Instead of calling this a movie review, I'm going to call this an analysis. The movie starts with Elmer Gantry (Burt Lancaster) in a speakeasy. It is Prohibition and alcohol can't legally be served. He's inside with his fellow salesmen. Though he talks a good game, we rather quickly learn that he isn't a very good one, barely making it through life financially. He spends his time making sales pitches and sleeping with women in various cities that he's met during his travels.
In his travels, we quickly are met with two versions of Elmer Gantry and his relationship with Jesus and Christianity. At the speakeasy, what looks like Salvation Army volunteers enter and ask for donations. No one wishes to donate. Elmer gets up and asks the customers that they reconsider and make donations. He does so with a perfect sales pitch, but you have to wonder if he is simply mocking the Salvation Army volunteers. Off he goes to another city and drops by an African American church. He is the only white person in the church and he joins the singing with great gusto. By the faces of those in the church, you can tell that they think that he might be there as a joke. Yet, his enthusiasm wins them over. As he is a bit down on his luck, the pastor of the church actually gives him a job to earn a little money to help him on his way as well as providing him with lunch.
Is he a God fearing man or one who is manipulating Christian believers? I honestly am not sure the movie answers that question. While in another city, he sees a Christian revival group trying to get people to come to their tent meeting. He decides to go as he is fascinated by the beautiful Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons). His fascination with this Christian revival ministry seems more aligned with his womanizing than his belief in God. Sister Sharon sees something in him and allows him to speak at their revival. The audience loves him and she is thrilled. He is put on payroll and joins the movement.
Throughout the movie, a small storyline slowly becomes larger and more important: his womanizing. He continues to pursue Sister Sharon and they eventually end up making love. Also, Elmer mentions that he was kicked out of seminary, because he caught a leader of the church making love to a young woman. It is found out that Elmer was the individual who was making love to the woman. Later in the movie, Gantry leads a group of people to destroy the speakeasies and prostitution establishments across a city called Zenith. He comes across this young woman at one of the prostitution establishments. Later, the young woman decides to frame him. Photos of her kissing Gantry and him passing money to her (implying that he was paying her for sex) make the front pages of Zenith. Gantry later comes to the rescue of his former lover. Without being pressured, the young woman recants her story about Gantry coming to her for sex. You have to wonder, did she see a change in him that made her recant a false accusation? And also, did Gantry really have a change of heart against drinking and sleeping around?
As the movie comes to an end, Gantry is offered to lead the movement, but instead he decides to walk off. He walks off as many around him are hurt and grieving. Does he walk off, because Sister Sharon has died (will be discussed shortly) and that his whole reason for joining the revival movement was due to his infatuation with her? I don't think he walks off, because he thinks there is another greater scam to pull. He likely could have taken her place. My best guess is that he is someone who had faith (went to seminary), lost faith (via drink and women), found faith again via Sister Sharon, and then lost faith when she died. Her death caused him to reject Christ and instead of being a false prophet, he decided to walk away. So yes, he was a bit of a manipulative salesperson, but he wasn't going to deceive believers.
What about Sister Sharon Falconer? Was she a true believer or something else all together? She was a calming voice. People came to the revivals, because she was able to calm their souls. She wasn't an exciting speaker like Elmer. There was just simply something within her calmness that reached out to people. After meetings ended, people would crowd around her, wanting to thank her and have a few minutes of her time. Though on stage, she presented a calm demeanor, she was always emotionally drained afterwards. Within minutes of leaving a revival, she would be sleeping.
Her focus was on the smaller towns across America, but a much larger city called Zenith takes notice of her crowds and asks her to lead a revival in their city. A request is made for $30,000 upfront to make sure that expenses are covered. A newspaper journalist who has followed her around makes an accusation that this is all a scam. Accusations fly that she is using the funds for inappropriate reasons. Is she really a non-believer who is doing this to generate personal wealth? We soon learn this isn't true. Yes, her ministry is keeping large amounts of profit, but it isn't for personal gain. Instead, she wants to open up her own tabernacle where not only can her ministry thrive, but she can also serve those in need. This really seems like someone who is a true believer.
Yet, true believers can still be false prophets and I think the end of the movie explores this. After the negative articles are written about the ministry and Elmer, the community quickly turns against her. But the tide turns when the young prostitute recants her accusations against Elmer. The tabernacle is opened up and a crowd show up to fill it up. Outside the tabernacle, Elmer and Sister Sharon have one last conversation. A falling star can be seen across the night sky and she takes it as a sign from God. You can see her taking on a cult personality. She enters to tabernacle and begins her sermon. A man in his 50s or 60s stands up, walks to her and asks for healing. He is deaf. She asks if he was born this way. His wife responds no. She decides that she will perform a miracle and heal this man through the power of God. After much pray, he gains his hearing back. Those with ailments surge towards her, also wanting to be healed by this woman of God. Unfortunately, a few moments prior, someone had thrown a lit cigarette or match into a bunch of rags and flammable paints. A fire bursts out just after the man is healed from his hearing loss. The crowd scatters for the exits (okay, pet peeve, the tabernacle looked to have some 8 exits, but much of the scene is spent with people running around in circles and then as the fire builds, they are all forced to exit through one door, which could have been avoided if they didn't spend minutes running around in circles). Though the crowd exits, she asks people to not leave. Wait, what? This movie was made in 1960, but it makes you fast forward in history to Jamestown (1978), David Koresh (1993), and Heaven's Gate (1997). Her belief is that God has blessed her to the point where he would provide a miracle that would stop the fire. God doesn't and she dies in the fire. Nothing of her is found except for her burned Bible. Did she feel pain while dying? Probably not, she was taken in by emotional ecstasy.
Do I think she truly believed in God? Yes, I do. But I also think she was taken in by false signs and was setting herself up to be a false prophet -- a person convinced of an over-exaggerated connection to God.
One final note: I swear that at times while watching Jean Simmons, I was watching Audrey Hepburn both in looks and voice. Interestingly, both were born in 1929.
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