# The Apostle
**The Apostle** is a 1997 American drama film written, directed by, and starring [Robert Duvall](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-duvall), who also financed it with $5 million of his own money after studios declined to back the project. Duvall plays Sonny Dewey, a Pentecostal preacher from Texas who commits a crime of passion, flees to rural Louisiana, and rebuilds his life and ministry under the name Apostle E.F.[1](https://www.deseret.com/1998/1/27/19360193/duvall-tapped-own-funds-to-make-the-apostle/) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60497)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | New York Film Festival screening 9 Oct 1997; Los Angeles and New York openings 17 Dec 1997; wide opening 30 Jan 1998[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60497) • [1](https://www.deseret.com/1998/1/27/19360193/duvall-tapped-own-funds-to-make-the-apostle/) |
| Creative control | Written, directed, and starred in by Robert Duvall; produced by Rob Carliner for Butcher's Run Films, distributed by October Films[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60497) |
| Financing | $5 million of Duvall's own money after roughly 13 years of failed attempts at studio backing[1](https://www.deseret.com/1998/1/27/19360193/duvall-tapped-own-funds-to-make-the-apostle/) • [3](https://kevinlallyonfilm.com/2026/02/18/robert-duvall-triumphed-as-both-actor-and-director-with-the-apostle/) |
| Principal cast | Robert Duvall (Apostle E.F.), Farrah Fawcett (Jessie Dewey), Miranda Richardson (Toosie), John Beasley (Brother Blackwell), June Carter Cash (Mrs. Dewey Sr.)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60497) |
| Technical | 133 minutes, color, PG-13; cinematography by Barry Markowitz, score by David Mansfield[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60497) |
| Reception | Metascore 83 from 28 reviews; 88% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 50 reviews[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-apostle/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apostle) |
| Awards | Academy Award nomination for Best Actor; Los Angeles Film Critics' and National Society of Film Critics' best actor awards for Duvall[6](https://baptiststandard.com/news/faith-culture/duvall-talks-faith-on-film-except-his-own/?print=pdf) • [7](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/03/preacher-man/) |
| Box office | Grossed $34 million[8](https://www.moviemaker.com/robert-duvall-soldier-of-fortune-3192/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Sonny Dewey is a gifted, popular Pentecostal preacher in Texas with a large congregation and a constant, personal dialogue with God. When he finds that his wife Jessie ([Farrah Fawcett](https://www.edgepedia.org/farrah-fawcett)) is having an affair with the church's youth minister and, through legal maneuvering, takes his church from him, Sonny loses control and beats the lover with a baseball bat.[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-apostle-1998) • [10](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-apostle)
He flees Texas and ends up in Bayou Boutte, a small, largely black Louisiana town, where he takes the name "the Apostle E.F." With help from a retired black minister, Brother Blackwell (John Beasley), he rebuilds a broken-down rural church and grows a congregation through broadcasts on a local 40-watt radio station. He dates Toosie ([Miranda Richardson](https://www.edgepedia.org/miranda-richardson)), a radio station worker, and works to find redemption while knowing the law may one day catch up with him.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apostle) • [9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-apostle-1998) • [11](https://cepreaching.org/preaching-connections/movies/the-apostle-1997/)
## Origins and financing
The film grew out of Duvall's long interest in Holiness (protestant tradition emphasizing sanctification; Duvall's preaching subject) and Pentecostal preaching, which he called "the only authentic American art form." In the 1960s, while doing research for a play in Hughes, Arkansas, he came upon a small Pentecostal church with a woman preacher and resolved to put such a world on film.[12](https://mg.co.za/news/south-africa/1998-07-02-the-devil-in-robert-duvall/) • [13](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2010/07/lowdownrobert-july-10/) A more direct trigger was an unrealized project called *The Kingdom*, a script about two preachers that Duvall was to have starred in for director [Sidney Lumet](https://www.edgepedia.org/sidney-lumet); when the head of Paramount decided Duvall was not right for the part, Duvall, already stimulated by months of research in rural Southern communities, wrote his own screenplay, completed in 1984 after visiting a Pentecostal church in Arkansas.[3](https://kevinlallyonfilm.com/2026/02/18/robert-duvall-triumphed-as-both-actor-and-director-with-the-apostle/) • [14](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/01/apostle-shows-grit-grace/)
**Self-financing.** For roughly 13 years Duvall tried unsuccessfully to obtain studio backing, a resistance he attributed in part to Hollywood's habit of patronizing or caricaturing preachers, as in *Elmer Gantry*. One studio executive passed after telling him "Everybody talks too much." Finally, in 1996, his accountant assured him he could afford the film himself; Duvall put up $5 million of his own savings, saying "I was getting older. So I knew it was now or never."[3](https://kevinlallyonfilm.com/2026/02/18/robert-duvall-triumphed-as-both-actor-and-director-with-the-apostle/) • [15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-18-ca-29945-story.html) • [1](https://www.deseret.com/1998/1/27/19360193/duvall-tapped-own-funds-to-make-the-apostle/) He later reported that he broke even and got his money back.[16](https://www.routemagazine.us/stories/a-conversation-with-robert-duvall)
## Production
The film was shot in seven weeks, mostly in western Louisiana. Duvall mixed professional actors with non-actors and musicians who knew the subject matter, setting what he described as an offhand, line-rehearsal tone. When [Wilford Brimley](https://www.edgepedia.org/wilford-brimley) dropped out of a role, Duvall replaced him with country singer [Billy Joe Shaver](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-joe-shaver); he cast [June Carter Cash](https://www.edgepedia.org/june-carter-cash) as his mother after seeing her in a television movie, and Rick Dial, a Lafayette furniture salesman, played the radio station owner while commuting between the set and his store's summer sales.[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-18-ca-29945-story.html) • [3](https://kevinlallyonfilm.com/2026/02/18/robert-duvall-triumphed-as-both-actor-and-director-with-the-apostle/)
Duvall's research for the role was extensive: he visited dozens of country churches across America, mostly black churches, and drew on services of the evangelist James Robison of Fort Worth, who told him he could use anything from his services in the film.[17](https://apnews.com/article/6ddb67ba5e2242ba9dd96f29b4ce242a) • [13](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2010/07/lowdownrobert-july-10/) Commentators have compared the resulting realism to the work of [Ken Loach](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-loach).[18](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1999/films/the-apostle)
## Reception
The film earned a Metascore of 83 based on 28 critic reviews, which Metacritic labels "universal acclaim," and holds 88% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 50 reviews.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-apostle/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apostle) Roger Ebert, the film critic of the *Chicago Sun-Times* from 1967 until his death in 2013, gave it four stars, writing that the film "is like a lesson in how movies can escape from convention and penetrate the hearts of rare characters."[9](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-apostle-1998) Reviewers singled out Duvall's performance; the *Washington Post*'s Desson Thomson wrote, "If you want to sample the sheer bouquet of great acting, you could get drunk on this movie."[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-apostle/) The film also had detractors: the *San Francisco Examiner*'s Barbara Shulgasser called it "one of the most self-in-dulgent, muddled, badly written, vague and pointless exercises in filmmaking" she had sat through, and James Bowman in 1997 judged the film far too long.[4](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-apostle/) • [19](https://eppc.org/publication/the-apostle/)
Duvall won the Los Angeles Film Critics' and National Society of Film Critics' best actor awards and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.[7](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/03/preacher-man/) • [6](https://baptiststandard.com/news/faith-culture/duvall-talks-faith-on-film-except-his-own/?print=pdf) Despite the serious religious theme, the film was a commercial success in the United States, grossing $34 million.[18](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1999/films/the-apostle) • [8](https://www.moviemaker.com/robert-duvall-soldier-of-fortune-3192/)
## Religious reception and interpretation
The film drew unusually broad approval across secular and religious audiences. The evangelical magazine Movieguide affirmed its "positive affirmation of God, church, and evangelism," and on March 18, 1998, Duvall received the annual Grace Prize at the 6th annual Movieguide Awards; the film also topped a Christian film critics' list compiled by the *Los Angeles Times* that year.[14](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/01/apostle-shows-grit-grace/) • [20](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-07-me-26455-story.html) *Christianity Today* called it a groundbreaking film that treats both its Pentecostal evangelist and his biblical message with deep respect, in contrast to the hypocritical-flimflam-artist tradition of *Elmer Gantry*.[14](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/01/apostle-shows-grit-grace/) Duvall reported that a Christian magazine publisher with 18 million readers told him she did not feel the film put believers down.[3](https://kevinlallyonfilm.com/2026/02/18/robert-duvall-triumphed-as-both-actor-and-director-with-the-apostle/)
Scholarly commentary has focused on the film's refusal of the preacher-as-hypocrite template. A chapter in *Protestants on Screen* argues that the film counters decades of screen misrepresentations of Holiness-Pentecostal churches in the American South, and a *Church History* review described it as a sensitive and honest portrayal of the southern Holiness tradition.[21](https://academic.oup.com/book/49426/chapter-abstract/418529548) • [22](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/church-history/article/abs/apostle/93672B77A370E15B890E7440A3083923) Carl Greiner, of the [University of Nebraska Medical Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-nebraska-medical-center), writing in the *Journal of Religion & Film*, read the character through the interplay of psychiatric disorder and religious claim, noting that the Apostle E.F. is significantly flawed yet committed to a genuine sense of calling and, in the film's terms, healed by his congregation.[23](https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol3/iss2/6/) The Center for Excellence in Preaching notes that Sonny's sincerity throughout is central: everything he says makes sense within the tenets of his evangelical fundamentalism, and his transformation in Louisiana is shown through concrete changes, a rehabbed church bus replacing the Chrysler, modest clothing replacing white suits, and anonymous gifts of food to the poor.[11](https://cepreaching.org/preaching-connections/movies/the-apostle-1997/)
## References
1. [Duvall tapped own funds to make 'The Apostle', Deseret News (Jan 27, 1998)](https://www.deseret.com/1998/1/27/19360193/duvall-tapped-own-funds-to-make-the-apostle/)
2. [The Apostle (1997), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60497)
3. [Robert Duvall Triumphed as Both Actor and Director with 'The Apostle', Kevin Lally on Film](https://kevinlallyonfilm.com/2026/02/18/robert-duvall-triumphed-as-both-actor-and-director-with-the-apostle/)
4. [The Apostle, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-apostle/)
5. [The Apostle, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apostle)
6. [Duvall talks faith on film, Baptist Standard](https://baptiststandard.com/news/faith-culture/duvall-talks-faith-on-film-except-his-own/?print=pdf)
7. [Preacher Man, Christianity Today / Books & Culture (March/April 1998)](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/03/preacher-man/)
8. [Robert Duvall: Soldier of Fortune, MovieMaker Magazine](https://www.moviemaker.com/robert-duvall-soldier-of-fortune-3192/)
9. [The Apostle movie review, RogerEbert.com (Jan 30, 1998)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-apostle-1998)
10. [The Apostle, Universal Pictures At Home](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-apostle)
11. [The Apostle (1997), Center for Excellence in Preaching](https://cepreaching.org/preaching-connections/movies/the-apostle-1997/)
12. [The devil in Robert Duvall, Mail & Guardian (July 1998)](https://mg.co.za/news/south-africa/1998-07-02-the-devil-in-robert-duvall/)
13. [The 'Low'-Down on Robert Duvall, Christianity Today (2010)](https://www.christianitytoday.com/2010/07/lowdownrobert-july-10/)
14. [The Apostle Shows Grit, Grace, Christianity Today (Jan 12, 1998)](https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/01/apostle-shows-grit-grace/)
15. [Gospel Truth, Los Angeles Times (March 18, 1998)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-18-ca-29945-story.html)
16. [A Conversation with Robert Duvall, ROUTE Magazine](https://www.routemagazine.us/stories/a-conversation-with-robert-duvall)
17. [Robert Duvall, Oscar-winning actor and 'Godfather' mainstay, dead at 95, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/6ddb67ba5e2242ba9dd96f29b4ce242a)
18. [The Apostle, International Film Festival Rotterdam 1999](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1999/films/the-apostle)
19. [The Apostle, Ethics & Public Policy Center (Dec 1, 1997)](https://eppc.org/publication/the-apostle/)
20. ['Apostle' Tops Christian Film Critics' List, Los Angeles Times (March 7, 1998)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-mar-07-me-26455-story.html)
21. ['Holy Ghost Power!' in Robert Duvall's The Apostle, Protestants on Screen, Oxford Academic](https://academic.oup.com/book/49426/chapter-abstract/418529548)
22. [The Apostle, Church History, Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/church-history/article/abs/apostle/93672B77A370E15B890E7440A3083923)
23. [The Apostle: A Psychiatric Appraisal, Carl Greiner, Journal of Religion & Film (1999)](https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol3/iss2/6/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films late 1990s › Released 1995 to 1998*
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