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Elmer Gantry is a picaresque novel. Binch is also a snob who has contempt for other preachers. The film leaves the realities of these mystical happenings up to interpretation, and so gives the congregants active, if small, roles in the narrative. Within the Protestant church, a battle rages between the traditionalists, or fundamentalists, who believe in the literal truth of the Bible, and the liberals, who believe that some parts of the Bible may be understood in a symbolic sense. I'm not talking about what happens just before the end, but She and Elmer have an affair, which later turns out to be a trick on the part of Hettie and her husband Oscar to blackmail Elmer. 4953. Then from 1918 to 1920 he is in Sparta, where the population is 129,000. Tries to give the kid a break. Although most entertaining when Gantry is actually preaching (mainly in the opening half of the film), the intelligent script moves on from it's basic premise (that Gantry is a charlatan) to explore wider questions of the nature of humanity and society. Barney Bains is a deacon at the Baptist church in Schoenheim and the father of Lulu. For example, the division between Northern and Southern Baptists is explained in this way: [B]efore the Civil War the Northern Baptists proved by the Bible, unanswerably, that slavery was wrong; and the Southern Baptists proved by the Bible, irrefutably, that slavery was the will of God. Later in the novel, Frank Shallard realizes how threatened conservative clergymen are by scientific knowledge and how inadequate they are to preside over educational institutions. He also forms a Committee on Public Morals, persuades the police to make him a temporary lieutenant, and personally leads raids on the red-light districts. Nathaniel Benham is a trustee of the Methodist church in Banjo Crossing and the father of Cleo. Both time and cost are saved by the high efficiency. The film is a triumph for Lancaster and Kennedy and for all those who wish to visit a confusing period of Americanna, when the word of God was infected by preachers, pushers and spiritual leeches. It comes when Elmer regales Pengilly with a self-congratulatory story about the success of Elmers ministry in Zenith. He is coerced into becoming a minister because his family, his town, and his college are so tightly structured around the church. Novels for Students. The inspiration for Falconer, Aimee Semple McPherson, on the other hand, was thought of as a celebrity, and many felt her intentions were dubious. Nashville Opera production directed by John Hoomes, conducted by William Boggs. However, these were exercises in popular, rather than literary, fiction. His father was a physician. Lundquist, James, Sinclair Lewis, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1973, pp. Its a movie about driving passions so hot and strongfor a sale, for salvationthey burn a person up. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Your email address will not be published. Cecil Aylston is Sharon Falconers assistant. Shallard is then attacked by religious fanatics and blinded. 3945; originally published in New York Herald Tribune Books, March 13, 1927. Yet at the fire, it is Sharon who is heroic. One famous evangelist was Gipsy Smith (18601947), an Englishman who made twenty-six trips to the United States. Lewis divorced his wife in 1928, and married Dorothy Thompson. This tended to undermine the uniqueness of Christianity and the literal interpretation of the Bible. Shirley Jones won an Oscar for best supporting actress in her role as the woman who can bring Gantry down. The impact of religion on Elmer Gantry symbolizes what it has done to the American spirit. Probably the most significant thing to know about this film is that the story is set in 1927. The relentless, unrelieved exposure of religious hypocrisy, while amusingly presented in parts, tends to become wearying. Sacrilege is a word that was used often in the violent arguments that accompanied the publication in 1927 of Elmer Gantry. Did he come to bring peace or more war? , Sinclair Lewis and the Method of Half-Truths, in Society and Self in the Novel, Columbia University Press, 1956, pp. date the date you are citing the material. 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. And he has involvements with several of his church secretaries. Lewis made the point that Protestantism has nurtured America in the same way it has nurtured Elmer. Your email address will not be published. ." That night he has doubts, but he is persuaded to speak the following night at the Y.M.C.A. Some found it repugnant and accused Lewis of grossly distorting his subject matter. The supporting staff performed equally well. Sign In 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. According to Mark Schorer, in his introduction to Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays, No novel in the history of American literature outraged its audience so completely, and very few novels in American literature had a larger immediate audience. The book was banned in Boston and other cities and denounced from hundreds of pulpits. If a satirist depicts the object of his satire as based on humbug, advocated by humbug, and defended by humbug, he must employ a great deal of wit and fantasy to prevent his attack from seeming cross-grained and peevish. They were outside of respectable societylike Kingsand I am not sure but that this was better for their art and their happiness than to be classed as lecturers, tax-payers, tennis-players, suburban householders, and lovers of dogs.' WebMemorable Moments. 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Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on twentieth century literature. At his Lively Sunday Evenings, Elmer gets up to many publicity-generating stunts. Gantry was in the middle of trying to settle down and marry Sharon when she saw that shooting star at the end, and from that moment, she seemed to feel truly touched by God. I can kiss you like this Quickly she touches his cheek, Yes, or passionately, terribly passionately, and it would only symbolize my complete union with Jesus! Another minor character who serves as one small brick in the vast anti-clerical edifice that is Elmer Gantry is Dr. Howard Bancock Binch, a renowned defender of the literal truth of the Bible. The pious but stupid Eddie complains that [E]verything we Baptists stand for is threatened by those darn so-called liberals . He is referring to the practice of open communion, which is favored by liberals, as opposed to the closed communion of the fundamentalists, according to which only Baptists are allowed to participate in the rite. 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. Jim Lefferts is Elmers roommate and his only friend at Terwillinger College. It is easy to see why Burt Lancaster won an oscar for his excellent portrayal of Elmer Gantry. Napap would bring about nationwide censorship of novels, plays, paintings, and movies. It has provided much of his and Americas taste in architecture, clothing, music, literature, philosophy; it has provided everything but any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.. The result would be the fascist state against which Babbitt, in anticipation of 1984, warns. He was saturated with itthe sermons, hymns, Bible stories, funerals, weddings, Sunday schools. Elmer pulls the burning jacket off her, and beats Elmers start at religious leadership is rocky. It's sophisticated script, complex characters, and wonderful acting opened a whole new world for me. Garrison Shallard attempts to stand against Gantrys attempts to destroy him, but eventually he resigns from his pulpit. Grebstein, Sheldon Norman, Sinclair Lewis, Twayne United States Authors Series, No. Addeddate 2017-01-24 22:02:04 Identifier in.ernet.dli.2015.184871 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t87h71c67 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 Ppi 600 Scanner Internet Archive Python library 1.2.0.dev4. Jim tries to persuade Elmer not to go along with it, but when Elmer attends the Annual Prayer Week he cannot resist the emotionalism of the service. Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/film-review-burt-lancaster-s-oscar-winning-elmer-gantry-trylon-theater-monday-and-tu/). Lewiss famed businessman character, George Babbitt, and pastors in the community discuss the merits of holding a revival in Zenith. Will his charade collapse when an ex-lover shows up to settle a score? In a very Elmer Gantry moment, starting at 2:54, after singing the Lord gave us two good hands, brothers and sisters, one for the givin and one for the takin, Opposition to the movement was vicious; Fosdick was ousted from his New York pulpit, and in the Bible Belt and the deep south, fundamentalism cranked itself up into a powerful machine that found expression through anti-evolution measures volumes of blue laws, and the Ku Klux Klan. While managing to cover up certain sexual indiscretions, he is thrown out of the seminary before completing his BD because he is too drunk to turn up at a church where he is supposed to preach. He goes to Mizpah Seminary, where he entertains his classmates with tales of his sexual escapades. In the mid-1920s, Elmer Gantry is a hard-living, smooth-talking traveling salesman who often uses Christian references in his sales pitches to his largely Christian clients. After his wedding to Cleo, he gasps to himself, Oh, good God, Ive gone and tied myself up, and I never can have any fun again! His treatment of her on the wedding night is reminiscent of Eddie Schwirtzs treatment of Una Golden. But a grand jury investigation found that McPherson had spent a pleasant month in Mexico with a married man from her church. Don Pickens is Frank Shallards roommate at Mizpah Theological Seminary. In his preparation for the ministry, it is ironic that Elmer plagiarizes his first (and most frequently useful) sermon from the social reformer Robert G. Ingersoll: Love is the only bow on lifes dark cloud. There is a definite give and take between Gantry and Falconer and the congregants in Elmer Gantry. ." He says both. Have faith! Overhead traveling cranes are used in industrial buildings to lift and transport heavy jobs, machines, and so on, from one place to another. He also thinks that Baptist leaders are word-splitting, text-twisting, applause-hungry, job-hunting, medieval-minded second-raters . Horace Carp hates the Baptists and wants to switch to the more upscale Episcopalians as soon as possible because this will give him a better social position in which he will be able to marry a nice rich girl. Brother Karkis only wants his divinity degree so he can get a better paying job. WebElmer turns to Rigg for help, who hires a detective to dig up incriminating evidence against Hettie and her husband. "You're all sinners! He also notes that the more bizarre and irrational the experience, the more the evangelists value it, but he leaves the reader in no doubt about the contempt with which he views such phenomena: once occurred what connoisseurs regard as the highest example of religious inspiration.