Religulous Movie Review(2008)
Bill Maher: Trying to Save the World by parting it from its Money
Genre: Docu-Comedy (I think I just made that up.)
Director: Larry Charles
Written by and featuring Bill Maher
Bill Maher is going to hell, and apparently so am I for actually enjoying this incorrectly-categorized, self-deceiving film.
The “documentary” Religulous is an irreverent look at religion as a whole from the perspective of the skeptic. The recurring theme claims that religion is contributing to mankind’s darker, self-destructive nature, and is retarding humanity’s progress in all aspects, specifically science and technology. Obviously, this sets up Bill Maher as the Antichrist in most Christian sects.
Maher masterfully rips the standard arguments and notions of religion, and possibly through the miracle of editing, points out various logical flaws. He even frustrates and stumps a few religious leaders. But ultimately, Religulous is not a documentary. It is an entertaining film with a somber ending and a bitter, polarizing affect on a culture that’s already polarized enough. But hey, Maher made a buck and I got a few good laughs, so let’s just try ignoring his efforts to pass this comedy off as a documentary and call it squaresies.
Religulous is as amusing and thought-provoking as a shallow, topical lampooning of various faiths can be. Unfortunately, the short-reach of the subject matter won’t grasp an inclusive audience, as evidenced by the mostly negative reactions of the devoted worshipers interviewed in the film, upon slowly realizing that their faith was actually being skewered instead of romanticized. Atheists, agnostics, devil-worshipers, and the evil Skeletor will site this film as gospel, but for the Christians, Muslims, Jewish, Mormons, and Scientologists, this film is just more kindling for their book-burnings, or witch-burnings, or whatever the hell else they feel like burning that doesn’t jive well with their respective faiths.
In fact, I could summarize the entire film in this run-on sentence; “These Christians believe in Zombie Jesus and Creationism over evolution and common-sense cause they’re crazy; these Jewish folks are kooky douchebags who argue Bible interpretations because they have religion and they’re crazy; these Mormons won’t tell us squat about their sacred underpants because they’re crazy; Scientologists… holy crap they are totally batsh#t-insane, I don’t even wanna go there cause they’re so crazy; Muslims just like to blow sh#t up because they’re freakin crazy, and if we continue to have religion, we will eventually destroy ourselves!” -Roll credits, and Bill Maher hops into his luxury car to go cash his check, leaving the viewer feeling the way we did after watching David Hasselhoff’s drunken, half-naked efforts to enjoy a burger; simultaneously amused and unnerved.
Again, I frequently laughed my ass off, but how do these generalizations help anyone gain any knowledge, insight or common-ground? By the end of the film, there are only three constants; the secular have their philosophies validated, the religious want to burn Maher as a heretic, and Maher gets richer.
I was particularly disappointed in the broad, generalized ham-handed method that the Muslim faith was depicted as the Official Religion of all Terrorists and Evil-Doers. Though I’m not Muslim, I winced through the entire segment. Was this irresponsible notion of Maher -- suggesting that Islam consists of nothing but blood-thirsty, beheading war-mongers -- supposed to sway Muslims to renounce their faith? Call it a hunch, but I think even the peace-loving Muslims, which far outnumber the extremists, might be slightly pissed-off by this notion. Christian extremists blow-up abortion clinics. The Jewish Bible recounts the ancient Hebrews brutally slaughtering various races en-route to the Chosen People’s “promised land”.
Yet no one, not even Maher, suggests that either the Christian or Jewish faiths breed war-mongering, intolerant extremists, though that stance would have been consistent with the overall theme of Religulous’ quest to denounce all religion. If you ever want to know why he chose to take the high road here, just take a straw-poll of those who paid to see Religulous. I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that the Muslim audience is in the minority. Once, when asked to take a political stance, Michael Jordan balked because “Republicans buy sneakers too.” That’s a very fiscally-shrewd stance, isn’t it? Apparently Maher did his homework.
In Maher’s defense, he didn’t have nearly enough time to really delve into the depths of this topic. He could have tried a 3-5 part mini-series devoting six-to-ten hours to this subject and he would have still barely scratched the surface. But screw that, there were budget deadlines and Maher probably barely had enough shtick to cover 60-90 minutes. Edit in a few graphs and stock-footage of kooky religious ceremonies and frightening explosions from Jihad, deceive a few religious fanatics into conducting filmed interviews while filming their initial outrage at discovering they were deceived (Comedy gold, I promise!), and we have ourselves a documentary!
Maher had to know that nearly everyone hates to have their beliefs questioned, even with the best intentions (Even Atheists bristle and become defensive when asked to prove that God doesn’t exist.) This leads me to believe that this “documentary” was created for the sole purpose of earning a buck by providing entertainment at the expense of the “blind, backwards, followers of baseless superstition and hokey, religious dogma”. Fine, but instead of calling this a documentary, let’s call it what it really is; a reality show themed, stand-up comedy with unsuspecting audience participation.
While I was entertained by the film, calling Religious a documentary is disingenuous at best. Mocumentary sounds more accurate, but not quite, since the subject matter is loosely-based on actual beliefs, facts, and opinions. Perhaps a new genre has been created, called Docu-tainment?
The Grades
Originality/Innovation: Trying to pass this black comedy off as a documentary is a magnificent achievement in marketing, but I’ll mark off a half-grade for the attempt at deception. Grade: B+
Enjoyability Grade: I laughed quite a bit, but the ending was a tad somber. Grade: B
Date Material: Geek date approved. Not for those who are guided by their faith, though most will find the parts not pertaining to their own beliefs absolutely hilarious until it’s their religion’s turn.
Contemporary Element (Will it be watchable two decades from now?): I have little interest in seeing this one again. It’s funny, but after awhile, the philosophical confrontations just become uncomfortable. It’s like one big theological episode of Punk’d. Grade: D
Redeeming Quality: Thanks to Religulous, there is a slightly greater tolerance for theological dialogue. It’s not much, but where there’s dialogue, there’s hope for understanding. Perhaps that will be Religulous’ greatest legacy once the money has been counted?
Overall Grade: C+
***
Blind Eye Turning: Poems, Prose, and other Scribbles, by Barry Dawson
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