The Eyes of Tammy Faye is an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker (Jessica Chastain). In the 1970s and ’80s, Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) built a burgeoning religious broadcasting network and theme park – until rivals, financial wrongdoing and scandal toppled their empire.
For in-depth thoughts on The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, please see my colleague Mike Vaughn’s review from its original theatrical release here.
Video Quality
Searchlight Pictures brings The Eyes Of Tammy Faye to Blu-Ray with a really lovely 1080p video presentation. The presentation provides a significant amount of depth on display, especially in the interior shots. The production design is bursting at the seams with period-appropriate details along with the fabrics of clothing which this presentation displays with crystal clear textural detail. The image is clean with the bright color palette popping off the screen. The film employs nice splashes of bold colors within the production design, which makes for a very exciting image. The black levels are appropriately deep and inky with no major instances of compression detected. The flesh tones are natural with a magnificent amount of detail present in close-ups, especially with the heavy makeup applied. This Blu-Ray is an excellent representation of this movie that should please fans.
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray comes with a stellar DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that captures this highly musical movie beautifully. The track is not very complex outside of the musical moments, but the environmental sounds of the world engage the surround speakers in a really pleasing way. When the characters are walking through the crowd of their show, there are some really nice ambient details that flesh out the setting. Dialogue is the key element of the film, and it always comes through crisp and clear without being clipped by any competing sounds. The music in the film fills the speakers in a wonderful, well-balanced way. These songs engage the low end of the track in a way that provides a nice texture to the proceedings. The audio track is an excellent sounding presentation for this feature in all respects.
Special Features
- A Look Inside The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
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- Window To The Soul: An eight-minute featurette in which the cast and crew delve into the real-life people featured in the film, why they wanted to tell their story, what made them so revolutionary, how they functioned as one of the original reality shows, how they wanted to capture a side of them separate from the parodies and much more.
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- Leap Of Faith: A nine-minute featurette which delves into the ensemble of the picture including the challenges of the performances, the research that was conducted to more accurately capture certain personalities, what each performer brought to their roles, the weirdness of recreating real-life moments and more.
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- The Calling: A nine-minute featurette which more thoroughly explores the incredible transformation of Jessica Chastain in the titular role from the unique challenges she faced, the need to do justice to the character, recording the music in the film, the evolving makeup and hairstyles throughout the film, the distinct costumes and more.
- Theatrical Trailer: The two-and-a-half minute trailer is provided here.
Final Thoughts
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is pretty conventional in its storytelling, but is elevated to something special thanks to the miraculous performance from Jessica Chastain. For better or for worse, the film really loves Tammy Faye and does a notable job of showcasing why she is worthy of our empathy. The performances are the reason to check out this film, as every member of the ensemble is on fire. The film itself will make you laugh and even break your heart a bit, but it never quite reaches the level of excellence to match the star’s performance. Searchlight Studios has released a Blu-Ray featuring a top-notch A/V presentation and a handful of interesting special features. If you are a Jessica Chastain fan, this is one of the best performances she has ever given. Recommended
The Eyes Of Tammy Faye will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 16, 2021. The film is currently available to purchase on Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
