Customer Reviews

Marjoe [VHS]

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I have waited and waited and waited and waited for this release on DVD. Marjoe won the Oscar in 1972 for best documentary and rightfully so. He went out on a limb, admitting he was a fraud and an entertainer, and brought a film crew to capture it all. I love this film, the way he shows traveling evangelists are mainly cons who make off with a lot of money from people who don't have any to begin with. The segment with the preacher woman who breathes into her mic is crippling--telling her congregation she knows they have bills to pay and have set aside money for a winter coat but the church needs that money more. Ugh... It's incredible to watch him perform and preach the word at these revivals--he's very much a rock star--and even though he's taking this money, it's easy to sympathize with him. He was thrust into preaching at the age of four by parents who exploited and abused him to make money for the family--and ultimately, the film itself is his confession and he's genuinely sorry. I needed this movie when I saw it ten years ago. May it find more viewers who are in a bad way. Marjoe is the court jester of evangelists, and I thank him for doing this film and tarnishing his name on the Pentecostal circuit by doing so. He's helped some of us decades after he took that leap.

I concur with all the other enthusiastic reviews of this documentary. What you need to know is that this film has been restored, literally transformed compared to the old VHS version of this. The colors are bright, the picture clear, the sound is crisp. What I like most about this movie is the way it messes with your mind, delightfully. Or as others have noted, the truth sure is strange, and you've got an all access pass to this here travelin' show.

...and, over the course of 90 minutes, Brother Marjoe and his intrepid crew out the bizarre and wild world of Pentacostal hucksterism. What a weird circle of exploitation...no wonder he decided to come clean. Just try not to look as the toothless man screams in tongues during a sermon! Regal at the close-ups of the gaudy (and no doubt pricey) necklace worn by Reverend Taylor as she preaches that her ministry doesn't spend the congregants money on "foolishness"! Why, it's like rubbernecking at a car wreck and watching a gang of battered old drunks waiting for the state store to open rolled into one! Heck, this is almost as good as the psuedo-documentary of Idi Amin, and nearly as sad. It's hard not to feel pity for the way these rubes are being duped, and from the looks of it they're pretty oblivious. One minister candidly talks about his upcoming trip to Brazil. He owns land there, which he tells Marjoe a food processor is interested in. Bought and paid for with your generous donations, praise Jesus! Marjoe helpfully describes some of his carny tricks, like drawing red crosses with sweat activated ink, and the radio/televangelist method of turning "prophecies" into maximum financial return. He evens throws a smoke bomb (shown in a short clip near the end)! Yeah, Marjoe may have been a pretty dispicable con man too, but at least he did his best to expose this nonsense when his conscience got to him. If my parents pimped me to church folks for a living from the age of four, I'd doubtless do the same, and probably with a ton of venom that Marjoe never displays (at least for the cameras). Highly recommended viewing...invite your prayer group over for popcorn and Dr. Pepper!

The tent circuit was rapidly heading for extinction by the time this documentary was made, so in addition to being one huckster's self-exposure of his skullduggery, it is also an examination of a subculture which would soon cease to exist (or at the very least be transformed into something wholy unrecognizable from its forebears).

Interestingly, even though the movie depicts the tent revival as being primarily a Southern phenomenon, the revivals shown in the movie took place (if I am recalling correctly) in California & Fort Worth Texas.

Certainly the notion of saving souls for fun & profit is nothing new, but Marjoe Gortner's candor about exactly what he is doing, including the process of exposing himself as a fraud, is a tad unsettling. Both the subject & the filmmaker know that Marjoe's reasons are far from altruistic, and each is using the other for his own purposes. The result is, at times, a rather surreal experience. Marjoe is revealing himself, but in many ways he isn't. We can never really be sure in what he believes, if anything. I suspect it wasn't so much conscience as it was a practical business decision (the tent circuit had been slowly waning since the end of WWII, when the formerly-rural American population once and for all became urbanized)) as he recognized that there were more lucrative media in which he could utilize his talents. Given his upbringing, not as a child but as a gimmick to be exploited, it would be amazing if he has a conscience at all.

Did it make a difference? Apparently not much of one, since Benny Hinn appears to be quite comfortably well-off. People will believe what makes them feel most comfortable. It wouldn't surprise me if some people believed that Marjoe made these outrageous claims of being a fraud only because Beelzebub somehow tricked him into it. For all I know, they may be praying for Marjoe's return to the fold, even today.

Great documentary about Marjoe Gortner, who was the youngest ordained minister at age 4 later became a actor in movies like "Earthquake" with Charlton Heston "The Marcus Nelson Murders" with Telly Savalas and "Food Of The Gods" with Ida Lupino. In this documentary, we see Gortner in action in 1971 at tent revivals in the south counting money that he hussled from worshipers, he later quit the ministry out of guilt. Nice to hear this documentary will be fully digitally restored for dvd release.

Having first heard of "Marjoe" in "God is not Great", the new Christopher Hitchens book, I was compelled to have a look. "Marjoe" is as deserving of the Oscar it received as any documentary I've ever seen. Marjoe, the boy, was raised to deliver and deliver he did. The early movies of his sermonizing are terrific and shocking. That he could actually perform weddings (also shown) is amazing.

To Marjoe's credit, he allowed us a peek behind the wizard's curtain while in his late twenties. Having had a second awakening of sorts as to the fraud he was perpetrating, he shared it with a film crew in behind-the-scenes admissions. No sooner does the viewer learn the tricks of the trade then we see Marjoe out performing his shtick. The faux southern accent and perfect timing work like a charm as he seduces his audience minute by minute. Of course, there's always the appeal for money, which Marjoe gleefully counts out later, once with a colleague and once in his motel room. One of the best scenes is captured as he has dinner with a Texas family who supports him. He mentions other "phony" ministers and the adoring family concurs. All the while, Marjoe lets on not a peep about himself.

This film draws on so many emotions it's hard to know where to draw the line. Toward the end of the film, Marjoe, himself, weighs in on his own morality. Is he bad or evil? In the end he declares himself to be simply "bad", thus delivering himself from any harsher judgment. "Marjoe", the film, is particularly timely today. Ever wonder if Pat Robertson is missing something?

This film is a documentary done in the early 1970s by a man named Marjoe Gortner, who was raised by televangelist parents in the 1940s and 50s. The couple trained their son to follow in their footsteps, and by age four he was preaching and performing wedding ceremonies.

Unfortunately, the Gortners were more interested in making money than saving souls, and Marjoe learned their tricks of crowd manipulation and fund raising. He eventually left the "ministry," but not before hiring a film crew to follow him around on his last tour, during which he revealed to them the methods he used. He also gave a shocking expose of just how far some so-called ministers will go to part people from their money.

The result is this film. Marjoe is a very likable guy and you will enjoy watching him as he leads you on a tour of American sideshow religion, where entertainment passes for ministry and preachers laugh together as they split the profits from the evening service. The movie, which was made in 1971, also features the funky clothing and hair styles from that period.

You may also cry a little, or just get mad as hell, when you see just how vicious and greedy religious con artists can be. Marjoe shows it all: the fakery, the brutality, and the sheer gall exhibited by these hucksters in clerical garb. The result is a movie that is tragic, comic, and highly informative, but never boring. Very highly recommended.

I very much wish this were more widely available. It's a documentary--an amazingly honest look inside the world of the traveling evangelist--telling the true story of one of America's premiere child evangelists. Conservative Christians may see it as an attack on their faith; sneering liberals may see it as a searing expose of the phoniness of conservative religion. It is neither. Much like "The Apostle," it's an honest look at a world outside mainstream American culture--except this one is not done with actors. Those who are willing to get acquainted, with an open mind, with this particular kind of religion, will find it an astonishingly powerful story, and well worth viewing.

I love this type of documentary.

It is so much better to observe than to be told, and here the only commentary is Marjoe himself. There is no agenda, apart from documenting Marjoes process and his thoughts and feelings. Unlike a lot of today's documentary's such as Michael Moores, it does not include the opinion of the film-makers but rather allows the viewers to make up their own minds.

The movie begins with a brief history of Marjoes abused background as a gimmick invented by his parents to take advantage of Christians by teaching him to be the worlds youngest travelling evangelists. It appears that they never believed and nor did he ever believe what he preached. By the time he was a teenager, he was bitter twisted and estranged from his mum and dad. He ended up a hippie, who occasionally preached to assist his financial problems.

Marjoe isn't so much about God or even about Christianity, but rather it is about coming clean and revealing truth. It also shows the sad results of greed and child abuse.

I felt sorry for Marjoe as he searched for the identity he never really had.

I recommend this film for people who are interested in religion, particular Christians who want an honest example of how the world often sees them.

I am yet to review Thoth.

The movie is a great expose of how some prey on religious people. Ordained as a minister when he was four, Marjoe reveals how he was trained to manipulate crowds and create 'religious' highs.

The movie does not deny God, saintly people, or religious experience. What it does do is show us that we should be careful about accepting what others say simply because they seem religious or holy or miracle-workers. Check things out for ourselves and maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. As Christians, we are supposed to have faith but blind faith is another matter - it simply leaves us open to cons - let buyers beware.

I wish it were more readily available so we could use it with our youth.