So does this deal with LeRoy's CRIMINAL activities and lies?

[deleted]

Gosh, I wish I had read your post before I gave this movie 10 stars. I didn't know anything about the real man. In fact, when I rented the movie I thought it might be an expose of him, but then I got caught up in the movie, and thought it was very good.

I should have known there was a catch someplace. But still, I'm glad I watched it. I have been to meetings such as his, although I don't go anymore. But I can identify with his followers, because I know people like that, people of simple, pure faith. I hope I am still the same kind of person, but over the years I've gotten pretty cynical about TV preachers.

Another person on this board referred to the people in Jenkin's congregation as Wal-Mart rednecks. That was not fair, since some of the most monied people I know shop at Wally World. And, as life has it's ups and downs, shop at Tiffany's today, Wal-Mart tomorrow.

I really enjoyed the movie, tho. I was happy when the dog came back to life.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

I totally agree. A relative of mine is married to one of his sons. These folks live a very lavish lifestyle, to say the VERY LEAST! I looked this up out of sheer curiosity. My grandmother and her family grew up on the same street as Mr. Jenkins, but she never would say much about him. All she'd say (when asked to visit by the relative) was that she "didn't look good in stripes" (LOL!) I remember hearing that in one of his books, he claimed to have been abandoned as an infant, in a field, by a cherokee indian girl. I asked my grandma and she said "bull, he has brothers and sisters that look JUST like him!".I always heard that he got "ran out" of SC and did some prison time because he did burn down a state trooper's house down (and yes, it was for giving his daughter a ticket). As for my own personal opinion, I think it should be a crime to have no medical training and claim to be able to cure cancer, heart disease, and other terminal illnesses with miracle water you're selling. By the way, it's on public record in Ohio that he was reprimanded awhile back for selling water from that "holy" well that had animal fecal waste in it. I'm with you...I'd LOVE to see a REAL portrayal of his life. Now THAT would be a lifetime "movie of the week"! Let's look up to REAL servants of God (e.g. Mother Theresa, Rev. Billy Graham, etc...), NOT Elvis-impersonator false prophets who sell "holy water" by the jug. It's very sad what some people will believe. I suppose not all of us have "con-artist radar". I'm sorry, but sequins and rhinestones (and $4,000 watches) should be a "dead give-a-way". I've never seen the Rev. Billy Graham in a "sparkly" suit....odds are, you NEVER will.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Honestly this guy was before my time (I had never heard of him before I rented the movie on a whim), but I'll comment since I just watched the movie:

The man's rich, and I have to wonder if he'll get even more money, or more viewers to his TV and Tent vaudeville shows from gullible Wal-Mart rednecks who purchase deluded Damian's biopic when it streets in January.

Yes, the movie went out of its way to portray his several bejeweled gold rings, his gold cross necklace, his fancy clothes, his cadillac, mansion and big cathedral.

I wonder, does this monumental motion picture experience feature a scene in which LeRoy is robbed of about $900 in pocket cash (!!!) and a $4,000 watch in 1987? A $4,000 watch? Has anyone here ever wondered how a man of God can afford a $4000 watch? Easy, with the money of his followers. Good ol' LeRoy probably bought another one the next day. Besides, it's not money he had to declare to the government, anyway, bein' the leader of an organization of God, and all...

I don't think this was in the movie.

Or does the film mention the time in 1961 when this disgusting conman legally changed his name to LeRoy Jenkins BARTZ so he could better fleece extremely wealthy parishoner named Maudie Bartz, who'd been led to believe, by Jenkins, that he was her long-lost son? Funny how quickly LeRoy, his wife and his kids relocated to California when that well ran dry.

That wasn't shown either. Though his shmoozing with Mae West, Liberace and some psychic guy was shown.

Or how about the 1972 drunk charge as reported in the Columbus Ohio Dispatch at the time. Is THAT in the movie?

Not sure, but he is shown getting drunk at the home of a friend (whom he'd earlier criticized behind his back for getting booze from a police officer on Sunday, in violation of a "dry law"), and then begging the guy to do something to the police and the reporters to "get them."

Or better yet, does it mention the mysterious (and poorly rigged) April 8, 1979 DYNAMITE BLAST that did minor damage to the good reverend's Holy Hill Cathedral just one week after he'd taken out a $1.2 million insurance policy on it? Just wondering. Or how about that mysterious fire that destroyed his home three weeks later? You know, the one that happened just before he closed the deal on his ritzy new digs (bought with congregation "love offerings") and then went on TV begging for $300,000 to save his ministry - hey, if he was gonna need financial support to keep his con operation afloat so he could keep old, poor and infirm people sending in their dough, better he do it with YOUR dough than his own, right?

That wasn't mentioned. Instead they focused on him ranting against police officers who gave people visiting his services/shows parking tickets, accusing them of trying to shut off his ministry.

Now, I'm sure this fine piece of objective filmmaking makes mention of the TWELVE YEAR PRISON SENTENCE old LeRoy was handed for conspiring to burn down the home of a state trooper who dared to give his precious daughter a traffic ticket AND attempting to have reporter Rick Ricks of the Anderson South Carolina Independent BEATEN UP for daring to speak out against this holier-than-thou man of God. I mean, LeRoy served time until 1985 for those little indiscretions, so yeah, I'm certain something like that would be worthy of inclusion in a biopic of this great, great man.

Yes, the whole prison thing was portrayed, though it was played off as him getting really angry because they "hit my little girl!" getting drunk, and then putting ideas into a young man's head. Then there was something about the guy being bribed to stop him or something but I was getting tired and may have missed some of the details.

And it would follow that the film also includes subsequent scenes of TV producer Rod Sherrill cutting in reaction shots of large audiences enjoying LeRoy's foamers because the ex-con could barely fill a meeting after he got out of the can. And perhaps it might also mention the fact that LeRoy's own SON took $25,000 from religious criminal Peter Popoff for a very valuable list of around 20,000 "code seven" names. In the world of the evangelical con, "code seven" refers to extremely generous - and extremely gullible - followers who will spend whatever it takes to convince themselves that they're on their way to heaven.

After he left prison it showed him immediately donning his expensive flamboyant clothes, and humorously it showed him playing the piano and singing to his dog (rather than the huge congregation you at first think he would be performing for). As this scene plays he talks about how the audiences weren't what they used to be in voice over. He's also shown sitting at home watching videos of his old healing services and talking to his dog about how great things were in the old days.

LeRoy Jenkins is a scumbag. His jail time only served to strengthen his vow not in God, but in making sure he maintained a quality lifestyle off the suffering of fools who flocked to see his "miracles." He still preaches and his audiences have once again grown to sizes that nicely support his obscenely wealthy lifestyle, the side YOU never see or hear about when you're getting inundated with his "blessed" junk mailings (look up the name "Reverend Gene Ewing" sometime to learn more about how "holy" mailings are mass-produced well in advance of the "crises" they are meant to support).

It's true he is played off sympathatically in the film (as much as a rich televangelist could be, I suppose).

He isn't shown begging for money at any point in the movie, but we do see old ladies counting his money and him living a lavish lifestyle, and even joking about his wealth and good looks to his congregation who laughs and claps in support.

His corruption isn't really shown in those terms, but there is a scene where he argues with his wife on the phone. Apparently he "healed" some woman of some breast ailment and so his wife is criticizing him for "touching a woman's breasts on television" and a young woman asks for his autograph while he is talking, the wife overhears and gets even angrier. Then Leroy says "it's over, it's over" into the phone, and we don't see her anymore (iirc), so presumably they divorce. Earlier in the film he was shown singing to an elegant older lady and being a bit flirty in front of his family with her, which upset his wife.

That said, I can't wait to see has-been Damian's has-been actor friends acting out the life of one of the most despicable human beings on this planet, a man who continues TO THIS VERY DAY to bring more false hope to pathetic (and genuinely physically sick) people who need so much more than LeRoy or Religion can ever give them. Should be a great film, I'm sure.

They couldn't have picked a better actor than screen psycho Brad Dourif to play "B.B. Gallen" the grandpappy of religious hucksterism and phony miracles, although you gotta wonder if they changed his name so fundies wouldn't think for themselves and look up A.A. Allen and maybe find out what a greedy piece of slime he was, too! Gotta love it!

Dourif's character is portrayed as making a clumsy attempt to seduce him in their hotel room and earlier whispering to Leroy to come around with him to get publicity (and there's even a scene where they practice leaping up and down and acting charismatic in front of a mirror). After Leroy resists his advances, the next morning, Gallen tells him his arm isn't even healed and sends him off (words repeated later by a prisoner that is apparently possesed).

Overall it's a pretty low budget film. It looks as if they ran out of money towards the end, as the beginning and end of the movie (which bookend his "life story") appear to be filmed with somebody's camcorder instead of film (and look bad for a TV movie). The acting is also incredibly cheesy in the first portion of the film (worthy of a high school play).

I tried to enjoy it as entertainment, but even without knowing the facts about this man, I do find it sad that people like that can live the high life at the expense of others that put their trust in them. The "miracles" in the movie are portrayed as real, and only a few times do people fail to "heal" someone (Leroy fails to heal his dog that's hit by a car, for example). Perhaps the filmmaker was trying to say that God really heals people, even if through sinful people?

If Jenkins had a hand in the making of this film, he couldn't have afforded better?

http://www.historyvsthedavincicode.com
History vs. the Da Vinci Code

reply share

add reply

formatting help