Religulous
Dir: Larry Charles
2008
****
Religulous is more comedy than documentary but it's almost as much of a documentary as Borat was but without the fake characters (excluding the guy who thinks he's Jesus). Anyway, I'm an Atheist, so I wasn't offended and I thought it was funny. Bill Maher, a comedian I wasn't familiar with until watching the film, was preaching to the converted as far as I was concerned. Did he pray on easy targets? I suppose he did in a way, the people he interviewed were pretty much all ignorant and weren't even sure of the teachings, history or scriptures of the religions they were following. However, these weren't people minding their own business, these were people either making a living from religion or standing on soap boxes preaching about their religion, making them more than fair game. Bill Maher doesn't respect other peoples beliefs. How can you really respect something you yourself don't agree with, I certainly don't disrespect other religions, live and let live but I'm with him on that one, one can be vocal about something they don't agree with as much as something they believe in. He asked good questions, intelligent questions but all the answers given where ridiculous. Like him, I can no more truly respect an adult that believes in Santa than an adult who believes in God, virgin birth, taking snakes etc, although I would defend your right to practice and we could still be friends. To be fair, for all the anti -Christianisums going on here, it's the two interviewed priests that came off best with no joking around, just intelligent and interesting conversation. It's actually the US senator that comes off worst and you can't say he was an easy target (or maybe you can). Maher has been criticised for concentrating mainly on Christians but like he says in the film, it's pretty hard to infiltrate certain religions - especially when he looks so Jewish and certain religions are antisemitic, he was born Christian and so sticks to what he knows best to a degree. He still gives it a good go and the three big religions get a look in. Larry Charles is a clever guy too, a sneaky guy but someone who has mastered the art of satire quite well. The editing of the film is hilarious, I laughed throughout. Richard Dawkins represents atheists on an intellectual level but he's just not very funny, he also gets (understandably) worked up when actually giving the other side a little more than they deserve. Bill Maher on the other-hand says, you know what, you've been shoving this crap down our throats for long enough, religion should not be used by the higher power for control and in order for us to evolve as a race we need to grow up and stop looking for fairies. Everyone is fair game, we've heard your opinions again and again, now it's our turn. Now he could have done this the nice way or the nasty way and I can't say I saw anything nasty here. If you're offended, chances are you're religious. Didn't like it? Well now you know how most atheists feel. I'm not playing a tiny violin or anything but the argument that this is somehow unbalanced annoys me as religion has had centuries to speak uninterrupted.