{"id":9297,"date":"2021-10-12T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9297"},"modified":"2022-01-13T08:33:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T13:33:00","slug":"the-eyes-of-tammy-faye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9297","title":{"rendered":"The Eyes of Tammy Faye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I suppose at some point I must have known more about the downfall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker other than the broad outlines I remember: wildly popular televangelists who fell from grace in a financial scandal. Tip of the iceberg, it turns out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one specific I remembered was that I went cold-turkey on the blue eyeshadow. The new movie, written by Abe Sylvia and directed by Michael Showalter (trailer<\/a>) is unexpectedly moving, as you realize many of the couple\u2019s difficulties are the result of Tammy Faye\u2019s own blind spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Televangelists are not top-of-mind for me, and my default opinion is that they\u2019re all con men. Jessica Chastaine as Tammy Faye and Andrew Garfield as Jim do such a good job that, OK, yes, they\u2019re making money hand-over-fist, but there seems to be some sincere belief under all the trappings and on Tammy Faye\u2019s side, real compassion for others. You can\u2019t say the same for Jerry Falwell (Vincent D\u2019Onofrio) or Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds). In interviews<\/a>, Chastain said that in her decade of research for the film, \u201cI looked for a really seedy side that I thought was true, and I just couldn\u2019t find it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From humble beginnings in Michigan and Minnesota, the Jim and Tammy Faye built an empire on Jim\u2019s preaching and Tammy Faye\u2019s singing that included a satellite broadcasting network, their PTL (Praise the Lord) headquarters, and a theme park in South Carolina. These expansions and the couple\u2019s lavish lifestyle were funded by an estimated $1 million a week in contributions from viewers of the PTL club worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie is based on a 2000 documentary of the same name. Massive credit needs to go to the make-up department and the magicians who made Chastain go from slender to zaftig as the film\u2019s time passes. While televangelism may make many viewers shake their heads in puzzlement, and, while it trods a path well-worn by other biopics, the fantastic performances of the two principals make it well worth seeing. \u201cthis exceptionally well-cast version of Tammy Faye’s story does manage to tap into a cultural moment with reverberations we continue to feel today,\u201d says Alissa Wilkinson of Vox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 65%; audiences 88%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suppose at some point I must have known more about the downfall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker other than the broad outlines I remember: wildly popular televangelists who fell from grace in a financial scandal. Tip of the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Eyes of Tammy Faye = surprisingly moving portrait of a woman who--most probaly--actually meant well, unlike some of the men around her.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[269,265,57,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-biography","category-movies","category-the-morgue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2pX","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9299,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9297\/revisions\/9299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}