1. This scene moves the viewer through a rather remarkable series of emotions. Watch the scene closely and consider what happens with Sonny and the unnamed antagonist. What do we learn about each character here? How is this scene important?
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Pick one of the following for consideration:
2. Sonny gets the bulk of the attention in this film (perhaps he wouldn’t have it any other way). But some of the characters who surround him offer more than mere narrative props. Several folk in Bayou Boutte are especially interesting: Brother Blackwell, Sammy and Elmo (radio host and revival play-by-play reporter). What role do these men serve? How do they influence the viewers’ understanding of The Apostle E.F.?
3. Here's the bigger question -- what does faith look like in this film as compared with the preceding handful of films? Does Duvall's depiction jibe, challenge, or contradict what we've seen thus far?
Question 3:
ReplyDeleteI thought the religious faith came barreling at the audience in this movie. I can't think of a single scene where Jesus was not being talked about or praised. This is very different from the other movies we have watched because of its strength. In the other movies we watched, the idea of religious faith was either more subtle, or less intense. Even in Millions, Damian's faith is his own, and the director manages to make Damian's religious faith into a slightly comedic aspect. There was nothing comedic about The Apostle. All the faith in this movie was centered around Jesus. Everyone felt Jesus in them, and praised him, and followed his guidance. The only problem I had with this was the lack of background. There was never discussion of WHY they could feel Jesus, or could trust him. All Sonny ever did was yell and sing about praising Jesus, but that seemed to work for everyone. This is different than what we have been watching, because the other instances of religious faith we have seen have all had much more background behind them. I also thought the depiction of Sonny, a "faithful" person was very contradictory. The stereotypical "man of god" is usually even tempered, wise, and respectable looking. Sonny, though, was actually a very angry, violent person. He seemed to use people, and he dressed like a mob boss. My first impression of him was that he was a very slimy man.
When The Apostle E.F. comes to the town of Bayou Boutte, the members of the community seem to instantly trust him. However, the most trusting member of the community seems to be Sam. Sam appears to take The Apostle E.F. in after just a short moment of knowledge of how to fix a car. Sam follows the The Apostle E.F. blindly when he reveals his intentions of starting a church, and we don't really see Sam as a religious person before he meets The Apostle E.F. Sam has to have a lot of faith in humanity to automatically trust this "Praise Jesus"-spewing crazy man that shows up out of nowhere. Throughout the movie, we see Sam help as the One Way Road to Heaven begins to grow, first helping repair the church then helping hand out food to people who need it on Thanksgiving. We really see how much Sam cares for The Apostle E.F. when the police arrive to take The Apostle E.F. away from his church to jail for murdering someone. Sam begins to tear up the second the police arrive and really starts crying when The Apostle E.F. is being handcuffed. Regardless of the fact that clearly The Apostle E.F. did something wrong to have the police arrest him, Sam still weeps for the loss of his friend and his faith in something. Sam is one the main characters that display that Sonny is a good person at the end of the day despite his many flaws.
ReplyDeleteThe faith that we have seen in past movies isn’t cut and dry religious faith; however, the faith in “The Apostle” can come across as cut and dry. The Apostle E.F. is a Pentecostal preacher who teaches the word of God, and “Holy Ghost Power”, he makes his message heard and considers it to be dominant factor in his life. His faith isn’t something that you have to sit and think about, his faith lies in his people and the Lord. Although his faith seems to be strong, his religious beliefs don’t always line up to what the Bible said, the last time I checked, Jesus didn’t condone hitting someone in the head with a baseball bat. His violent actions towards others make it hard to accept him as a true Christian, and someone you would want preaching to your community. Throughout the whole movie, I had a very uneasy feeling about E.F.; to me he seemed to genuine, almost as if he had kept a lie going for so long, even he believed it. E.F. is so charismatic that he could probably charm anyone he met, in fact he does. Everything he does is done to the extreme: hitting his wife’s lover in the head, running from the police, changing his name, the way he treats women, and even considering opening up an orphanage. It may be that his faith has been so extreme for so long, he can’t accept anything but what he believes is the answer. In some ways E.F.’s faith challenges other’s that we’ve seen, but in others it just continues the message. The movies that we’ve seen all express faith in different ways, but that just goes to show that faith isn’t something that can be defined in one sentence or can be set to a standard that all people can agree on.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 3:
ReplyDeleteIn The Apostle, faith takes an almost sinister turn. For much of the film, the audience sees the blind faith that so well characterizes the flock of fire and brimstone preachers. The churchgoers show their faith in God by violently shaking and yelling his praise. So far, I don't think we have seen any faith so overt. I think it is easy for us to characterize the antics of E.F and his followers as blind or misguided. But to some extent, they are. E.F. is able to coerce his followers into doing much of what he wants though use of preaching and the bible. He gets them to build a new church and many take his words to heart and enact them fully in their lives. At the same time, however, E.F's messages are about love and the acceptance of Jesus into the lives of his followers. While E.F. might be a crooked, contradictory man, the religiously-infused messages of acceptance and and love resonate with his church members. He asks the arguing ladies on the bus to stop and reconcile in the name of Jesus and he is able to stop the hatred and destruction of Billy Bob Thornton's character though religion, even if it is though fear. Once again, the belief systems of the characters in The Apostle are not clean and cut out. There are many sides to the one story of E.F. and many different sides to his arguments and sermons. In that respect, these two conflicting ideas of riotousness and morality present in E.F. make faith in The Apostle that needs to be carefully considered and thought out.
As Bailey said, faith in The Apostle was thrown at you at almost every scene you came upon. It was all centered around Jesus, praising Jesus, saying Jesus' name and anything pertaining to Jesus. This is very different from other films, like how Bailey said in Millions there was a comedic aspect to Damien's faith and how in The Son there is no mention of Jesus. But in The Apostle, faith and Jesus are taken as extremely serious matters. Also, we never were able to see a true time where they explain why they praised Jesus as much as they did and what he did for them. Also, it was very odd that the greatest man of faith in the movie, Sonny, was the most contradictory man ever. He does something that is hinted to be infidelity to his wife, he beats (and subsequently kills) Horace, and he runs away from his problems. Sonny is the one person who praises Jesus the most and seems to be the most devoted believer, but he is the biggest sinner of them all. He didn't seem genuine at all because he said one thing dealing with Jesus and being holy and such, yet his actions didn't match with what he was saying. The faith in this movie was pushed on the viewers very strongly, but in the end you didn't get to see much come out of the faith from the film.
ReplyDeleteSonny takes on his faith actively, while the characters of the other movies were more passive or hesitant in their convictions. The preceding movies, including Lars and the Real Girl, The Son, and Gran Torino, dealt with gaining faith in other people. Though Sonny does gain the friendship and trust of a community, his manipulative personality and hard-to-interpret emotions and motives prevent the movie’s emphasis from falling on Sonny’s social or moral growth. The driver behind Sonny’s faith is not profound hubris or compassion, but instead his tenacious personality. Sonny is a man who makes things happen and uses his belief as a driver. He betrays Christian values when he clouts the man who cuckolds him; in the beginning of the movie, we find that Sonny uses Christianity as a source of personal and social power rather than as a lifestyle. That’s not to say he doesn’t struggle with faith and life decisions. He gets into impassioned conversations with God. However, his confrontational style shows that his struggle with faith differs greatly from the struggles of the protagonists in Millions, Lars and the Real Girl, and The Son. Instead of doubting God, Sonny believes in and challenges God. His faith proves very strong, but is not the sensitive, emotional faith that has been exhibited thus far in other movies.
ReplyDeleteSonny has always had a history of problems with anger and violence. Fighting his anger problem, Sonny approaches the Antagonist differently the second time they meet. Violence, although is his first reaction, is not the answer with antagonist because he comes back stronger after the two fight. The second time, Sonny attempts to approach him differently by reaching out through religion and the power of the church. The Antagonist, although appearing to be strong, breaks down and the problem disappears, showing that he too is human. Both men put aside their violence and embrace one another. Sonny opens himself and his God up to instead of pushing the Antagonist out, he lets him in.
ReplyDeleteSonny is the kind of person who you could place in just about any town and get a similar story. The difference in this town is that he did not let this violent tendencies consistently overcome him. He actually was able to overcome his initial response to seeing the Antagonist with the bulldozer.
This scene in the movie is very interesting, because a man we know to be an antagonist who E.F. got into a physical fight with the night earlier, is sort of converted to the "good side". I use quotation marks because it's not necessarily a good side, it's just one that doesn't involve tearing down the church of the protagonist. I mention this because it's also not the side with less violence where you turn the other cheek and stuff because E.F killed a man weeks before. So despite this conversion, I don't completely agree with E.F.'s morals. Which was a lot of the whole point of this movie. Anyways, what we seem to learn about the characters in this scene is that the unnamed man really isn't that bad of a guy. Yeah, ok, he's clearly quite racist but, he believes in god and is not willing to ever cross him. There seems to be something spiritual and almost creepy about how the people in the town are really religious. And the apostle furthers that by promoting and talking to everyone about it. Therefore I think this is simply another example of the apostle doing that work. And that is also how the scene is important.
ReplyDeleteQuestion One:
ReplyDeleteThis scene is very real and confusing. As Catherine pointed out, these types of scenes, with conflict and confusion, show us that Sonny is a human despite how often he seems false. He also seems like a better preacher in this scene than when he is performing for his congregants. When the antagonist kneels down, Sonny offers to pray with him and then repeatedly to cry with him. This simple statement of love and a connection to the Lord speaks more of Sonny’s faith than his yelling and dancing. The antagonist is also revealed to have more depth. He admits that he did not intend to knock down the church, and leads the viewer to realize that he came to join the community, but did not know how to go about it. Sonny’s grace in accepting him is admirable in both a religious and a human way, since he was able to understand the antagonist’s insecurities and see past them to accept him. The scene depicts a level of maturity and depth that makes it absolutely impossible to pigeonhole Sonny. Through the movie, he seems fake and ridiculous, and after his sins it is easy to assume that his religious fervor is no more than a need for attention. However, in this quiet way he helps a man who has probably never been helped, and turns hate to love. This scene validates Sonny’s lifestyle and makes him seem legitimate and layered.
Question 1
ReplyDeleteIt felt as if Billy Bob Thorton’s character really just wanted acceptance the entire time, and when he wasn’t accepted, he tried to destroy the place that made him feel that way. He says he feel embarrassed, which means he does care about what they think of him, so on that level he wants them to accept him. In a lot of ways, what the antagonist goes through is the same as what Sonny went through when he entered the community. He was embarrassed about what he had done, and the church was there to take him in. Sonny tells him, “If you reach out I think Sonny empathizes with him because Sonny sees himself in that man. Sonny even tells him twice, “I was a worse sinner than you were.” The scene also capitalizes on the strength of the church community as shown throughout the movie. Many times Sonny calls on the congregation to say Amen when talking the man. When they all collectively say, “Nobody move that book,” Billy Bob Thorton cannot will himself to move it. Immediately after he bends down, and at first I thought he was reaching for the book, but now I feel he was collapsing and praying.
estion 3:
ReplyDeleteLike Bailey and Chris said, I also think that this film was very strong in it’s portrayal of faith. Unlike the other films where the characters’ faith was less pronounced, in the Apostle pretty much ¾ of the movie was just Sonny preaching and shouting Jesus. In this film, the characters faith is purely religious, unlike the other films that we have watched such as The Gran Torino or Lars and the Real Girl. Even in Millions, though Damian did have faith in God and Heaven, he was not nearly as vocal about his faith as Sonny was. I felt like this film just made faith seem more in your face than the other films did. I don’t necessarily think that Duvall’s depiction of faith contradicted anything that we’ve seen so far, but I do think that this film shows a more literal sense to the word “Faith”. When I hear the word “faith”, the first thing I think about is faith in god or religion, which are exactly what Apostle shows. I also agree with Bailey in the fact that everyone’s faith in Jesus was never explained as to why they believed and trusted him so much.
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ReplyDelete3. Faith is, according to Duvall, complicated. Sonny exemplifies this challenging, constantly changing view of belief. At the beginning of the film, he is a showy preacher of a large congregation, who seems to focus on appearances. By the end, E.F. comes to truly love and care for the small church he creates in Bayou Boutte. Yet, despite these very separate images, we see glimpses of gray area in each case: at the very start of the movie, Sonny goes to the scene of the wreck and shares Christ with the boy who just crashed. Near the conclusion, E.F. severely beats a man who challenges him. Faith belongs to humans and, as a result, can never be perfect, just as mortals cannot be perfect. Always, there will be doubt, fear, or disobedience that conflict with God’s will. Still, it seems that Duvall is suggesting that, if we truly listen, God will lead us to places we cannot even imagine by increasing our fate so that we can overcome the obstacles that fear, doubt, and disobedience put in the way of God’s path for us. E.F. is not Christ. He is a sinner yet, in the end, he has true faith because he gives up everything he has built, and leaves it in God’s hands. According to Duvall, faith is complicated, but mostly because we, as humans, choose to complicate what could be very simple: to follow the path that God sets out before us. As Sonny shows, it may not be easy, but it will put you on a One Way Road to Heaven.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1:
ReplyDeleteDuring the scene where Sonny converts Billy Bob Thornton to his church there are several parallels between the two characters. Billy Bob Thornton begins as an aggressive antagonist who is set on destruction. However, after Sonny's intervention, we see that the angry spiteful man actually has a greater level of meaning. This is nearly identical to Sonny. In the start of the movie it appears that Sonny is a near con artist-esque character who not only shatters the window of his ex wife, but kills her current husband and nearly assaults her as well. Throughout the rest of Sonny's journeys we see more of the man behind. It is bizarre to see the story through the eyes of a character like Sonny, as he is generally the antagonist of a story. However, where Sonny was once rejected by his community, he ensures that Billy Bob Thornton is accepted, despite his past actions of violence and malice.
Question 1
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Keenan^. Sonny and Billy Bob Thorton's characters are so similar. Through both of them we see men who are angry and trying to escape something that is harming them mentally. As Sonny talks him down and intervenes, he is slowly making Thorton's characters realize that this church is a place where you can be forgiven of your sins and seen as a completely fresh being. Just like Thorton, Sonny was running away from a lot. The biggest thing he was running away from was his mental state, his anger. Sure, Sonny is still not the greatest moral influence in this movie. However, we can definitely see how he is a prime example of what the church can offer and how being faithful can completely change a man. Although that change is something that happens rather quickly and just because the 2 men decided to attend the church, it still counts for something.