Salvation! | |
---|---|
Directed by | Beth B |
Screenplay by | Beth B Tom Robinson |
Produced by | Beth B Michael H. Shamberg |
Starring | Stephen McHattie Dominique Davalos Exene Cervenka Viggo Mortensen Rockets Redglare |
Cinematography | Francis Kenny |
Edited by | Elizabeth Kling |
Music by | New Order a.o. |
Distributed by | Circle Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Salvation! (also known as Salvation!: Have You Said Your Prayers Today?) is a 1987 American black comedy film directed by Beth B, and starring Viggo Mortensen, Exene Cervenka, and Stephen McHattie. The film is a parody of televangelism, and was released right after the real-life Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart scandals. [1]
In the film, a televangelist in Staten Island has a one-night-stand with a woman during a rainstorm. He then finds himself accused of sexual assault by the woman's brother-in-law, and is pressured into entering a working relationship with his lover's sister. The televangelist finds himself increasingly dominated by his new business partner, and keeps giving in to her demands.
McHattie plays Reverend Randall, a Staten Island-based televangelist who has been bilking his flock and secretly watches pornography while he is rehearsing his sermons in his stately home. Cervenka plays Rhonda Stample, a born again Christian who watches his programs and regularly sends him money, to the irritation of Rhonda's non-believer husband, Jerome (Viggo Mortensen).
Shortly after Jerome loses his factory job, his sister in-law Lenore (Dominique Davalos) comes to Rev. Randall's home in a rainstorm, claiming car trouble. He reluctantly lets her in, and the two take turns seducing and then retreating from each other, until they finally engage in violent lovemaking. Jerome shows up later that evening, along with two boorish neighbors, and beat him for what they believe is an unwanted encounter with Lenore.
All of them contemplate the possibilities of blackmail against him with a sex scandal, but Randall manages to escape his home. That morning, he is picked up hitchhiking by Rhonda, who pitches him on the notion of bringing her into his ministry. In order to avert the intentions of her husband and sister, he agrees to her idea.
Later, Rhonda's addition to Randall's program has become a huge success, with Jerome, Lenore, and the neighbors all enjoying a higher standard of living. But Rhonda gets drunk with power, and makes increasing demands on Randall, first to boot all the other parties from their ministry, and then for a bigger share of their proceeds. Randall resists the latter option, but ultimately gives in. The film finishes with Rhonda performing a heavy-metal inspired song of faith, "Destroy All Evil", with imagery associated with tropes of the musical style.
The soundtrack album was released on Factory Benelux/Les Disques du Crépuscule (catalogue TWI-774) [2] and Factory Australasia (catalogue FACT-182) [3] in February 1988.
Salvation! (Original Soundtrack) | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | 1988 |
Genre | |
Label | |
Producer | Various |
Singles from Salvation! (Original Soundtrack) | |
|
Side A:
Side B:
Chart (1988) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) [4] | 86 |
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing of disease and disability can be brought about by religious faith through prayer or other rituals that, according to adherents, can stimulate a divine presence and power. Religious belief in divine intervention does not depend on empirical evidence of an evidence-based outcome achieved via faith healing. Virtually all scientists and philosophers dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience.
Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. is an American actor, musician, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including nominations for three Academy Awards for Best Actor, three BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award.
Hugo Ball was a German author, poet, and essentially the founder of the Dada movement in European art in Zürich in 1916. Among other accomplishments, he was a pioneer in the development of sound poetry.
Granville Oral Roberts was an American Charismatic Christian televangelist, who was one of the first to propagate Prosperity Gospel Theology. He was ordained in the Pentecostal Holiness Church from 1936 to 1947 and in the United Methodist church from 1968 to 1987, when his credentials were revoked. He is considered one of the forerunners of the charismatic movement, and at the height of his career was one of the most recognized preachers in the US. He founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University.
Exene Cervenka is an American singer, artist, and poet. She is best known for her work as a singer in the California punk rock band X.
The Gospel of the Hebrews, or Gospel according to the Hebrews, is a lost Jewish–Christian gospel. The text of the gospel is lost, with only fragments of it surviving as brief quotations by the early Church Fathers and in apocryphal writings. The fragments contain traditions of Jesus' pre-existence, incarnation, baptism, and probably of his temptation, along with some of his sayings. Distinctive features include a Christology characterized by the belief that the Holy Spirit is Jesus' Divine Mother and a first resurrection appearance to James, the brother of Jesus, showing a high regard for James as the leader of the Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem. It was probably composed in Greek in the first decades of the 2nd century, and is believed to have been used by Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Egypt during that century.
Summer School is a 1987 American comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and starring Mark Harmon as a high school gym teacher who is forced to teach a remedial English class during the summer. The film co-stars Kirstie Alley and Courtney Thorne-Smith. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and produced by George Shapiro and Howard West. The original music score was composed by Danny Elfman.
The Hieronymites or Jeronimites, also formally known as the Order of Saint Jerome, is a Catholic cloistered religious order and a common name for several congregations of hermit monks living according to the Rule of Saint Augustine, though the role principle of their lives is that of the 5th-century hermit and biblical scholar Jerome.
Ernest Winston Angley was an American Christian evangelist, author, and television station owner who was based in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio from the 1950s until his death in 2021.
Lenore Tawney was an American artist working in fiber art, collage, assemblage, and drawing. She is considered to be a groundbreaking artist for the elevation of craft processes to fine art status, two communities which were previously mutually exclusive. Tawney was born and raised in an Irish-American family in Lorain, Ohio near Cleveland and later moved to Chicago to start her career. In the 1940s and 50s, she studied art at several different institutions and perfected her craft as a weaver. In 1957, she moved to New York where she maintained a highly successful career into the 1960's. In the 1970s Tawney focused increasingly on her spirituality, but continued to make work until her death.
There are a number of episodes in the New Testament in which Jesus was rejected. Jesus is rejected in Judaism as a failed Jewish messiah claimant and a false prophet by all denominations of Judaism.
The Sinner's prayer is an evangelical term referring to any prayer of repentance, prayed by individuals who feel sin in their lives and have the desire to form or renew a personal relationship. This prayer is not mandatory but, for some, functions as a way to communicate with and understand their relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is a popular prayer in evangelical circles. While some Christians see reciting the Sinner's prayer as the moment defining one's salvation, others see it as a beginning step of one's lifelong faith journey.
The fate of the unlearned, also known as the destiny of the unevangelized, is an eschatological question about the ultimate destiny of people who have not been exposed to a particular theology or doctrine and thus have no opportunity to embrace it. The question is whether those who never hear of requirements issued through divine revelations will be punished for failure to abide by those requirements.
Matthew 15:23 is a verse in the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.
Live Prayer is a Christian evangelical Internet and television ministry located in Tampa, Florida, founded and operated by Bill Keller.
The veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church encompasses various devotions which include prayer, pious acts, visual arts, poetry, and music devoted to her. Popes have encouraged it, while also taking steps to reform some manifestations of it. The Holy See has insisted on the importance of distinguishing "true from false devotion, and authentic doctrine from its deformations by excess or defect". There are significantly more titles, feasts, and venerative Marian practices among Roman Catholics than in other Western Christian traditions. The term hyperdulia indicates the special veneration due to Mary, greater than the ordinary dulia for other saints, but utterly unlike the latria due only to God.
The People Speak is a 2009 American documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans. The film gives voice to those who, by insisting on equality and justice, spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history and also illustrates the relevance of this to today's society.
The Order of the Apostles of the Last Days is a Roman Catholic religious order proposed by the visionary Mélanie Calvat claiming guidance from Our Lady of La Salette at a private apparition on 19 September 1846 on the mountain at La Salette, Isère in France.
Dominique Davalos is American musician, rock singer and bass player formerly in the band Dominatrix, whose controversial music video single "The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight", released in 1984, was deemed too racy for its time. The song's video, directed by Beth B., featured a fur and stocking-clad Davalos. Commercial radio stations banned the single, and cable channel MTV refused to air the risque video. In 2012, the video was placed on display in the contemporary art wing of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Davalos has Finnish and Spanish heritage from her father's side.
Guillermo Maldonado is a Honduran-American evangelical Christian, pastor, televangelist, and author. He is the co-founder and senior pastor of El Rey Jesús, a Nondenominational Christian megachurch located in Miami, Florida.