Elmer Gantry
Featuring Burt Lancaster in a compelling Best Actor Oscar-winning performance, Elmer Gantry is unforgettable screen entertainment "surging with power and excitement" (Variety)!
Handsome, opportunistic, immoral. Traveling salesman Elmer Gantry (Lancaster) is all this and more. So when he stumbles into a revival meeting and discovers that he can hustle money in a tent-show as easily as in a saloon, Gantry converts to evangelism. Joining forces with Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), he delivers demon-bashing oratories that bring him fame and fortune. But when an old flame (Shirley Jones) re-appears, Gantry is forced to confront demons of a more worldly order -- long-buried secrets that will make his "saintly" life a veritable Hell on Earth!
Member Reviews
Elmer Gantry - great - nick1
Wow, this movie is a real treat! I'm always happy when I discover a classic movie that for some reason that I've overlooked and it turns out to be outstanding. Burt Lancaster absolutely deserved the Oscar for this movie. This film is highly recommended!!Religious Revival - legalwright
This classic film explores the arena of evangelism and the phenomenon of grass roots Christian revivalism. Burt Lancaster plays a third rate itinerant salesman who is "converted" to Christianity early on in the film. The problem is that we don't know whether his conversion is real or feigned and this continues throughout the film. It is this ambiguity which gives Elmer Gantry its' intrigue - I initially thought that Burt Lancaster was overacting in his lead role but I came to realize that it was the character Elmer Gantry that was overacting. Just as the other characters do not know what to make of Elmer Gantry, neither does the viewer.
The film delicately handles many of the controversial issues associated with Christian evangelism - its' call for sudden conversion with the instant reward of everlasting life in heaven, the hypocrisy often found in organized religion, and the element of personal ambition for those who feel a calling to instruct on matters of faith. The film's treatment of these issues is as relevant now as it was when it was made (1960).
This film does not make judgments on the issues it presents which gives it a much broader reach. We are left to form our own judgments on the positions and behaviours of the characters. I really enjoyed this film.
Member Reviews
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Elmer Gantry - great - nick1
Wow, this movie is a real treat! I'm always happy when I discover a classic movie that for some reason that I've overlooked and it turns out to be outstanding. Burt Lancaster absolutely deserved the Oscar for this movie. This film is highly recommended!!Religious Revival - legalwright
This classic film explores the arena of evangelism and the phenomenon of grass roots Christian revivalism. Burt Lancaster plays a third rate itinerant salesman who is "converted" to Christianity early on in the film. The problem is that we don't know whether ...