Robert Duvall month: The Apostle

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

Robert Duvall's directorial debut is a deep-fried southern treatise on faith and guilt. This could be considered a forgotten film Friday as why the film was critically acclaimed and garnered an Academy Award nomination for Duvall, I think it has been relegated to the back burner of film history. That is a shame because I think this is one of Duvall's best performances and not only did he direct this film, he wrote it as well.

Duvall plays Sonny Dewey, a charismatic Pentecostal preacher who flees his Texas congregation after he kills the man sleeping with his wife. Sonny ends up in the bayous of Louisiana where he baptizes himself as an apostle of the Lord and begins another church. But his sins have a way of catching up to him.

The power of this film is in Duvall's performance, who is breathtaking as Sonny. He is in almost every frame of this film and you can't take your eyes off him. Even as we know that Sonny did a terrible thing he should be punished for, and in a way is a hypocrite, I think Duvall is saying something about the hypocrisy of those who claim to be righteous but are guilty of terrible things, we can't help but root for Sonny. It is a stunning character study.

The film is well made and Duvall has a good eye. The setting is almost another character due to how Duvall composes his shots. The cast of course is fantastic and Duvall shows himself to be a solid actor's director. If you have not seen this film, please check it out, especially as we celebrate Robert Duvall this month. You can't praise his work without exploring this film.

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