I’ve been doing some digging around for great cinematic sermons, and during my relatively fruitless search I came across the scene below from Elmer Gantry (1960). This is a film I have yet to see, but after watching Burt Lancaster bust out in song like this I might have to get this film as soon as possible.
By the way, I’m trying to think of great cinematic sermons, and I am drawing a compete blank save for Orson Welles’s masterpiece in John Huston’s Moby Dick –any help out there?
The only one that comes to mind–and this is not great except in it’s humor–is sir Ian McKellan’s “No Butter In Hell” sermon from “Cold Comfort Farm”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Ge0fWvgr8
I’ll keep thinking, because there have to be plenty, but the only ones that came to mind were “World’s Greatest Sinner” (can’t find the clip), Mitchum’s love/hate speech in “Night of the Hunter” (this has to qualify as a sermon, doesn’t it?) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X20XIg38GcE and of course the Reverend Cleophus James – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k5N4KrZ0pw
What about the sermons in John Sayles’s Matewan?
The sermon that serves as the centerpiece for Vernon, Florida. It’s a terrible sermon logistically, but it’s downright hilarious in the context of the film.
I mean if you ask me, though, the entire film is a sermon in itself…
@5stein: Brilliant, I have yet to see that film, but McClellan nails the tone, delivery, and rhetoric I am thinking about–beautiful–thanks for this!
@Scott: Yeah, Mitchum’s “love abattlin’ hate” is certainly a sermon, I just plumb forgot it. I got “The World’s Greatest Sinner” on your recommendation and will be sitting down with it shortly now. As for Cleophus James, gem, gem, gen –I know there are so many I have seen, and as soon as I hit that YouTube link my mouth turned into a huge smile. Awesome!
@Jeff: The boy preacher, nice. Which also reminds me of There Will Be Blood, but that actor is far inferior to the kid in Matewan.
@Brad: That sermon in Vernon, Florida is wild, I must admit. And it is the most outlandish example of a muddled reading I may have heard on film. But that is what Morris is going for in that film, and the film is definitely a sermon, and I struggle with that fact. We have to talk about this one in detail over dinner.
Oh, Jim! You must (if you haven’t yet) see Robert Duvall’s 1997 “The Apostle” (he wrote, directed, produced and stars). Chock-full of spectacular preaching–some by actors (Duvall himself isn’t bad) and some by non-actors.
There isn’t a clip on Youtube, but the sermon in La Notte di San Lorenzo is absolutely devastating. An instant pulpit classic.
@Joe,
Nice, very nice. I’ve seen it and forgot it as well when racking my brain. Duval is awesome in that, an I think that movie is really powerful. I’m a huge fan, so you rule for bringing it into the list.
@Brad,
I haevn;t seen that film, I’m going to put it on my list now. is that one you saw at UMW? Can I get my hands on it that way–keep them coming Judges. I am modeling the approach for my next presentation on your blog. You do inspire me, even if I fight you about Vernon, Florida 🙂
Yea, it’s the one we watched for Ital. 202. Really powerful all the way through, proof that there are a million film classics out there that are sorely neglected just for being “foreign.” American-dominated media is out the door, my friend!
I think you could get it from the school? I’m not sure, but it’s definitely worth a check.
And if you wanna talk Vernon, I’m taking my gloves off, brother.
I believe “Inherit the Wind” contains a sermon, as well as some of the courtroom scenes approach sermon status.
Also, in the Blues Brothers movie, James Brown is the preacher in a musical sermon.
I second World’s Greatest Sinner – which is essentially built around Tim Carey’s lunatic sermons.
But I keep coming back to John Huston’s Wise Blood… sermon sampled by Ministry in “Jesus Built My Hotrod”
@Jerry,
Inherit the Wind is a classic, William Jennings Bryant’s parts in the courtroom are classic sermons, good call.
@Brian,
I never saw Wise Blood, but Huston is awesome, and just thinking about him in Chinatown excites me for how insane his sermon just might be, added t the list. Thanks bro.
Public access unsyndicated sermons forever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_mZO7vFIYI
I found my new favorite internet video.