Although I have mixed emotions about this film, I have always enjoyed watching it and find it utterly fascinating.<br /><br />This is a powerful story of a very flawed-but very sincere Pentecostal preacher from Texas who flees after slugging his adulterous wife's lover with a baseball bat, killing him, as it turns out. "Sonny" (Robert Duvall), winds up starting a rural church from scratch in a small town in Louisiana, and is eventually discovered and sent back to Texas to jail.<br /><br />Duvall gives a tremendous acting performance in here, one of the best I've seen on film. He dominates the picture from start-to-finish. There are some good messages in here, including the one that you reap what you sow, and accepting that even when it's bad news and you wind up paying for your sins.<br /><br />Speaking of that, the bad news about this film is yet another portrayal of a minister who acts very un-minister-like. Here's a preacher who carries a pistol, slugs a man with a baseball bat, runs away from the scene and his family, and later settles a dispute with his fists and makes sexual advances to a woman.<br /><br />I don't know ANY minister (or priest) who would do these things - especially all of them! - but it makes for a good story, film-wise. Another horrible message was seeing the minister's wife (played by Farrah Fawcett) having an affair with the youth minister! I mean, all of this is ridiculous. To those anti-church readers out there, I'm sorry but this is not the way it is, by any means.<br /><br />Yet, despite all that, this is not your typical anti-Christian film ,which is why no major studio would fund this movie. Duvall had to put his own money into this. Hollywood didn't want to back a film in which "people being saved" means a lot, where people unashamedly praise the Lord, and are converted. In this film are several touching conversions, including a dramatic one with Billy Bob Thornton, of all people! Hey, with God all things are possible. <br /><br />Many of the people in this movie were not actors, either, but real ministers. Also shown are supporting characters who are all sincere, good people who help "The Apostle E.F." (Duvall) build the church and help make it grow.<br /><br />In the end, despite all his flaws, Duvall's character turns out to be one of a sincere evangelist who truly loves God and wants to do His work wherever and whenever, even on a chain gang as the ending credits attest.<br /><br />The more I watch this movie, the more I appreciate the cinematography in here. I enjoyed the music, too. This is a strange film full of "good" and "bad" people and their actions and a movie, I suspect, people would either love or hate. I loved it.