although i have mix emotion about this film and i have always enjoy watch it and find it utterly fascinate . this be a powerful story of a very flawed but very sincere pentecostal preacher from texas who flee after slug his adulterous wife lover with a baseball bat and kill him and a it turn out . sonny ( robert duvall ) and wind up start a rural church from scratch in a small town in louisiana and and be eventually discover and send back to texas to jail . duvall give a tremendous act performance in here and one of the best i have see on film . he dominate the picture from start to finish . there be some good message in here and include the one that you reap what you sow and and accept that even when it bad news and you wind up pay for your sin . speaking of that and the bad news about this film be yet another portrayal of a minister who act very un minister like . here a preacher who carry a pistol and slug a man with a baseball bat and run away from the scene and his family and and later settle a dispute with his fist and make sexual advance to a woman . i do not know any minister ( or priest ) who would do these thing especially all of them . but it make for a good story and film wise . another horrible message be see the minister wife ( play by farrah fawcett ) have an affair with the youth minister . i mean and all of this be ridiculous . to those anti church reader out there and i be sorry but this be not the way it be and by any mean . yet and despite all that and this be not your typical anti christian film and which be why no major studio would fund this movie . duvall have to put his own money into this . hollywood do not want to back a film in which people be save mean a lot and where people unashamedly praise the lord and and be convert . in this film be several touching conversion and include a dramatic one with billy bob thornton and of all people . hey and with god all thing be possible . many of the people in this movie be not actor and either and but real minister . also show be support character who be all sincere and good people who help the apostle e. f. ( duvall ) build the church and help make it grow . in the end and despite all his flaw and duvall character turn out to be one of a sincere evangelist who truly love god and want to do his work wherever and whenever and even on a chain gang a the end credit attest . the more i watch this movie and the more i appreciate the cinematography in here . i enjoy the music and too . this be a strange film full of good and bad people and their action and a movie and i suspect and people would either love or hate . i love it .