The Apostle - Collector's Edition

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Written, directed, and personally financed by Robert Duvall, The Apostle was the culmination of a 14-year effort on the part of its creator, who also stars as the dynamic, God-fearing Texas preacher Euliss "Sonny" Dewey. Vibrantly authentic with its use of real gospel preachers and extras carefully selected from parishes of the deep South, the film treats its complicated characters with the kind of compassion and moral complexity mainstream Hollywood wouldn't dare muster. This is especially true in the case of Sonny, who responds to his wife's infidelity with a crime of passion that sends him on a new and uncharted quest for redemption. Under the assumed identity of "The Apostle E.F.," he settles in a tiny Louisiana town to revive an old church, where he undergoes a transformation of spirit and purpose that enlivens his community. But will the law catch up to him? Does he deserve to be punished? Fueled by Duvall's powerhouse performance, The Apostle refuses to praise or condemn its fascinating central character, leaving the proper degree of forgiveness up to the viewer. Further graced with superb performances by Farrah Fawcett, Miranda Richardson, and Billy Bob Thornton, the film is clearly Duvall's labor of love. The Collector's Edition DVD features a full-length commentary by Duvall and The Journey of the Apostle, a documentary featurette about the making of the film. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

A complex, moving depiction of faith, Christianity, and humanity..........2007-09-01

I really liked this film. This film offers something much more than the usual "southern people are inbreeders, racists, and homophobes". It shows a complicated man, played by Robert Duvall, who is not a perfect man, but who is in fact, well, he did something that's a felon, we'll say. But here he is desperately trying to redeem himself and that of his small flock in a small town in Louisiana. This is a really wonderful, sincere, and at times, spellbinding film, one that shows a much more nuanced, complex, and quite moving portrayal of the deep South, something that Hollywood never offers. Films that show the complexities of faith really scare Hollywood and the left, as they dismiss anyone of the Chrisitian faith as a right winger hater. While many calling themselves Christians (preachers of the ilk of Falwell and James Dobson) embrace the "god hates fags and abortions" line (and ignore everything else in the gospel), they do so simply to attain political power more than anything else, and have no real desire to help their fellow man spiritually. Duvall's character here isn't like that at all. He is a man who truly wants to be delivered and saved, and that makes a lot of people who dismiss faith very uncomfortable. I really loved this film, as it makes you feel and think, an excellent combination. Duvall should be commended for this film, as he financed it completely on his own, and it's one of his best films.

I Love This Movie.......2007-08-09

It is true that this movie is a brutal and honest look at the men who serve God. They are no different from non-clergy. They have emotions, lusts, demons, nightmares, desires just like everyone else. But the movie absolutely brings it all together in one powerful depiction of a preacher's bitterness, anger, and ultimately his redemption. This movie also crosses racial divides by showing the South as it truly is - honest and hardworking people that really do love one another regardless of race. Of course, there are those few bigots that can be found anywhere in the country and Billy Bob Thornton plays a part about this in a scene from the movie. What follows is truly a miracle and brings tears to my eyes even now. I will remember this movie for a very long time. Powerful stuff.

A great work indeed.......2007-06-06

Robert Duval, the cast, and crew all do a great job and make The Apostile the best of the flawed preacher films. Robert Duvals Apostile E,F. is realer and more beleavable than Burt Lancasters Elmer Gantry. I like this style of peaching better than the cold stoic kind.

Psychopathy in Action.......2007-05-08

I don't think I've ever seen a clearer portrayal of the charismatic psychopath than Robert Duvall playing the part of Euliss "Sonny" Dewey. Do not think that psychopaths are mad-dog killers - only very few are and they could be considered "unsuccessful" psychopaths.

Some people think that psychopathy is the result of some attachment or bonding difficulty as an infant but psychopathy expert, Dr. Robert Hare, has turned the idea around. After all his years digging into the background of psychopaths. He says:

"In some children the very failure to bond is a symptom of psychopathy. It is likely that these children lack the capacity to bond readily, and that their lack of attachment is largely the result, not the cause, of psychopathy." Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

In other words: they are born that way and you can't fix them.

The differences in how psychopathy manifests does have to do with family background, however. How one is raised determines how the psychopath expresses himself in life.

A psychopath who grows up in a stable family and has access to positive social and educational resources might become a white-collar criminal, or perhaps a somewhat shady entrepreneur, preacher, politician, lawyer, judge, or other professional. Another individual with the same traits, and a deprived background might become a common con-artist, a drifter, mercenary, or violent criminal.

A psychopath born into a very religious background, having the early experiences with evangelism that are depicted in the movie, would very likely grow up to be exactly as Sonny is portrayed.

The point is, social factors and parenting practices only shape the expression of the disorder, but have no effect on the individual's inability to feel empathy or to develop a conscience.

As psychologist Martha StoutThe Sociopath Next Door has pointed out so eloquently, psychopaths seem to be born without a conscience. Conscience seems to depend on the ability to imagine consequences. But most "consequences" relate to pain in some way, and psychopaths really don't understand pain in the emotional sense. They understand frustration of not getting what they want, and to them, that is pain. But the fact seems to be that they act based solely on a sort of Game Theory evaluation of a situation: what will they get out of it, and what will it cost? And these "costs" do not seem to factor in being humiliated, causing pain to others, sabotaging the future, or any of the other possibilities that normal people consider when making a choice.

All of these issues are depicted in this movie: Sonny is traveling most of the time and often cheats on his wife, but considers himself to be basically a "good guy." His mother falls on the floor in a weak spell and he just walks out the door and says he'll see her in a few weeks. His barely controlled aggression against his wife when he discovers that she is cheating while he's on the road (also cheating, as he admits), and later when they discuss the break-up of their marriage, finally culminating in a violent break-out where he scares the bejeebies out of everybody by going berserk at a kid's softball game, inflicting a fatal injury on his wife's boyfriend, are all clues to the seething selfishness that drives Sonny.

Sonny also exhibits what psychopaths DO have that is truly outstanding: an ability to give their undivided attention to something that interests them intensely right now or in terms of setting up a situation where they have power and authority over others. Some clinicians have compared this to the concentration with which a predator stalks his prey. This quality is abundantly evident in Sonny's drive to preach, to "have a church," and the work he is willing to put into acquiring that status.

The qualities of the psychopath are also on display in Sonny's talents as a preacher with a mastery of hypnotic techniques. Psychopaths are naturally interesting as all get out - even exciting! They exude a captivating energy that keeps their listeners on the edge of their seats (and they talk a LOT!). Even if some part of the normal person is shocked or repelled by what the psychopath says or does, they are like the mouse hypnotized by the torturing cat. Even if they have the chance to run away, they don't. This is evident in the movie in Toosie's fascination for Sonny even though she is also repelled by him.

Many Psychopaths "make their living" by using charm, deceit, and manipulation to gain the confidence of their victims. You see that clearly when Sonny travels to Bayou Boutte and tells an out and out lie to Rev. Blackwell that "God sent me to fellowship with you." The viewer knows that he learned about Rev. Blackwell from his cousin whom Sonny met while on the run from his criminally violent behavior. In fact, this scene is the dead giveaway that we are watching a psychopath in action. With all his praying, self-baptizing, Bible reading and thumping, and assorted other self-righteous activities, Sonny sits there and tells a bald-faced lie to another minister and ascribes it to God. (Well, he probably convinced him that it WAS God, that this was how God directed him, but that's really stretching it.)

The fact is, many psychopaths can be found in white collar professions where they are aided in their evil by the fact that most people expect certain classes of people to be trustworthy because of their social or professional credentials. Preachers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, politicians, psychiatrists and psychologists, generally do not have to earn our trust because they have it by virtue of their positions. But the fact is: psychopaths are found in such lofty spheres also, and more often than most people suppose!

At the same time, psychopaths are good imposters. They have absolutely no hesitation about forging and brazenly using impressive credentials to adopt professional roles that bring prestige and power. They pick professions in which the requisite skills are easy to fake, the jargon is easy to learn, and the credentials are unlikely to be thoroughly checked. Psychopaths find it extremely easy to pose as financial consultants, ministers, psychological counselors and psychologists. It may even be due to the fact that the science of psychology is infested with psychopaths that truly helpful research on psychopathy is never funded despite the fact that psychopaths cause more damage to society than any other psychological problem. This film is an example of that very sort of damage. Multiplied millions of U.S. citizens are subjected to this kind of hypnosis/evangelism which twists and warps their minds.

Another clue to the reality of Sonny Dewey is that psychopaths make their way by conning people into doing things for them; obtaining money for them, prestige, power, or even standing up for them when others try to expose them. That's what they do and they do it very well as Sonny demonstrates with just about everyone he comes in contact with. What's more, the job is very easy because most people are gullible with an unshakable belief in the inherent goodness of man.

Manipulation is the key to the psychopath's conquests. They will feign false emotions to create empathy, and many of them study the tricks that can be employed by the empathy technique. Psychopaths are often able to incite pity from people because they seem like "lost souls" as Guggenbuhl-Craig writes. So the pity factor is one reason why victims often fall for these "poor" people.

Hare cites a famous case where a psychopath was "Man of the Year" and president of the Chamber of Commerce in his small town. (Remember that John Wayne Gacy was running for Jaycee President at the very time of his first murder conviction!) The man in question had claimed to have a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He ran for a position on the school board which he then planned to parlay into a position on the county commission which paid more.

At some point, a local reporter suddenly had the idea to check up on the guy - to see if his credentials were real. What the reporter found out was that the only thing that was true about this up and coming politician's "faked bio" was the place and date of birth. Everything else was fictitious. Not only was the man a complete impostor, he had a long history of antisocial behavior, fraud, impersonation, and imprisonment. His only contact with a university was a series of extension courses by mail that he took while in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. What is even more amazing is the fact that before he was a con-man, he was a "con-boy." For two decades he had dodged his way across America one step ahead of those he had hoodwinked. Along the way he had married three women and had four children, and he didn't even know what had happened to them.

When he was exposed, he was completely unconcerned. "These trusting people will stand behind me. A good liar is a good judge of people," he said. Amazingly, he was right. Far from being outraged at the fact that they had all been completely deceived and lied to from top to bottom, the local community he had conned so completely to accrue benefits and honors to himself that he had not earned, rushed to his support!

And it wasn't just "token support." The local Republican party chairman wrote about him: "I assess his genuineness, integrity, and devotion to duty to rank right alongside of President Abraham Lincoln." As Hare dryly notes, this dimwit was easily swayed by words, and was blind to facts.

This has been observed in many psychopathy cases; more often than not, and it tends to make one shake their head in wonder at how many people seem to WANT to be duped, to be made fools of. What kind of psychological weaknesses drive people to prefer lies over truth?

The kinds of people that are susceptible to hypnotic evangelists such as Sonny Dewey and become mind-controlled members of those kinds of fanatical religions.

This may have something to do with what is called Cognitive Dissonance. Leon Festinger developed the theory of Cognitive Dissonance in the 50's when he apparently stumbled onto a UFO cult in the Midwest. They were prophesying a coming world cataclysm and "alien rapture." When no one was raptured and no cataclysm he studied the believers response, and detailed it in his book "WHEN PROPHECY FAILS (A social and psychological study of a modern group that predicted the destruction of the world)." Festinger observed:

"A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.

"We have all experienced the futility of trying to change a strong conviction, especially if the convinced person has some investment in his belief. We are familiar with the variety of ingenious defenses with which people protect their convictions, managing to keep them unscathed through the most devastating attacks.

"But man's resourcefulness goes beyond simply protecting a belief. Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief, that he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor about convincing and converting other people to his view."

Psychopaths just have what it takes to defraud and bilk others: they can be fast talkers, they can be charming, they can be self-assured and at ease in social situations; they are cool under pressure, unfazed by the possibility of being found out, and totally ruthless. And even when they are exposed, they can carry on as if nothing has happened, often making their accusers the targets of accusations of being victimized by THEM. (Witness how Sonny blames his wife and her lover for taking everything away from him instead of taking responsibility for his philandering, lies and callousness.)

In the book Violent Attachments, women and men have noted the particular stare of the psychopath - it is an intense, relentless gaze that seems to predict his destruction of his victim or target. Women, in particular, have reported this stare, which is related to the "predatorial" (reptilian) gaze; it is as if the psychopath is directing all of his intensity toward you through his eyes, a sensation that one woman reported as a feeling of "being eaten." They tend to invade peoples' space either by their sudden intrusions or intimidating look-overs (which some women confuse for sexuality.)

The callous use of the old, the lonely, the vulnerable, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, is a trademark of the psychopath and the traveling preacher. When any of the victims wake up to what is happening, they are generally too embarrassed to complain. And those are the kinds of people attracted to this brand of fanatical Christianity promulgated by psychopaths.

One of the chief ways psychopaths prey on others is to make use of the normal person's need to find meaning or purpose in life. They will pose as preachers, grief counselors, or "experts" of various sorts that attract followings of people who are looking for answers. They are masters of recognizing "hang-ups" and self-doubts that most people have, and they will brazenly pander to them to gain a follower to use later.

This is what Sonny was doing, and doing masterfully with the character played by Billy-Bob Thornton.

At the present moment in history, the appeal of the psychopath has never been greater. Movies about psychopaths are all the rage. Hare asks "Why? What accounts for the terrific power that the personality without conscience has over our collective imagination? One theorist proposes that people who admire, believe, or identify with psychopaths, are partly psychopathic themselves. By interacting with a psychopath, even peripherally, they are able to voyeuristically enjoy an inner state not dominated by the constraints of morality such as the kind of ecstatic behavior that is generated and encouraged in such churches. Such people are enabled to enjoy aggressive and sexual pleasures under the guise of "morally correct" behavior.

For normal people, such movies may serve to remind them of the danger and destructiveness of the psychopath. They will shiver with the sense of something cold and dark having breathed on their neck. For others, people with poorly developed inner selves, such movies and glorification of psychopathic behavior only serves as a role model for serious acts of violence and predation against others.

Over and over again we come up against the problem of religion and belief systems that have to be defended against objective evidence or the beliefs of others. We have to ask ourselves "where did these belief systems come from that so evidentially are catastrophic?" And then, we have to think about the fact that now, in the present day, when many of these systems are breaking down and being replaced by others that similarly divert our attention, it becomes necessary to "enforce" a certain mode of thinking. And that is what Psychopaths do best.

Psychopaths dominate and set the standard for behavior in our society. We live in a world based on a psychopathic, energy stealing food chain, because that's just the way things are. Most people are so damaged they no longer have the capacity to even imagine a different system based on a symbiotic network that celebrates creativity and differences.

In mathematics there is something called the "first Law of Construction" posited by George Spencer Brown. It goes:

"Draw a distinction. Call it the first distinction. Call the space in which it is drawn the space severed or cloven by the distinction."

It seems that this law applies as well to societies, cultures and religions. Cultural and intellectual distinctions or divisions are all about creating "meaning" and identity and orientation for the self. Unfortunately, trying to create meaning for the self that is artificial is really an act of creating conflict, intolerance and violence.

The distinction between true and false in religion that is at the root of religious distinctions such as those between Jews and Gentiles, Christians and pagans, Muslims and infidels. Once the distinction has been drawn, once it has been declared that there IS such a division between peoples, then it becomes easier and easier to make more and more distinctions, subdivisions of them, endless permutations.

Tradition ascribes this first distinction between "true and false" in religion to Moses - the first monotheist. That isn't, of course, exactly correct. The first monotheist who attempted to violently impose his distinction on others was Akhenaten. That is probably where "Moses" got the idea. It should be noted that "Moses is a figure of memory but not of history, while Akhenaten is a figure of history but not of memory." Somehow, the two are mixed up together but this is not the place to discuss that. What is important is that the space that has been imbued with this "Mosaic Distinction" - conflict, intolerance and violence - is the space of Western Civilization due to Jewish influence on socio-cultural norms for the past 2000 years. It is not normal, nor has it ever been, but Western society is so inured in it that it is almost impossible to think outside of it.

The Mosaic distinction was a radically new division which dramatically changed the world in which it was drawn. Some scholars refer to Judaism and its initial division as "counter-religion" because it rejected and repudiated everything that went before and considered everything outside of itself to be idolatry and unclean. Instead of ancient polytheism, where the god of one group was "translated" into the equivalent in another group, leading to peaceful relations between societies, Judaism rejected translation and blocked intercultural translatability and instead promoted intercultural estrangement - or submission.

The concept of idolatry and the violent repudiation of it became stronger and stronger during the course of Jewish history. The later the texts, the more abusive the scorn and abominations they heaped on the heads of "idolators." This hatred became mutual and the accused idolators did not fail to retaliate against Jews again and again and again. [cf: Jan Assmann: Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism Harvard Press, 1997]

It is that kind of mind that we are dealing with when we consider such as Euliss "Sonny" Dewey and his ilk, and the millions upon millions of people that follow them and become their armies of hate in the guise of "brotherly love."

Definitely get this movie and watch it for the simple reason that you need to know about psychopaths, how they operate, and how to spot them and you need to teach it to your children.

Besides, it is a darn good movie and VERY well done! I grew up in the deep South and I KNOW people like that; heck, I have some in my family! The film characterizations are brilliant and nothing is exaggerated; it could almost be a documentary!

I'd give it six stars if I could!

Great film, beware defective DVDs.......2007-03-30

This film is just as good as mentioned by most other reviewers. I mean, seriously, can Robert Duval make a bad film? My problem with the DVD of the Collector's Edition, however, is that I have now purchased two copies from two different sellers and neither was recognizable or playable on three different players in my home. I have no explanation for this problem since all of my players are fairly new. If you are interested in obtaining this film, my advice would be to make purchase it only from a reliable seller that will provide a refund or else avoid the "Collector's Edition" version of it.

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