Protagonist is a very interesting film, inasmuch as:
Academy-award winning filmmaker Jessica Yu offers an unusual look at the simultaneous diversity and commonality of four very different men in this documentary. In Protagonist, Yu recalls the structural format of the ancient Greek playwright Euripides -- whose stories were often marked by human tragedy, the commentary of a chorus of independent observers, and the sudden and unexpected intervention of the divine -- as she chronicles the lives of a thief, a student of martial arts, a preacher who has renounced his past as a homosexual, and a political terrorist. Protagonist was screened in competition as part of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
The only problem I have with that blurb, was there was absolutely no ‘intervention of the divine’ (whatever the hell that means anyways), and there wasn’t a ‘chorus of independent observers’ (what constitutes a chorus?) – what film was this clown watching?
Anyways, as intriguing as all four of the gentlemen were (Mark Salzman’s observations about martial arts in Western culture as viewed by a teenager are especially apt), of major interest is Mark Pierpoint, homosexual-turned-preacher-turned-heterosexual-turned-back-to-gay. He recounts how he ‘prayed out the gay’, got married, had a major Christian following in Southeast Asia, and in the middle of a huge revival (25,000 people, is what he says), decides he wants a man. Right there. Preachin’ gospel, singin’ hymns, he decides that indeed he is gay (which is irreconcilable with his religion). Ends up marrying another man. Strangely, he still gabbles in the film about ‘you can’t know gawd until you know yourself’, most of that apologetic nonsense.
I give it a thumb up, I’d watch it again.
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