Nostalgia comes with the territory of a celebrity biopic. This is mostly true when the film’s subject is or was a well known personality whose notoriety was concurrent with one’s younger days and whose success and very public failure and fall from grace was grist for the mill of the evening news and daytime talk shows of its day. Pleasant nostalgia however was not what the main emotion director Michael Showalter’s product The Eyes of Tammy Faye evoked in this viewer/critic. Showalter’s film is a dramatization of a previously done documentary of the same name of the life of Tammy Faye LaValley Bakker, the one time wife of former televangelist Jim Bakker. Regardless of source, less than five minutes into the picture, it became painfully apparent that the childhood and youth of Yours Truly was not the only one to be tainted with and all but ruined by the corrupting influence of toxic religion.
Whittier Square’s Circle Cinema remains probably the best venue for movie going in Tulsa and its management is following CDC recommendations in requiring patrons to mask up and social distance for all viewings of all films and associated gatherings. The Eyes of Tammy Faye will be showing through this week.
As was alluded to above, the film’s subject person was not the only one whose early life was corrupted by the limiting and at times outright abusive intrusion and influence of religion. The five-star performance by Jessica Chastain who portrayed the title character made that painfully clear early in the film. Not long after her rough and near-impoverished rural Minnesota childhood, Tammy Faye LeValley found herself in a Minneapolis bible college where she met the man who would become her husband of some thirty-one years, Jim Bakker whose character was superbly played by British-American actor Andrew Garfield. According to the story as played on screen, Jim Bakker did not start off as a driven or called man of God. It was in the throes of a personal crisis that he bargained with God as he knew him that he set aside his career intent of being a radio DJ and dedicated his life to serve the Lord. The natural urges of being two young people played heavily on them and they opted to get married rather than live in sin. The story reveals a reasonable account of how a resourceful young married couple started at the bottom of the success ladder, negotiating life in a self-founded religious ministry by reaching out first to the faith of children with homemade puppets. Poor financial management was apparent early on when the couple took their ministry on the road. A moment of crisis and uncertainty segued into a chance meeting with a Christian Broadcasting Network executive. When Pat Robertson was convinced by his associates at CBN made room in their programing schedule for Jim and Tammy Faye’s televangelist ministry, the only way for the Bakkers was up. A few short years thereafter it became hard to determine which was more intoxicating for the charismatic pair; money or the illusion of having a lot of it. In the course of the upward climb, the Bakkers eventually crossed paths with Jerry Falwell. Falwell was played by Vincent D’Onofrio who was not really a spot-on physical match, but whose portrayal of Baptist Conservative ideological purity was crisp and convincingly representative of the character. In the course of all of the Bakker’s dealings with CBN, Pat Robertson (played by Gabriel Olds) and Falwell, the unholy union of the “Christian Right” with the Republican party was well and accurately depicted. It also came across that Jim Bakker embraced and practiced “prosperity theology” insisting to his wife that “God does not want us to be poor.” Tammy Faye of course was just along for the ride but quickly became accustomed to the lifestyle and all the creature comforts the ministry’s donor money could afford her. Through it all though the frailties and vulnerabilities of a very public couple did emerge. Poor stress management, marital infidelity by both, petty criticisms, private hurtful insults, prescription medication abuse and outright worship of the almighty dollar to the point of defrauding and violating the good faith donors who supported their ministry did exact a heavy toll. That was a high crime for which Jim Bakker assumed accountability and ultimately paid dearly, being convicted of multiple counts of fraud and being handed a lengthy sentence in federal prison. What made it so much worse was the public betrayal and violation of trust by Falwell and the rest of the televangelists who piled on after his marital fidelity failure became known. The subsequent liquidation of their ministry built on donor money and credit was a very steep and excruciatingly painful public fall from grace for both of them, but especially for Tammy Faye.
Getting beyond all glamor of her celebrity and seeing the vulnerable woman beneath all of it, a fair description of Tammy Faye Bakker is that she was a kind soul who was truly a free thinking humanitarian at her core. In the beginning with her involvement with her husband’s televangelist ministry, enough benefit of the doubt exists to say she really did not know the full extent of what they were getting into. Her self-esteem is apparent in not bending to the demands of deference from the likes of Jerry Falwell, who did not share her social views nor appreciate her tolerance of those members of secular society he loathed. Her humanity shines through in her embrace and caring for those suffering from AIDS at a time when the Religious Right shunned them. Despite her obsession with her own physical attractiveness and overindulgence in personal cosmetics, it is easy to see that beneath it all she was a ordinary woman with simple needs of love, caring, compassion and giving of herself. Sadly, much of those needs fell by the wayside when her husband’s focus became more on their ministry and his neglect became more than she could bear. I commend Jessica Chastain for her superb, gracious and honest portrayal of what many considered a caricature of the dutiful wife standing by her man till the end. Also, my hat is off to director Michael Showalter for producing a worthy product and fairly depicting two people whose very name had become so associated with scandal and controversy. I rate this film 4.5 out of 5 stars.
I continue to ask myself why the fraudulent personalities are the ones who receive lucrative opportunities to influence the public, or so it seems to have been in our younger days, Stan. I am more discriminating of spiritual “leaders” now that life has shown me the humanity of it all (although, at this time, I like to think that God can work through even imperfect human beings, hopefully to fulfill a greater purpose than I can perceive.). Having said all of that, I have never cared for televised church ministries; they just always seemed untrustworthy to me, even as a young child. At times, they seemed downright embarrassing and painful to watch. We didn’t talk much about God or religion in my family, but I imagine that I must have heard some disparaging remarks from my parents, grandparents and siblings to have come to such early conclusions. And whether or not one believes in a higher power or whatever, we are stuck with human beings at this time. I am just glad that ministries can be scrutinized, and are subject to laws. The tax exempt status is tricky; the church I attend is using outside businesses as tenants in our large and largely un-utilized building, and I know that we have to be careful about the income received as donations versus income received from the tenants. Anyway, I may need to go and see this movie; the stories behind the stories are always appealing to me. Thank you for your honest and informative review, Stan.