I've never watched an entire televangelical show. I remember that my grandma used to watch Oral Roberts religiously and would be mesmerized by Billy Graham's televised crusades, but those shows were an automatic signal for me to go upstairs and explore her attic for more enjoyable pastimes.

Of course I'd heard some stories about Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Falwell. Mostly I'd heard about scandals and political in-fighting and regarded the whole lot of them as hypocrites who were more interested in generating ratings and collecting money than they were in saving any souls. It would be difficult for me to decide whether I'd choose a televangelist or a cockroach in a Survivor-style vote.

All of which I say, only to let you know that I was predisposed to watch The Eyes of Tammy Faye as a caricature and satire of the whole televangelical movement. All I remembered of Tammy Faye was her massively caked-on makeup that I thought must be either hiding something or had to be a sign of low self-esteem, all highlighted by those huge eyelashes and that overdone mascara. I was prepared to laugh a great deal through this documentary because I figured that Tammy Faye had to be a pathetic and ridiculous character.

How wrong I was!

I found myself completely taken in by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey's documentary and actually grew to respect Tammy Faye and understand her. Of course, the film is shot primarily from Tammy Faye's point of view while it is narrated by RuPaul Charles with transition headers by a couple of sock puppets who copy the same humorous tone as the mice in Babe.

At first I thought I was in for high camp and comedy, as Tammy Faye repeats the old cliche about the "eyes being the windows of the soul." Then she reveals her fetish for retrieving dead people's eyeglasses so that she can sense what they once saw. I was prepared for more hilarity because I knew that a monumental "train wreck" was coming: adultery, drug addiction, bankruptcy, betrayal, and fraud.

Instead I witnessed a thorough journey that covers highlights from Tammy Faye's upbringing as a religious 12-year-old who was scared of being hammered by God to a vivacious television personality, to a grief-stricken fallen woman, to a compassionate soul who has learned to let God take care of her archenemy, Jerry Falwell.

I learned a great deal along the way and found myself thoroughly involved in the life of a person that I felt there was no way in the world that I could relate to. There's a lot of humor expressed throughout The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but often this is due to Tammy Faye's complete openness on camera. She even replays her little cutesy puppet voices that she used when she and husband Jim first broke into Christian television. We even find out that the couple actually fought out marital spats live on the air through the puppets occasionally.

The charismatic couple certainly rode the roller coasters of highs and lows throughout their evangelistic television journeys. After beginning through the puppet show, Jim and Tammy founded the 700 Club only to be booted out by the Christian network president Pat Robertson. Next they began the Trinity Broadcast Network, only to be ousted by business partners Jan and Paul Crouch. Finally, they obtained their own network in Charlotte, North Carolina with its very own satellite, the Praise the Lord (PTL) network, and expanded its empire to include the Heritage U.S.A. theme park, which the film says was the third largest in the country after the two Disney parks.

At this point Jim and Tammy were at the pinnacle of Christian televangelism, and were actually more accepting of non-mainstream people than the other, more conservative, preachers. They attempted to incorporate joy and humor in their broadcasts, and we even hear Jim make the shocking statement that religion is "boring most of the time." We see some footage of Tammy sincerely comforting a gay man with AIDS and see her interview someone who actually demonstrates on camera how penile implants work. That's worth a chuckle right there.

If you followed the news, you know a bit of the history: the sexual scandal regarding Jim Bakker's affair with Playmate Jessica Hahn and the subsequent relinquishing of the PTL network to Reverend Jerry Falwell. You probably even heard about the Bakkers' greedy lifestyle and saw both Jim and Tammy cry on camera after Jim was sentenced to prison.

What you didn't see were the hidden stories behind the scandal. I'd heard a few accusations, but I didn't pay much attention to them until I saw this documentary. If you think that Falwell was portrayed negatively in Milos Forman's The People vs. Larry Flynt, just wait until you see this documentary. Though Falwell refused to be interviewed directly, there is plenty of public footage (accompanied by narration by Tammy Faye and current husband Roe Messner) that exposes Reverend Falwell as the most manipulative, self-centered false prophet in America.

Granted, the filmmakers do seem sympathetic to Tammy Faye, but most of the key figures in conflict with the Bakkers refused to appear on camera. One exception is the journalist Charles Shepperd, who broke the Jessica Hahn scandal and the financial woes of the PTL network. But he is actually more interested in getting Tammy Faye's autograph than he is in discussing the past.

Without being able to get Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson to cooperate and tell their portions of the story, there is no way to get a fuller view of television's most prominent evangelists and their organizations. But that's fine. The Eyes of Tammy Faye is an unpretentious documentary that gives us a much deeper understanding of a most intriguing icon.

Though Tammy Faye claims that she wouldn't be herself without her trademark eyelashes and mascara, there's a whole lot more going on under that makeup than I previously surmised. She does seem to go over the top quite often, but we also see a real, sensitive, and caring person who is still full of life. Despite everything that Reverend Falwell has done to damage her life and reputation, she now prays that Falwell will get "right with God" and takes solace in the 91st Psalm.

Whether you are religious or not I think that you will find The Eyes of Tammy Faye a most enjoyable and educational hour and twenty-minute experience. The film has something for everyone, and contains enough substance that you will find yourself discussing it afterwards.