Robert Duvall gives possibly the performance of his career as Texan preacher Sonny Dewey, a man of God forced to flee his beloved flock when he loses the plot and beats his wife's lover to death with a baseball bat. Changing his identity, Sonny heads for Louisiana in an effort to evade the cops and rediscover his soul. This is a wonderful character study, a fine portrait of the South and an authentic study of a religious belief, for while Sonny is a foul-tempered womaniser and his sermons are glib show-biz, he is the real thing, a true believer.