Andrew Garfield Was Over The Top Creepy As Disgraced Pastor Jim Bakker
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye shows how religion's modern day power couple, Jim & Tammy Faye Baker, started spreading the gospel with puppet shows out of bible college and turned their Praise The Lord (PTL) ministries into a multi-million dollar brand with television deals and a successful amusement park. So, how does a pastor so "blessed by the lord" get called, the greatest scab and cancer on the face of christianity in 2,000 years?
Tammy Faye and Jim Baker were NUTS about loving Jesus … and money. The couple used church funds to feed their lavishly extravagant lifestyles (they reportedly once spent $100,000 on a private jet to North Carolina to collect clothes from a closet) and build their religious empire.
At the peak of the couple's success in 1988, Jim Bakker was convicted and taken down on federal charges for fraud when it was brought to light that funds had been embezzled from the church to build the couple's theme park vision - Heritage, USA. The religious theme park was 3rd in attendance in 1986 (only falling short of Disneyland and Disney World.) The Baker's most likely would have gotten away with fraud, but Jim's sketch-ball past came back to haunt him when it was discovered Bakker and another pastor used $350,000 in P.T.L. funds as hush money after drugging and raping a church secretary. The scandal led to Jim Bakker's finances to be analyzed under a microscope, leading to the discovery of funds being embezzled for the park.
Jessica Chastain did an incredible job playing Tammy Faye and would win an Oscar for her performance if Nicole Kidman didn't walk and talk EXACTLY like Lucille Ball in Meet The Ricardos. Chastain deserves all the praise for the best portrayal to date as Tammy Faye, but the best portrayal of Jim Bakker doesn't belong to Andrew Garfield's over the top and goofy Bakker, but belongs the master of being a scumbag creep - Kevin Spacey.
In a 1990 biopic, Fall From Grace, Kevin Spacey somehow finds the range within himself to play the perfect rapist scum bag. You can now watch this turd of a movie as it re-airs on your grandma's favorite network - Lifetime.
If you've listened to the Twisted History of Evangelists there is no new information given in the movie that wasn't on the podcast, in fact, the podcast goes much deeper than the movie. The movie on its own was a big pile of meh, so I'd recommend listening to the podcast first and if you like what you hear watch the movie to follow along with what you learned from the podcast.