The Eyes of Tammy Faye
A documentary of the rise and fall of the careers of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker as told through the eyes of Tammy Faye. Tammy Faye comes across as a sympathetic character with truely boundless optimism and a relentless innocent drive. Whether that’s true or not, who can really say, but it is true she’s been through the wringer more than once. Building not one, but three sizeable television networks only to have them yanked away by, in order, firstly Pat Robertson, then Paul and Jan Crouch, and lastly Jerry Falwell. Falwell, especially, is portrayed as the snake we all know he is. His orchestrated takeover of PTL was stunning in its audacity.
RuPaul does a creditable job in narration, but the sock puppet introduction of the chapters doesn’t work. Told through interviews (Robertson, Crouch refused to participate, a Falwell didn’t even bother to respond), archival footage and fly-on-the-wall live footage, the viewer really has a lot of sympathy for Tammy Faye by the end of the film. She certainly doesn’t live in the real world, claiming, as she does, that she’s “lost everything” but lives in a gated community in Palm Springs and doesn’t work for a living. Nevertheless, she never gives up and is always out trying to do something. Her pitch for a new tv show to Steven Chao, head of network programming for (was it NBC?) was squirm inducing. Chao was nearly in a fetal position by the end.
It’s hard to know how much of this to believe, but I have no doubt that Tammy Faye believes this is the way things went. We see Jim Bakker’s new wife, although she says nothing, we meet Roe Messner the builder of the theme park and Tammy Faye’s new husband, and are party to Tammy Faye’s meeting with the Charlotte paper’s reporter who brought down the whole house of cards. He asks her for an autograph. She’s a puzzlement.
; would not watch again
March 28th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
A documentary about Tammy Faye… narrated by RuPaul? I can’t believe you ever found this, let alone dared to watch it. My mind is doing backflips trying to comprehend the synopsis alone.
Sir, I applaud your bravery on this harrowing endeavour.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Hey, man. I notice it’s on your queue!!! In fact, that may be where I found it.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
What the…?!
I’m getting to the bottom of this.
March 28th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Laura’s never seen it either.
I wonder if Netflix is quietly seeding my queue with films that will kill me so I stop renting so damn much from them. Either that, or it got her confused with Divine and inserted it straight to the queue as a suggestion.
Both are reasonable assumptions. Either way, I’m removing it.
March 28th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
NO NO NO! I mean it’s not an outstanding film but it’s worth seeing. It’s sort of in that Slasher vein.
March 28th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
If I could see it with Mike “Slasher” Bennett, then maybe. He’d create enough of a distraction that I couldn’t fully realize what I was watching.
At least I’d know I’d be drunk.
And deaf.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:34 am
I think I figured it out. Both Tammy Faye and Laura Mars have eyes. They’re not the same person, though. At least I don’t think so.