Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Marjoe, 1972. The biography of a family that made their small child into a lay preacher to make a living for the family's living.*Special Stars- Marjoe Gortner, Sarah Kernochan.*Theme- Children are very motivated to please their parents. *Trivia/location/goofs- Documentary. The film was not shown in most of the southern United States due to the distributor's fear of the outrage it would cause.*Emotion- A 'tongue-in-cheek' expose' of the traveling lay preacher life and motivation. A bit disappointing and tawdry realization for the general film audience about people trying to help themselves into trusting people's wallets through popular religion . *Based On- The faith preacher and tent meetings in the Mid-west and the South.

Tom Rochester In 1948 Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner of Long Beach, California became an ordained preacher for the pentecostal church. He was four years old. A gifted preacher, Marjoe reached some fame and notoriety in the American South and earned his parents an estimated $3,000,000 before the novelty had worn off in his teen years. It was around this time that Marjoe became part of the Hippie movement and took stock of what had happened to him, his childhood and the money he never saw. At twenty and struggling to get by, Marjoe fell back on his greatest talent and again began to preach. He wasn't a true believer, but they believed in him. They flocked to see his Jagger swaggering sermons and paid well for the privilege.This documentary joins Marjoe in 1971 when he is 23 years old. A crisis of conscience has led him to not only give up preaching for good, but also to show us the preaching racket as it really is. We follow Marjoe for one final tour with a documentary crew under the guise of promoting the church. The film introduces the real Marjoe through a series of interviews interspersed with footage of the sermons he holds. The contrast between the two sides of his character is quite startling and to have this captured on film is quite special, some might say it's a small ironically occurring miracle. The content here was so powerful that at the time it wasn't distributed in many of the southern states. That didn't stop it taking the 1972 Best Documentary Oscar and although it did fade into obscurity for a while, in 2002 the original negative print was found and recaptured for digital release.Marjoe is a charismatic lead, talking us through his life story and giving us a window into this world. He has an implicit understanding of preaching techniques and the lucrative business behind the scenes. What is shown here feels like full disclosure, we see Marjoe briefing the crew on how to act when in church or that they should cut their hair to fit in. We see his home life and relationships, his real life outside the church and his on stage persona. I read that he was looking to become an actor (and did, sort of) and to leave this life behind him and game some publicity this film was made. Utterly unique and as relevant as ever. Even today it embarrasses the born again crowd better than Jesus Camp and that's saying something. Of course when it comes to the religious right nothing has changed, it's only gotten bigger.

kornsme182 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.

BillyDSquires I don't think the average non church goer would even "get" this movie in its deepest sense. But, it should be required viewing for every Pentecostal/Charismatic leader. Why? Because Marjoe is warmer, more people oriented, a better communicator and radiates sincerity more than most of the top names in evangelism today. If you could take clips of his preaching and put them along side of any of the top televangelists today, and ask which is real and which is fake, Marjoe would come off as the real one every time! He is more giving, more compassionate and more warm than any of the top ones of today. He also has more integrity than most: He states in the film that he had better go one way or another, because he can't live two lives - he either needs to get in all the way and become "real" or go into acting, because he'd been acting all his life.Nowadays, various leaders have no problem living adulterous or drunken lifestyles. They want to do what they want and still be in ministry. Hats off to Marjoe for having higher levels of integrity than that. He'd be welcome at our house anytime! Note to Pentecostal/Charismatic leadership: Watch this movie, and ask yourself if you'd have him at your church, based on his performances in church... you'd have him and you'd have him back. He's that good!