''Marjoe'' is a 1972 American
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
produced and directed by
Howard Smith and
Sarah Kernochan
Sarah Marshall Kernochan (; born December 30, 1947) is an American documentarian, film director, screenwriter and novelist. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards ( Documentary Feature for ''Marjoe'' in 19 ...
about the life of
evangelist
Evangelist may refer to:
Religion
* Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels
* Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ
* Evangelist (Anglican Church), a c ...
Marjoe Gortner
Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner (born January 14, 1944) is a former Evangelism, evangelist preacher and actor. He first gained public attention during the late 1940s when his parents arranged for him to be Ordination, ordained as a preacher at age four ...
. It won the
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
.
Story
Marjoe Gortner was a precocious
child preacher
In some branches of Christianity, especially American pentecostalism, children are occasionally preachers, or even ordained ministers. The heyday of child preachers was in the 1920s and 1930s, but a number of videos of modern-day child preachers ca ...
with extraordinary talents, who was immensely popular in the
American South
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
. His parents earned large sums of money off of his earnings until the point he outgrew the novelty of his youthfulness.
Gortner rejoined the ministry as a young adult solely as a means of earning a living, not as a believer. He spent the next several years using his fame and status as an evangelist to earn a living from both
tent revival
A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using g ...
s and
televangelism
Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning "ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-proc ...
. Eventually, Gortner suffered a crisis of conscience of sorts and decided to give up the revival circuit, but not any of the money he made from it. He offered a documentary film crew unrestricted access to him during his final revival tour, which took place in 1971.
The film contains scenes from revival meetings showing Gortner preaching and praying for people in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
Fort Worth
Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
,
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, and
Anaheim
Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...
. This is interspersed with footage of Gortner admitting on camera that he was a non-believer and revealing the tactics that he and other evangelists used to manipulate people and to move them during revivals. Some of the evangelists even revealed where they bought properties kept secret and gave him advice to follow. Gortner said he studied
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
of the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
, as a model for his routine.
Release
At the time of the film's release, it generated considerable press, but the movie was not shown widely in theaters in the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
. The distributor feared adverse reaction to the film in the
Bible Belt
The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's aver ...
.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack was released by
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
, consisting of sermons and spoken word segments by Marjoe (from age four), intermixed with songs. "Save All My Brothers", the film's theme song, was written by Sarah Kernochan and
Joseph Brooks, who also arranged it, and it was sung by
Jerry Keller
Jerry Paul Keller (born June 20, 1937) is an American pop singer and songwriter, best known for his 1959 hit song "Here Comes Summer".
Career
Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Keller moved with his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he was six, an ...
.
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
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
The
Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...
preserved ''Marjoe'' in 2005. On November 15, 2005, in New York City, the
IFC Center
IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...
showed ''Marjoe'' as the closing film in a series of documentaries called "Stranger Than Fiction". The restored film has since been released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and streaming services.
Awards
The film won the
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
.
Documentary Winners: 1973 Oscars
/ref>
See also
* List of American films of 1972
This is a list of American films released in 1972.
''Cabaret'' won 8 Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Actress. ''The Godfather'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
__TOC__ A–C
D–G
H–M
N–S
T–Z
See also
* ...
*''Jesus Camp
''Jesus Camp'' is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about a charismatic Christian summer camp, where children spend their summers being taught that they have "prophetic gifts" and can "take back America for ...
''
*List of rediscovered films
This is a list of rediscovered films that, once thought lost, have since been discovered, in whole or in part. See List of incomplete or partially lost films and List of rediscovered film footage for films which were not wholly lost.
For a fil ...
References
External links
*
*
''Marjoe'' review by Richard Brody at The New Yorker
{{AcademyAwardBestDocumentaryFeature
1972 films
1972 documentary films
American documentary films
Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
Documentary films about Christianity in the United States
Documentary films critical of Christianity
Films critical of religion
Films about evangelicalism
Films directed by Howard Smith
Films directed by Sarah Kernochan
Films shot in California
Films shot in Texas
Films shot in Michigan
1970s rediscovered films
Rediscovered American films
1972 directorial debut films
1970s English-language films
1970s American films