Marjoe is a 1972 documentary feature directed by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan.
It is about Pentecostal preacher Marjoe Gortner. The beginning of the film recounts how Gortner began preaching at the age of four, pressed into service by his evangelist parents. When Gortner hit puberty and the novelty of a child preacher wore off, he quit preaching, only to return to evangelism as an adult. The documentary follows Gortner on an evangelism tour where he flies around the South, preaching the word of the Lord, laying on hands, speaking in tongues, the whole package.
Those scenes are accompanied by interview segments in which Gortner explains to the film crew that he is a huckster and a con artist. He doesn't believe in God and never has; he was groomed to be a child preacher by his parents, as a publicity stunt. Gortner has returned to the life as an adult but, tormented by conscience, has decided to quit evangelism after one final tour. He describes the tactics he and other evangelists use to manipulate their audience and separate them from their money, and in one scene, he and another preacher are shown dividing the loot.
After the release of this film Gortner left evangelism for good and became an actor, appearing on television and in B Movies like Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw and Starcrash.
Tropes:
- Blatant Lies: Gortner's whole preaching life, really. But in one scene, he tells the congregation how the Holy Ghost came to him in a dream when he was a child of four and inspired him to preach the Word. This is well after the part in the film where he explains in an interview how his parents trained him to be a child preacher, and beat him when he made mistakes in his lessons.
- Book Ends: A particular old film clip of Gortner as a boy delivering a sermon is one of the first scenes in the movie, and also the last.
- Call-Back: At one church, Gortner goes into a spiel where he says lines like "Can God deliver a dope addict? Yes he can!....Can God deliver a homosexual? Yes he can!", while the crowd cheers. Late in the film, Gortner and his girlfriend are out in the woods with their dog when Gortner delivers a brutal satire of his own sermon, holding up the dog and saying "Can God deliver this dog? Yes he can!" When the dog starts gamboling around at their feet, Gortner mocks his earlier faith healing, saying "She didn't walk like that before!" and pronouncing that the dog has gotten the Holy Spirit. His girlfriend joins in, mocking the shaking and babbling ("speaking in tongues") that people do at Gortner's revivals.
- Con Man: Discussed Trope. Early in the film one member of the film crew asks "Are we going to hear about Marjoe's crucifixion when they find out about all this?" Gortner laughs the question off. Towards the end he muses a little wistfully about how he wishes he could just lead big group therapy sessions where people got rid of their hangups, but his audience demands the Jesus talk. Also near the end Gortner's girlfriend appears and is interviewed. The interviewer, who is apparently named John, asks "Is Marjoe a con man?" Gortner's girlfriend says, in mock outrage, "A con man? John."
- Corrupt Church: This film shows how the trope of a corrupt, cynical evangelist who is in it for the money can be Truth in Television. Gortner, who in the interview segments is forthright about how he doesn't even believe in God and is a total fraud, explains at length the various tricks and tactics used to get the rubes to give their money.
- Documentary: An unusually candid one of a Pentecostal evangelist who admits that he's a complete fraud.
- The End: The movie ends with a replay of one of the old film clips of Gortner as a child. The "The End" that ends the old clip also ends this film.
- Fake Faith Healer: Gortner is shown in clips laying hands on people and commanding that their pains go away, in the name of Jesus. One such scene is followed by an interview segment in which Gortner blandly says that 90% of aches and pains are psychosomatic.
- Groupie Brigade: Discussed Trope. Gortner says that there are available women that lurk around the tent revival shows that he does, but he makes it a policy to not sleep with them and he tells the film crew that they can't either. He says he confines himself to "stewardesses".
- Hitler Cam: Briefly seen in a shot of one female preacher, as she hectors her audience for money, telling them to "sacrifice" what they've put away for serious needs.
- The Ken Burns Effect: Used repeatedly with stills, starting with the very first shot of the movie, a closeup of a photo of Marjoe as a boy that zooms out to show him preaching to a crowd.
- Missing Mom: Nothing is said of the whereabouts of Gortner's mother, even when his estranged father pops up at one point and joins Marjoe in a revival service.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The film starts with photos and newsreels of Gortner as a child preacher as Gortner talks about those years in voiceover; he doesn't appear in the flesh as his adult 1971 self until ten minutes in. Co-director Sarah Kernochan said in an interview that this was a deliberate tactic done to build audience sympathy for Gortner.
- Mononymous Biopic Title: Marjoe
- Parental Abuse: Gortner recounts how he was physically abused as a child, how his parents semi-drowned him in a bathtub or smothered him with a pillow if he struggled with memorizing his evangelism patter.
- Scam Religion: A portrait of Marjoe Gortner, who returned to evangelism just to make money, but eventually decided to come clean and let them film everything. Gortner tells one story of how he applied a chemical to his head in a cross shape, one which turns red when it combines with sweat. He says that after his audience saw the cross of blood on his forehead, he got a huge take.
- Stock Footage: Old clips of Gortner as a child preacher, including a deeply bizarre scene of him as a four-year-old child conducting a marriage ceremony of two grownups. There's also a brief clip of an offended pastor agitating for a law requiring ordained ministers to be 21.
