From NetFlix:

When charismatic but troubled Pentecostal preacher Euliss “Sonny” Dewey (Robert Duvall) discovers that his wife (Farrah Fawcett) is having an affair, he promptly puts the other man in a coma and flees his home state of Texas for Louisiana. Once there, he takes on a new name, renovates an old church and brings new life to a congregation. Written and directed by Duvall, the film also earned an Oscar nod for Duvall’s complex, captivating performance.

All the excited Pentecostal preaching, praying, shouting, curing, etc. at the start of the film almost turned me off immediately. But that is the intense atmosphere of this entire story. Although the Bible Belt style of religion might not appeal to everyone, the attraction here is the amazingly energetic performance of that actor’s actor Robert Duvall. Once he gets going in a charismatic fury, there is no stopping him. Could he have actually memorized such a flood of words from a script or was he ad-libbing?

If you can divorce yourself from all the commotion (or SHOULD you?), try to answer my question: was the Apostle insane? Alternatives are:

• He lived in a culture where such behavior was considered normal.
• He lived in a state of sane self-delusion.
• He was perfectly sane and a consummate huckster. This same alternative has been voiced
  against the founders of certain (all?) religions.

And will you recognize Farrah Fawcett as his wife, Billy Bob Thornton as a trouble maker converted in a scene whose probability I had trouble accepting (but again it is a question of that culture), John Beasley as the Reverend Blackwell, or Walton Goggins as the young man crying at the end (Goggins plays Hunt in “Cowboys and Aliens”) ?

Maybe not your cup of tea, but certainly one of the more memorable performances in film history.