The Apostle (1997)
Directed by: Robert Duvall
Premise: A Pentecostal preacher (Robert Duvall) loses his marriage and his church. After a violent incident, he flees to a small town and founds a new congregation.
What Works: The Apostle was a passion project for Robert Duvall. He had conceived of the film in the 1980s but The Apostle wasn’t completed until 1997 and Duvall is credited as an actor, writer, executive producer, and director. Passion projects sometimes go wrong with filmmakers overproducing and getting too self-indulgent. The passion for the material is evident in the film but so is Duvall’s clarity of vision which keeps The Apostle on track. This film features one of Duvall’s best performances in part because it plays to the qualities that distinguished Duvall as an actor. Duvall had a tough and sometimes abrasive demeanor but many of his performances also possessed an understated tenderness and a masculine vulnerability. All of those qualities are on display in The Apostle. As E.F., Duvall played a deeply flawed man who is temperamental, controlling, and impulsive but also aspires to the goodness that he finds in Christianity. After fleeing his old life, E.F. sets up a church and collects a new congregation and his spiritual struggle is on display in an accessible and everyday way. In that sense, The Apostle is a much more interesting spiritual story than a lot of allegedly religious pictures. This may be best seen in a confrontation between E.F. and a belligerent local played by Billy Bob Thornton. The Apostle also has an extraordinarily authentic sense of place. This depiction of smalltown America is affectionate without being condescending and the members of the congregation are played by real looking actors who belong to that place. Walton Goggins plays a local mechanic and the love and community he finds in the church and in his relationship with E.F. is moving. The picture is a depiction of a community with E.F. and his church at the center of it and it’s an extraordinary portrait.
What Doesn’t: The Apostle works primarily as a character study and a depiction of a community. The narrative isn’t so obviously structured. This isn’t about a character struggling toward a specific goal as we typically see in Hollywood films. There is a burning passion and desire at the center of it—E.F.’s need to live the life of an apostle and subconsciously atone for his sins—and that’s a large part of what makes this movie work. The looser narrative structure tends to make the film feel a bit baggy. That’s appropriate to the story of a searcher but E.F. does not outwardly grow over the course of the picture. He starts the film with a violent temper that never really goes away nor does E.F. ever directly confront that character flaw.
Disc extras: The Apostle was released on DVD which included a commentary track, featurette, trailer, and cast and crew biographies.
Bottom Line: The Apostle is one of the best films of Robert Duvall’s career. Not merely an expression of faith, The Apostle engages with religion and spirituality in an earnest way and it’s a fascinating character study.
Episode: #1088 (February 22, 2026)