History Film / TheEyesOfTammyFaye

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[[caption-width-right:350:Look past the makeup.]]

The film covers the rise of the Tammy Faye (Chastain) and Jim Bakker (Garfield) as superstar televangelists during the 1980s, and their complicated relationship with Tammy's mother Rachel (Jones), and sometimes mentor/adversary Jerry Falwell (D'Onofrio).

* SlutShaming: Tammy's Bible college professor makes a snide comment about her wearing makeup, as if this undoes her claims of being a virtuous woman. At this, a male student can be heard off screen snidely calling her "Film/{{Jezebel}}".

* GreedyTelevangelist: * ''Film/TheEyesOfTammyFaye'': Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker hit it big with the Christian evangelism show ''ThePTLClub''. However, the show's finances come under fire especially because the Bakkers' lifestyle is extremely lavish. Jim is eventually accused of and arrested for fraud.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: Ultimately subverted. Steve Pieters, the gay minister with AIDS, is shown to be very accepting and prepared for what he believes is his impending death. This was a reasonable assumption at the time the interview takes place, but The epilogue showed that as of the film's release he is still alive and doing well.]]
* FalseFriend: Jerry Falwell treats the Bakkers as friends and allies and promises to help PTL survive the Bakker scandal, only to throw them under the bus and letting PTL fall into bankruptcy.

* HumiliationConga: Following the revelation of Jim's adultery, we get a montage of the church's financial scandals being exposed and Tammy being mocked for her appearance, culminating in him being sent to prison for fraud.

* FurAndLoathing: On one scene, Tammy can be seen buying fur coats for her mother and daughter, while she herself is wearing one. Jim later makes a snide comment about her penchant for them.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl]]: Tammy is frustrated and haunted by her mother's lack of approval of her activities, as Rachel believes making money from faith is immoral and is disturbed by the headlines of Jim's embezzling. At one point, Tammy outright demands her mother say she's proud of her, but Rachel instead presses her on the headlines, which Tammy casually dismisses as fake. After her mother's death, her stepfather presents her with the fur coat that she bought for her, saying that she hid so that the IRS couldn't take it, implying that for all her complaining, she actually ''was'' proud of her, deep down.

* YourCheatingHeart: Tammy and a friend engage in heavy dry-humping and Jim retaliates with his infamous liaison with Jessica Hahn. To present day, she insists that she was raped by Jim and an associate, while he insists that the encounter was consensual.

The film had its initial release at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12th, 2021, before having a US domestic release on September 17th. The role would earn Chastain an Academy Award for Best Leading Actress.

The film had its initial release at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12th, 2021, before having a US domestic release on September 17th.

* TheAlcoholic: Tammy becomes addicted to the medication she's prescribed after giving birth to her second child and almost died from an overdose.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Jim and Tammy go from HappilyMarried college sweethearts to DeadSparks mixed with this--they openly admit that sick of each other during their fight over his infidelity.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl]]: Tammy is frustrated and haunted by her mother's lack of approval of her activities, as Rachel believes making money from faith is immoral and is disturbed by the headlines of Jim's embezzling. At one point, Tammy outright demands her mother say she's proud of her, but Rachel instead presses her on the headlines, which Tammy casually dismisses as fake.

* HumiliationConga: Following the revelation of Jim's adultery, we get a montage of the church's financial scandals being exposed, culminating in him being sent to prison for fraud.

* SympatheticAdulterer: Tammy tries to invoke this with Jim when she's begging for his forgiveness regarding her indiscretion with Gary, telling him "he paid attention to me in ways that you don't", referring to to the fact that their marriage lacks intimacy both in ''and'' out of the bedroom. When admitting to his own adultery, Him himself declares that it happened because of his feeling inadequate after hers.

* HumiliationConga: Following the revelation of Jim's adultery, we get a montage of the church's financial scandals being exposed.

* SexlessMarriage: Heavily implied with Jim and Tammy as time goes on--at the very least, it's very infrequent, and as Tammy tells her mother, when it does happen, it's more out of obligation than love and lacks true intimacy--she almost weeps at the tenderness her friend Gary shows her when he makes advances to her.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Some critics have taken issue with its treatment of Tammy Faye as a well-meaning naif who turned a blind eye to her ministry's frauds; YMMV on the truth of that. Jim Bakker also comes off more sympathetic in the movie, presented as a man repentant after being humbled by prison, than he would in real life, where he has become an apocalyptic preacher promoting conspiracy theories.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Averted. The Bakkers were Pentecostal.

* [[WellDoneSonGuy "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl]]: Tammy is frustrated and haunted by her mother's lack of approval of her activities, as Rachel believes making money from faith is immoral and is disturbed by the headlines of Jim's embezzling. At one point, Tammy outright demands her mother say she's proud of her, but Rachel instead presses her on the headlines, which Tammy casually dismisses as fake.

The film had it's initial release at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12th, 2021, before having a US domestic release on September 17th.

The film covers the rise of the Tammy Faye (Chastain) and Jim Baker (Garfield) as superstar televangelists during the 1980s, and their complicated relationship with Tammy's mother Rachel (Jones), and sometimes mentor/adversary Jerry Falwell (D'Onofrio).

* UncannyValleyMakeup: True to reality, Tammy Faye prefers garish eye makeup, but this film shows that she did not always. Chastain herself also wore facial prosthetics to better resemble her, in and out of her signature makeup.

The film covers the rise of the Tammy Faye (Chastain) and Jim Baker (Garfield) as superstar televangelists during the 1980s, and their complicated relationship with Tammy's mother Rachel (Jones), and sometimes mentor/adversary Jerry Fallwell (D'Onofrio).