I assumed this would go in the direction of criticizing religious zealotry and money-driven TV phonies - and in a sense it does - but Herzog is better than that. It's an entirely objective portrait of a man who lives his life according to what he feels pressured to do rather than what he really dreams of doing. Scott's a lonely man who seems to wish that his life had taken a different route. I can't say I admire the man, but Herzog's objective approach at least makes him feel like a human being.

Making anti-evangelist documentaries before it was cool...

There are moments here of enormous power.

Could have gone further with more time, but as it stands, an interesting attempt to penetrate its subject. In moments, we can see Herzog reaching out to find something unique. Well, can't capture that unadulterated docu-magic every time. Recommended anyway.

The televangelist is an entertaining character but I'm giving most of the points to the southern gospel band. Listen to that boy sing, he's really belting it for Jesus! https://youtu.be/42EWdBcwbLU?t=1145

Herzog reveals Scott as simultaneously deceitful and, as Scott himself says, the most honest televangelist of the period. And as we see; lonely. One cannot help but feel sorry for Scott as he carries the weight of the Church on his shoulders as well as the expectations of his parents. By lambasting viewers through their TV screens, he seeks money as a sign of their commitment to God while he desperately mocks his enemies. Herzog sees the humanity beneath Scott's veneer of raging evangelism.

Scott is an interesting subject, but Herzog needed a bigger canvas to really explore his personality and by extension the strange world of televangelism. The best moments reveal his contradictory character and his self righteous con man persona. Herzog's spoken translations in German are very distracting though and dilute much of the fire and intensity of Scott's preacher man schtick.

"I don't think so, because he's the one saying the CIA tactics remind him of Nazi Germany." http://illusionpodcast.blogspot.com/2015/10/episode-76-nonfiction-from-werner.html

I don't like this documentary so much. Maybe because it's lacking energy at times or because I don't like preachers in general.

Crazy tv personality shown to us by Herzog. Not much is done but still an interesting piece.

I don't know what we were supposed to learn by seeing clips of Gene Scott's show. I feel like the audience already intuitively knew that his show would be ridiculous. There was no need to spend half the documentary showing us. Where the movie gets good is with the interview portions with Gene Scott. We get some insight there, but only some. This may not be Herzog's fault, because Scott appears to clam up once Herzog's questions start to get a little too pointed.

Aside from some moments of sheer insanity this is slow and mostly disgusting.

Herzog interviews a nutso Californian televangelist. Scott's relentless ranting is enough to make him come across as crazy without Herzog needing to probe too deeply. Ultimately, the documentary is too long and nobody involved learns anything. Tedious.

Very interesting, but a little slow.

The juxtaposition of a seemingly bright, educated man and his relentless greed is interesting, but I'm also not too sure what Herzog is getting at, if anything.

As always, I love Herzog's choice of subject. This is not a documentary about televangelism as a public phenomenon. Instead he lets us sample the private personality of the televangelist, something very worthy of exposure. It's very interesting to get inside the head of a self-righteous con artist in denial, seeing just how much of Gene Scott's mask Herzog can manage to pry off for long enough to let us glimpse underneath.