So, it seems that Elmer - in the end - has had enough of this scene; turns his back on the whole bible-thumping gig; bags packed - he walks away.
Any ideas on what he did next?
Does the novel tell us what he went on to from this?
Care to speculate?
Politician?
The book was quite different. Actually, the movie covers only a small portion of the book, and treats it differently. In the book, Sharon is a fraud as well. She is also sort of a proto-feminist and has a shrine to female deities. When the tent goes up in flames, she stays there not so much to protect her flock, but because her creation is burning. So Gantry leaves and moves on. He eventually gets ordained, gets his own congregation which he builds up, gets caught philandering, but gets bailed out by the local powers that be, and goes along. Sort of like Jimmy Swaggart without losing everything.
Thank you SD.
At least the movie carried the same sentiment - she died a "true believer" and he just went back to being an unscrupulous scamp.
Thanks for the scoop on the novel - very interesting.
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We're excited to be in preproduction on our film "Canaan Land," about an Elmer Gantryish preacher in the 21st century, here's the website to check out this exciting project: http://www.gofundme.com/canaanland
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