Going to Hell (and Heaven) with Estus Pirkle (video)

Estus Pirkle wants to get you into Heaven, and to sell you on the idea, he's got mansions. He's got immortality. And he's got a singing midget. Personally, he had me at those incredible mathematical comparisons between New York City and The New Jerusalem. (The New Jerusalem is much bigger and seems to get bigger all the time.) And then there are the cheap plastic crowns and the even cheaper time lapse visual effects. Here's an excerpt from Minister Pirkle's 1977 short, The Believer's Heaven:

 

The Believer's Heaven was one of three collaborations between Pirkle and the Ed Wood-esque filmmaker Alan Ormond. In 1974, they put their brains together (along with some latex and fake blood) for their vision of the underworld, The Burning Hell:

 

Of course, Pirkle and Ormond's masterwork was their 1971 classic If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? Brian posted some clips from Footmen... in this post here. You can watch the entire thing on google video right here, or grab a torrent of it from Greylodge here. And Negativland used portions of the audio from Footmen for their song Christianity is Stupid. There's a fairly offensive video version of Christianity is Stupid on google video here. Thanks to Brian and Mark Allen for awakening me to the not-so-wide world of Estus Pirkle!

Comments

[Jeffersonic]

Thanks Ken that was real tasty. Geez, it looks like hell to me....

[Jeffersonic]

Christ! What I meant to say was the first video seems like Hell. The
second seems more like a representation of the pitfalls of working at Burger King...

[Bartleby]

He did get the big hair right

[Tom]

This is the best thing your already excellent blog has ever put on the Internet, ever, amen.

[perry]

That's cool that I wont be aged in Heaven but, can I wear my garish jacket?

[Jaylefus]

During the singing testimony, there is a shot at the 2:50 mark of the parishoners in their pews, and in the front row, there is a small girl whose look of shock and disbelief at what is transpiring echoes my own at that precise moment.

[dan paul]

for some reason I'm intensely reminded of the smell of my church when I had to go to "Sunday School" as a child. It's kind of like the smell of soap and graham crackers. I wonder how heaven smells? Hopefully not like NYC.

[Tim Mayer]

I think that's Tim Ormond, Ron's son, who plays the bored hippy sitting in the church pew.

[norelpref]

There's cheese in heaven! And everyone gets a Burger King crown and that same pasty grin. Alleluyah!

[illlich]

"Estus W. Pirkle" is the best name ever. It sounds made-up, like some character out of a Dickens novel.

I can see getting bored pretty quickly in that version of heaven (unless we're on some kind of constant opiate high. . . . hmmmmm), consider the episode of The Twilight Zone where the criminal finds himself in "heaven", where he has all the girls he wants, always wins at gambling, etc.-- he quickly realizes he's actually in hell. Just desserts for one Estus W. Pirkle.

[illlich]

Some questions:

1. Why is Estus so robotic (and what's with the weird profile shot of him?)

2. Estus implies you can never get evicted from heaven-- so. . . does that mean I can remodel without permission from the landlord?

3. Will "Little Ellen Talbert" still be short in heaven, and still look like a toad? Or will she be given a tall shapely body, and heavenly singing voice? (I certainly hope so, or she'll ruin it for the other folks there).

4. The first video is titled "How Does An Expert View Heaven?". . . so. . . Estus has already been there and back? (WHERE does he get the dimensions for the New Jerusalem?-- I don't recall that in the Bible, and I've poured over that thing looking for loopholes).

5. Why do some folks have crowns and others don't? Looks like there's an upper and lower class in heaven too.

[Andrew]

If the choice is between slavery and misery I'll go for reincarnation. Better to be a dog on Earth than a robot in Heaven or a worm in Hell.

[Derek]

There's a great piece on FOOTMEN in the latest Oxford American.

www.oxfordamericanmag.com

[arthur bender]

does anybody know if and where full-length versions of these movies might be viewed?

[morgan]

How can i get or purchase the Movie, BURNING HELL? i watched it some years ago, This movie is heaven -leading.
Please respond

[Kim]

go to www.burninghell.com/eng

[Evang. Bro. Anothony Agu A]

PLEASE, HOW CAN I GET THE FULL FILM OF THE BELIEVER HEAVEN AND THE BURNING HELL. I WANT TO USE IT TO EVANGELISE THE YOUTHS IN MY COMMUNITIES NIGERIAN.
I WATCH YOUR VIDEO CLIPS AND I WAS BLESS.
MAY GOD BLESS YOUR MINISTRY

[todd voss]

praise god for people that believe in tne old path, believing in the word of god. thank you for puting this on the enternet that people will get saved, praise god

[tim banks]

estus pirkle was a great preacher and servant of GOD. i had the pleasure of hearing him preach at my church and seeing him work with my pastor. he is a true hero of the faith