rdean1908 i waited to see this movie. i guess i was afraid. i watched "the apostle" tonight! it gripped me from the first turn of the reels. i have always adored robert duvall! "convicts" is also one of his best roles! and, let us not forget "lonesome dove"! i could not believe the fact that he also directed this movie, as well. i know it was made back in 1997, but, i just saw it tonight. robert duvall-you are one of the finest actors to ever come out of the back woods of this great country of ours! the tragedy is you did not make more movies in which you were also given the chance to direct! i take my hat off to you, fine sir! hats off, gentlemen, to a genius!!

treeline1 Sonny Dewey (Robert Duvall) is the charismatic preacher of a fundamentalist Texas church, until his short temper gets him in serious trouble. He runs off to Louisiana, becomes part of a small community, and starts a new church where he brings hope and salvation to his loyal followers.Robert Duvall is a powerhouse; he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this movie - and it's wonderful. He is so convincing as the southern evangelist that it really surprised me to hear him speak in his normal voice in the Extras. Sonny is completely devoted to saving people and spreading the Word, but we suspect he may have a violent and unsavory past, and that dichotomy keeps our eyes glued to Duvall at all times. As Sonny, he's driven, tireless, and simply inspired.While Duvall gets excellent performances out of many local, non-actors in small parts, there were several casting choices that didn't seem right to me: Farrah Fawcett plays Sonny's wife and she's so recognizable as a former "Angel" and glamour girl that it was hard to buy her as a quiet, plain-Jane. June Carter Cash plays Sonny's mother although she is only two years older than Duvall - and looks it and that was distracting. And Billy Bob Thornton has a very small role as a troublemaker that was never developed; I kept expecting him to show up again and do something important and worthy of his stature.The term "tour de force" can certainly be applied to Duvall's performance; he is riveting, charismatic, and utterly believable. Interestingly, the story makes him neither a hero nor a villain; it is left up to the viewer to decide who exactly "the Apostle" is. Highly recommended.

sddavis63 I have always appreciated Robert Duvall as an actor, but everything he's ever done pales in comparison to his performance as "The Apostle E.F." in this movie. Duvall carried this from beginning to end. The rest of the cast was good, but this belonged to Duvall. He perfectly captured the essence of a charismatic, fundamentalist holiness-type preacher, and was totally convincing in the role. There are a lot of issues that come through in this movie. One is the ease with which a charismatic (in both the secular and spiritual sense) charlatan can capture the minds and souls of those around him. Having said that, E.F. is a more complicated character than that. Yes, he was charismatic and yes he could manipulate, but the character (to me at least) had a fundamental integrity to him. He was sincere in what he was doing. He loved Jesus; he loved the church; he loved the people in the church. I bought into that - I believed it. And, yes, he was a sinner - he was a womanizer who then went on - in a fit of anger - to kill the man for whom his wife had left him. Terrible things, but they came across as human rather than hypocritical. Strangely, even the fact the E.F. was a murderer didn't seem to take away from his fundamental decency. On the run after committing the murder, he establishes a new church in a small town in Louisiana and again he captures people's hearts and turns them toward God, and even at the end of the movie, in a prison chain gang, he captures the hearts of the other prisoners and turns them toward God - and I never doubted that he was wanting to do that. He wasn't doing this to glorify himself; he was doing it for what he perceived to be the glory of God. And I believed that.As a very mainline Christian pastor who has some suspicion of charismatic preachers, it wasn't easy to convince me of E.F.'s sincerity - but Duvall did. That was the brilliance not only of his performance but of the movie as a whole. Whether in personal repentance or in leading someone through a conversion experience, E.F. was real. Thank you to Robert Duvall for this powerful performance.The movie had flaws. For the first few minutes I was confused about the relationships here. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention, but I honestly thought E.F.'s mother was his wife and that Farrah Fawcett was playing his daughter and the kids were his grandchildren. I was thrown a bit when Fawcett turned out to be playing his wife who had left him and taken his children away from him. I also thought that the "play-by-play" radio commentary from the church picnic of the bigot's conversion experience was just downright silly. But there weren't many weaknesses. Duvall's performance, the essential dignity he provided the character with and the overall realism of the film makes this a must-see!

richard_sleboe Like all earthly endeavors, "The Apostle" is unfinished and patchy in places. But imperfect as it may be, it's one of the most intriguing movies of its kind. On one level, it's a road movie, but it is also a character study and a rites of passion tale. Sonny Dewey, the Apostle, was born ready, but the beginning of his final run as a missionary has its end written all over it. He is a saint in the body of a sinner, and as a preacher, he is simply too good at what he does for his own good. It's easy to see how this movie was a matter of the heart for writer-director-actor Robert Duvall. The storytelling, the setting, and the camera work all have a timeless quality. But it's Duvall's drastic performance that keep your eyes locked on the screen. The bible may praise those who do not see and still believe. But in the case of this fine movie, seeing is believing.