Religulous
I love a good documentary. I always have. You can count: Gray Gardens, Capturing the Friedmans, Sicko, Farenheight 9/11, and many others among my favorite films. Well now there is reason to rejoice, another documentary can be added onto the list of my favorite films of all time: this one is done by comedian Bill Mahr and it takes religion head on. With director Larry Charles (who also directed a little piece of brilliance called Borat) at the helm, I knew I was in for a treat.
It is hard for me to review this movie without talking about my own beliefs. I will try to do that as much as possible. Nicholas and I (my boy and my movie going partner) have very different religious backgrounds, which made this a fun and challenging film to see together. I was raised Southern Baptist, and ran from it as soon as I could. Now I straddle the fence somewhere between agnostic and atheist. Nicholas on the other hand was raised Catholic and still attends mass at least once a week. Certainly he doesn't agree with everything the Catholic religion spews (you know that homosexuality thing), but he is a good Catholic boy (which I respect and find very charming). Might I saw both of us highly enjoyed the film, which I think is the wonder of this movie. Religious or not, you should find the humor in religion and certainly the humor in this film.
Even the most religious of us must find something funny about the Jesus-days theme park, where people gather from all over the world to watch a bloody Jesus be crucified every day on the fake mount. (This scene is altogether funny and disturbing .. small children taking photos of a fake Jesus being nailed to the cross, bleeding all over his little thong). Then there's the ex-gay (you know from Sarah Palin's church). The humor in this scene is that the ex-gay is far from non-gay. The Brokeback Mountain music swirls in the background as he and Mahr stare each other down and the scene ends in an odd over-long hug. Then there's the latino man who says he is Jesus. (He even shares the same name .. so it must be true right?) Then there's the ex-soul boy band member who runs a church and loooves the money that its brought him. The truckers who's church is literally in the back of a large U-Haul, the list goes on and on. Although all of these "believers" are quite humorous, its also scary to think these people have followers. That's where the truth of the movie lies. People follow the tounge talking Robert Tilton (otherwise known as the farting preacher on youtube) the same as they may have followed David Koresh and all the crazies at Waco. People follow "Latin Jesus" just as they may have followed Jim Jones and the People's Temple. It's funny and its scary, but most of all its sad.
Mahr's point seems to be, take the easy way out. When he questions many religious leaders they do not have the answers to his sometimes innocent questions. Making Mahr's statement be: If you cannot describe it/prove it - then it's probably not true. He belittles people who stand strong by believing that a man lived in a whale for three weeks (or was it just a big fish), people who believe 2 of every animal were on a large boat to survive a storm, etc. (I couldn't agree with him more .. people who do believe such things might have a spot in the mental ward of heaven).
What's great about this movie is that it attacks everyone. And it taught me more about the history of religion, and various religions, that I honestly would never had known if I hadn't seen the film. It attacks evangelicals, mormons, scientologists, muslims, islams, the list goes on and on. It actually was pretty lacking on Catholicism, but I mean how much can you talk about the guilt and the child molestation before it becomes its own film (actually it has, Deliver Us From Evil is an amazing documentary about the Catholic Priest scandal which everyone should see). It even, rightfully so, attacks our President (who luckily is on his way out). One of the biggest laughs was taken from W's speech on foreign involvement: "I Believe God wants me to spread freedom to he world. He wants me to do that, and I will. Heck, its part of my foreign policy!" So funny and yet so scary. In the last 30 minutes of the film, things get serious. It turns into the frightening parallel of late between politics and religion. How many cultures will do nothing less than kill their fellow man to make sure their religion reigns supreme. How our president wages war under the name of God. And this is no laughing matter. There certainly should be a separation between church and state, and lately there has not been one at all.
Religulous is all at once hillarious, sad, and scary. I have to give Bill Mahr two big thumbs up for having a voice and expressing it, no matter how many people will hate him for it. To be onscreen saying: Choose no religion or choose death, is quite a statement. To stand onscreen and say "There is no God, and those who believe in him/it/her/them are foolish" certainly take balls. Sometimes I wish mine were that big.
****1/2 out of *****
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