marjoe explains how to do all this. Its no different than a magic trick. Marjoe just proved that its easy to take advantage of desperate and ignorant people.

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.

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.

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.

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.