Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52960 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-01-30
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.com
Tammy Faye Bakker, she of the layers of makeup that made her face into a living Halloween mask, will forever remain a camp icon of '80s culture for many of us. Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato aren't above needling Bakker for her more excessive accouterments, but The Eyes of Tammy Faye is ultimately a loving, sympathetic portrait of "the first lady of televangelism." The film charts her life from traveling evangelist to the mother of three religious cable networks, and her fall from grace when husband Jim Bakker was forced out of the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry after a scandalous affair. Always entertaining (sock puppets introduce each section) and at times surprising (did you know that Jim and Tammy were the first television ministers to reach out to the gay community and people with AIDS?), it rarely strays from Tammy Faye's version of events. Jerry Falwell becomes the story's sole scapegoat, but even the film's best arguments don't quite make Jim Bakker an innocent victim. But then it's not his film, it's Tammy Faye's, and Bailey and Barbato seem to have fallen in love with their charismatic subject. If nothing else, they reveal the woman behind the cultural joke and celebrate a spiritual survival story. RuPaul Charles narrates, and clips from the 1990 TV movie Fall from Grace feature a young Kevin Spacey as the adulterous preacher. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Never thought I'd see the day!!!!
Tammy Faye is now someone I admire!

I purchased this as a vague curiosity after reading some other reviews. I thought these people have GOT to be wrong. No...it turns out I was.

This is actually a very telling account not only of Tammy Faye, but of televangelism (If you thought Jerry Falwell was evil before...you will see him as Satan Incarnate after viewing this). I will say that I thought of Tammy Faye as master media manipulator...but after seeing this...I honestly don't think so.

One of the things this documentary subtley conveys is that Tammy Faye is more resilliant than she is brilliant. I think it's just her natural tenacity that has kept her going and has drawn media attention like flies. I think she's a person who has a genuine good heart who has just too much naievete for the world of evangellical broadcasting.

Overall, I was amazed how much I had warmed up to her by the end of the film, and honestly gained a whole new respect for her ability to never say die.

An Empathic Look At Tammy Faye
Since the PTL Club scandal in the 1980s, Tammy Faye Bakker has become one of the all time greats of the eccentric pop-culture icons. The PTL financial scandal and Jim Bakker's affair with Jessica Hahn have faded from front page news stories and into a tiny dot on the historical map. Tammy Faye, however, still pops up in pop media frequently enough to be more recognizable than ex-hubby Jim, not to mention the almost forgotten Hahn.

"The Eyes of Tammy Faye" delivers a well documented history of Jim and Tammy Faye's rise to fame on the TV Evangelist circuit, their fall from grace, and where the dice landed for Tammy Faye. If this were a film exclusively about the PTL scandal, this docu would come up short; but the main focus here is on Tammy Faye the individual. In doing so, the film makers did an excellent job of presenting the most important aspects of the scandal in a nutshell, and giving us a three-dimensional view of Tammy Faye.

Early on, this documentary shows a genuinely sweet side of Tammy Faye, telling of her unhappy childhood, and how the religion she grew up with was just one big monolithic intimidator, threatening the believers with eternal damnation. Instead of Tammy Faye taking this fear into adulthood, she instead turns it upside down, and preaches Christianity to the TV public with compassion. Particularly moving is a clip from a PTL Club episode where she has an AIDS activist on the show; wherein you would often see TV preachers brag that they will cure AIDS victims of their lifestyle and illness, Tammy Faye brings the activist on the show with compassion. They discuss the battle against AIDS, never bagging on the gay lifestyle.

Another reason to check out this documentary is to catch the disturbing info on Jerry Falwell taking command of The PTL Network. Dislike Falwell and his Moral Majority? You will despise both after seeing this account of his betrayal.

Much of the film is presented with snipets of old Praise The Lord Television footage, narration by Ru Paul, lots of funky hand puppets (an explanation for that comes early on in the film) and through the lips of Tammy Faye herself. While the documentary is sympathetic to Tammy Faye, she shows through her own words that she is still in denial about the misappropriation of funds husband Jim tolled. Tammy Faye is eccentric, strong, unethical and sweet, all rolled up into one. All in all, I went away with a soft spot for Tammy Faye, something I have never before had for a TV evangelist. Whether you come to a similar conclusion or not, I think you will find this an excellent piece of work.

Remarkably entertaining documentary about tele-evagelism
I just watched this film for the first time. I laughed; I cried. It became a part of me.

I had always assumed the "facts" about the fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were true and simple. This film at least raises questions about the consistantly unchristian treatment of the Bakker's by their tele-evangelist cohorts.

For me, any film that further demonstrates that Jerry Falwell will burn in hell is sufficently entertaining to justify the purchase, but this film has much more. Seeing inside Tammy Faye, one discovers that she is a good woman with a good heart, but little if any self esteem. She was way ahead of her time (ahead of where most of her former cohorts are now) on social issues. Her fragile self-esteem was trampled upon again and again. (The clip of Tammy Faye on the PTL Club television set stoned on Ativan and trying to wade in the water, which has been painted on canvas, is precious.) I ALMOST feel bad laughing at it all, but Tammy Faye has herself done what she suggests others do with the lemons dealt her in life: .. yeah, make lemonade..

The film's irony is poignant throughout... RuPaul, who wears less makeup than Tammy Faye, provides an even narration of the film. A look at the Bakker's son shows exactly what one would not expect. Jim Bakker's "victim's" comments about the depravation of her innocence are spliced together with tasteless, raunchy scenes from her Playboy video.

Tammy Faye should be admired-- probably not for her fashion and makeup prowess-- but because, in spite of getting knocked down again and again and again, she always gets back up and remains true to herself.

If you are not convinced to buy this film already, then do so for the answer to the question of the ages: What do roaches, Tammy Faye, and Cher have in common?