Source: Bryan Aubrey, Critical Essay on Elmer Gantry, in Novels for Students, Thomson Gale, 2006. It's a first rate film! Simulation Theory: How is Religion Part of It? The novel's protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. Sacrilege is a word that was used often in the violent arguments that accompanied the publication in 1927 of Elmer Gantry. In a scene where Gantry and Falconer are hoping to get funding to set up their revival in the city of Zenith, lack of attendance is straightforwardly given as the reason for seeking out the revival. A more elaborate kind of fantasy arises out of Lewiss belief that formal religion is based on the self-interest of its leaders. Later judgments have also been mixed. The steady accumulation of damning portraits of those whose spiritual home is the Protestant church, and the lack of any serious counterweight to them, led Rebecca West, in a hostile review of Elmer Gantry that first appeared in 1927, to write that Lewis lacked the necessary requirement of the satirist, which was to fully possess, at least in the world of the imagination, the quality the lack of which he is deriding in others. Wests point was that Lewis effectively exposes the charlatans and the way they misuse their power, but fails to show how that religious power might better be used. Though the bulldog of the football team in college, Elmer shows his cowardice during the fire in Sharon Falconers tabernacle (which is built out over the water): In howling panic, Elmer sprang among them, knocked them aside, struck down a girl who stood in his way, yanked open the door, and got through it the last, the only one, to get through it. He then ran out a little into the surf and dragged in a woman who had already safely touched bottom, and then at least thirty more who had already rescued themselves. You're all goin' to the painful, stinkin', scaldin', everlastin' tortures of a fiery hell, created by God for sinners, unless, unless, unless you repent. Co-stars Jean Simmons and Shirley Jones. On the train he meets a traveling salesman who invites him for a drink, which results in Elmer failing to keep his appointment at the church. On the trip to his new church, he gets drunk and carouses with women; he is discovered and is dismissed from the seminary. Lewis indicates the shaping of minds and values in such a village as Elmers: The church and Sunday School at Elmers village, Paris, Kansas, a settlement of nine hundred evangelical Germans and Vermonters had been the center of all his emotions, aside from hell-raising, hunger, sleepiness, and love. In the following essay excerpt, Lundquist suggests that Lewis portrays religion as stifling, as a manifestation of the pioneer mentality that characterized the old American and has become a threat to the new American. She was reported missing after swimming off Venice Beach, California, turning up five weeks later in Mexico, claiming she had been kidnapped. Were in the temple of the Lord! Frank finds some shame in being a preacher and longs to prove that he is nevertheless a real man. Not only had he been swathed in theology, but all his experience had been in books instead of the speech of toiling men. "Elmer Gantry - Summary" Literary Essentials: Christian Fiction and Nonfiction This film is not only good; it misses being great by a narrow margin. Frank Shallard is a student at Mizpah Theological Seminary, but he doubts the literal truth of the Bible. This is indeed what happened to Dr. Bruno Zechlin, one of the faculty at Mizpah, who lost his fundamentalist faith even before he received his theological doctorate. Laws, the number of times youve explained! The boy sees the preacher as a man who can possibly heal his crippled leg. Indeed, why doesnt he? In fact, the film could be seen as prescient, as both religious revivalism, and celebrity-scandal driven journalism (another of its subjects), have arguably become more prevalent since it was made. One cleric suggested that Lewis should be imprisoned for five years, and there were also threats of physical violence against the author. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. ." User Ratings He is a born salesman well versed with the bible. Elmer Gantry and his roommate, Jim Lefferts, have traveled from their college in Kansas to Cato, Missouri, to see their girlfriends. There, Gantry befriends the Methodist bishop and is appointed pastor of a church in Banjo Crossing. It is Elmers Napoleonic ambition to combine all such organizations to the greater glory of himself: He would combine in one association all the moral organizations in Americaperhaps, later, in the entire world. She is certainly not the saintly evangelist she presents herself to be, and she maintains a smug sense of superiority over the common folk she seeks to save. If there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original When he at last finds the courage, now that he is out of the church, to speak his mind, he is viciously attacked and blinded by fundamentalist fanatics. Given, too, that the film's production was 1960, we can say that "Elmer Gantry" does not reflect the current, 21st century, state of religious fundamentalism in America. The legal profession does not suit the unethical Gantry. Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. He would be the executive of that combination; he would be the super-president of the United States, and some day the dictator of the world [409]. She ignores the warning and they become a great success in the big city. But what perhaps made Elmer Gantry seem like such an act of outrage to so many readers is that Lewis did not simply treat religion in relation to other aspects of American life; he saw it instead as the molder of basic attitudes, most of which were, in his opinion, bad. Novels for Students. Go out slowly! Now dont you go explaining! WebThere is a bit of a rough edit in the middle, because the scene is actually over 8 minutes long, and I needed to get it down to under 5 minutes. Elmer Gantry, then, is notable as the book in which Lewis moved religion to the center of his critique of American values and declared it to have failed. Sin, Sin. Did he approve earthly monarchies or rebel against them? When he finally got the green light, it was United Artists that agreed to distribute the film. But Sharon stands by Elmer and truth prevails, until both are seduced by fame and blind faith over common sense, and fate deals them a crushing blow. The sociological factor that works against Elmer is the entire small-town Protestant environment in which he was raised. 11744. Transforming the community and its residents is the main goal of Northside food system organizers, who are using food as a tool to aid in that transformation. In 1928, he preached in a tent in Long Beach, California to more than 5,000 people, and on his return to America the following year, when he was nearly seventy years old, he attracted even larger crowds, including 15,000 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After Sharon dismisses him in favor of Elmer, Cecil tries to conduct a rescue mission in Buffalo. Traveling with the show is Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jim Lefferts, who looks at the show and Elmer with a critical eye, although Sister Sharon, William, and Elmer welcome him. So, I'll give him the credit and assume he was just playing his role, not hamming it up too much as it often appears. But a grand jury investigation found that McPherson had spent a pleasant month in Mexico with a married man from her church. He dealt with the connection between small-town provinciality and the religious proclivities of the time, the relationship between the gospel of Christianity and the gospel of business; and, because the novel was written out of the atmosphere surrounding the Scopes Monkey Trial, he dealt with the conflict between science and religion. Now famous, Elmers ambitions know no bounds, especially when he starts to work with the National Association for the Purification of Art and the Press. In the following essay excerpt, Dooley calls Elmer Gantry a picaresque novel that begins as a satire of revivalism.. Thats Elmer Gantry. The Reverend McGarry tells Frank simply to accept the church with all its imperfectionswith its Gantrysand turn to giving hope and comfort to the piteous human beings who come to the church for help. Religion, can't 'live' with it, can't live without it Good drama that had the potential to be one of the greats, Worth seeing even if time has lessened its controversial value. Shirley Jones won an Oscar for best supporting actress in her role as the woman who can bring Gantry down. One of the first scenes with Sister Sharon Falconer involves her asking for donations from these people. Is there really a conflict between science and religion, between reason and faith, or can the two live in harmony? After two more He behaves cruelly to Lulu, and when Floyd comforts her with a kiss, Elmer, who has planned the whole incident, bursts in on them with Lulus father. At his Lively Sunday Evenings, Elmer gets up to many publicity-generating stunts. Religion is an aspect of culture that permeates all societies, and much of history is defined by religions in power at the time. She tells Elmer that she has visions; God talks to her. At a revival meeting he does not like to include all the preachers in town. Lewis died of heart disease in Rome, Italy, in 1951. Ad Locust is a traveling salesman for the Pequot Farm Implement Company who befriends Elmer on the train to Monarch. Introduction of Gantry Girder. Elmer Gantry is a picaresque novel. Higher criticism was a method of Biblical criticism that originated in Germany. Dr. Otto Hickenlooper is a prominent Methodist minister in Zenith, and one of Elmers rivals. We see Gantry the narcissistic conman, Gantry the philanthropist, Gantry the flamboyant showman. For the evangelists, the irrational is valued more highly than the rational, but for the novelist, the reverse holds true. Harry Zenz is a student at the Mizpah Theological Seminary. At the beginning of the novel, Elmer is drunk, but he is drunk only in the fashion of a hell-raising college boy who talks a little like Huck Finn (his companion, perhaps significantly, is named Jim). "You're all sinners! Lewiss attack upon the villagesnowhere so embittered as in Elmer Gantry occurs through exposure of the cultural opportunities which the village provides, and these are thin indeed, Most literary materials found in the village are reflections of American popular culture before the turn of the century. "Elmer Gantry", directed by Richard Brooks, is one of his best. Known as the enfant terrible of the Methodist church, he is ruthlessly critical of others. Shallard is forced to resign. Burt Lancaster is bold and provocative as the title character who is preaching to you one moment and drunk and surly the other. It's the prohibition era. His dissatisfaction with his life, as well as his drinking, lying, and philandering give the audience a portrait of an unsavory man. The impact of religion on Elmer Gantry symbolizes what it has done to the American spirit. In another service a couple comes forward to ask that Falconer cure the husbands deafness. It is not merely a case of the good priest versus the bad priest. She is flirtatious, and able to get men to do her bidding. Did he come to bring peace or more war? Close Alert. Elmer Gantry was raised by his mother, a staunch Baptist, in the small town of Paris, Kansas. The last date is today's Well, he didn't disappoint here, either, with a fantastic performance as those of you who have seen this already know. In the Shadow of No Future: Justice Claims and the Israel-Palestine Conflict? McPherson was involved in a scandal in 1926. Don Pickens is Frank Shallards roommate at Mizpah Theological Seminary. He enters the ministry because he cannot think of anything else to do in life. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of One night, Hetties husband catches them together; blackmail threats follow, and Gantry realizes that Hettie is part of the plot. Reverend Jacob Trosper is the dean and chief executive of Mizpah Theological Seminary. He goes to live with his niece and dies within two years. Billy Sunday (18621935) was a professional baseball player who quit baseball a few years after he had a religious conversion. Higher criticism also showed that some elements in the Bible were also found in other religions and mythologies (the virgin birth, for example). And Tom Cruise, and the whole celebrity-studded cult of Scientology; Cruise jumping on Oprahs couch or in his fantastic role as the preacher of male supremacy in Magnolia. Burt Lancaster gives a fierce, bellicose and frightening performance as a salesman turned preacher, brining religion to the people in this screen adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel. Elmers start at religious leadership is rocky. Floyd Naylor is a large and rather stupid farmer in Schoenheim who is in love with Lulu Bains, whom he eventually marries. His widowed mother was owned by the church, we are told, and the fact that the boy was fatherless is less important than that the church could not provide Elmer with principles.

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