- Marjoe
-
Marjoe 
DVD coverDirected by Howard Smith
Sarah KernochanProduced by Howard Smith
Sarah KernochanEditing by Lawrence Silk Release date(s) July 24, 1972 Running time 88 minutes Country United States Language English Marjoe is a 1972 American documentary film produced and directed by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan about the life of evangelist Marjoe Gortner. It won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Contents
Story
Marjoe was a precocious child preacher with extraordinary talents, who was immensely popular in the American South. His parents earned large sums of money off him up until the point he outgrew his novelty. Marjoe rejoined the ministry as a young adult solely as a means of earning a living, and not as a believer; he spent the next several years using his fame and status as an evangelist to defraud a small fortune out of individuals both through tent revivals and televangelism.
Eventually, Gortner suffered a crisis of conscience and decided to renounce his ways, offering the documentary film crew unrestricted access to him during his final revival tour. The film contains scenes from genuine revival meetings showing Gortner preaching and praying for people, interspersed with footage of Gortner admitting on camera that he was a non-believer and revealing the tactics used by himself and other evangelists to manipulate people.[1]
Release
At the time of the film's release he generated considerable press, but the movie was not shown widely in theaters in the Southern United States, based on the fears of the distributor over the outrage it would cause in the Bible Belt.[2][3]
Soundtrack
A soundtrack was released by Warner Bros. Records, consisting of sermons and spoken word segments by Marjoe (from age 4), intermixed with songs. "Save All My Brothers", the film's theme song, was written by Sarah Kernochan and Joseph Brooks (who also arranged), and sung by Jerry Keller.[4]
Rediscovery and re-release
Although released on VHS, the film had long been out of print and had deteriorated. In 2002 the negative and other elements were found in a vault in New York City.[5] Once the rights were secured, the film was restored with funds provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
On November 15, 2005, in New York City, the IFC Center showed Marjoe as the closing film in a series of documentaries called "Stranger Than Fiction". In their program they called it "a lost gem."[1]
The restored film has since been released on DVD.
Awards
The film won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "NY Times: Marjoe". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/31480/Marjoe/details. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
- ^ 'Folks in the Bible Belt, however, never got to see the film. The distributor was too afraid of the furor it would cause, so he refused to open it in any city south of Des Moines.'
- ^ 'Though Marjoe (the documentary) won an Academy Award, its release was limited. The distributor didn't wish to start a backlash in the deep south Bible Belt.'
- ^ Marjoe: Original Soundtrack, Howard Smith and Sarah Kemochan, producers. Warner BS 2667 (1072)
- ^ "Documentaries". Sarah Kernochan. http://www.sarahkernochan.com/documentaries/index.html. Retrieved 2011-10-10.
See also
External links
- Marjoe at the Internet Movie Database
- Marjoe Gortner at the Internet Movie Database
- Resurrecting Marjoe article by Sarah Kernochan.
- Evangelism as Entertainment article from The Christian Century
- Sympathy for the Evangelicals article about the film by Sarah Kernochan on Huffington Post
- Marjoe, the documentary (Google video)
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 1961–1980 Sky Above and Mud Beneath (1961) · Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler (1962) · Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World (1963) · World Without Sun (1964) · The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (1965) · The War Game (1966) The Anderson Platoon (1967) · Journey into Self (1968) · Arthur Rubinstein – The Love of Life (1969) · Woodstock (1970) · The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) · Marjoe (1972) · The Great American Cowboy (1973) · Hearts and Minds (1974) · The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975) · Harlan County, USA (1976) · Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (1977) · Scared Straight! (1978) · Best Boy (1979) · From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1980)
Complete list · (1942–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–2020) Categories:- English-language films
- 1972 films
- American films
- American documentary films
- Documentary films about Christianity in the United States
- Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
- Films directed by Howard Smith
- Films directed by Sarah Kernochan
- Christian evangelicalism
- 1970s documentary films
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