It's hard to save your own soul.

Duvall's 'The Apostle," is a movie I've seen more than 30 times. Duvall wrote it, directed it, produced it and wrote the checks. For that reason alone, it's worth seeing.  There is a lot going this picture. It reminds me of the way I grew up.

Without regard to one's position on the still smoldering embers that is Liberation Theology, one must admit that  confronting Jesus Christ, wherever this occurs, is transformational.

Christianity creates dissonance because  its belief system is devoid of middle ground. Christ corroborated this: , "I will spit the lukewarm out of my mouth." (Revelations, 3:16.) The middle ground is Christianity's dead zone, an  abyss from which all  should flee.  With this in mind, I reflect on  The Apostle. The film drives a telescopic lens into the touchpoint between a man and his quest to know God.  It is of no surprise that classic Pentecostals are gaining adherents in Latin America and Africa.

Latin and African cultures connect with the expressiveness  --the verbal release, if you will-- at the core of the Pentecostal Experience.  Liberation theology seeks this expressiveness--but, through acts of service to others.

The main character (Apostle E.F.) lives in a world--a Pentecostal galaxy --  where liberation is expressed  through acts of service to God. Simply stated, this means saving souls.

Robert Duvall-- a gift to anyone who loves movies -- directs Miranda Richardson, the late Farrah Fawcett, Billy Bob Thornton and, of course, himself, to muted, flawless performances.

This films unravels the paradoxical threads of Christianity— that hungry quest for knowing, that desire for meaning and the quixotic, uneven balancing of time versus eternity. The Apostle  is filled with characters yearning  to avoid the abyss. In this film no one takes the middle ground because they see it for what it is: as a transparent fallacy. 

The universe does not balance all things.

Did I say how much I love this film?