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| Jerry Saravia... |
 Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:39 pm |
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RELIGULOUS (2008)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars
Bill Maher is a radical leftist comedian who has taken his radical
political views quite far on his vastly entertaining show, "Real Time
with Bill Maher." Religion is a hot-button issue for him, mainly
because he thinks it is silly for people to believe in a space god. I
am not sure if religion is a concept he is willing to invest more
highly in - he treats it as a joke and thinks people are stupid if
they believe. He is an aggressive atheist but maybe not aggressive
enough. I have a feeling that is why he made "Religulous," a funny,
observant and very uneven documentary. Uneven because Bill Maher has a
habit of not listening closely enough and interrupting those whom he
interviews.
Bill Maher begins the global journey in an effort to understand
religion and why many believe in God. He travels to a North Carolina
truck stop chapel where one of the truckers walks out in disgust at
Maher's comments. Another trucker comments on being a former Satanist
priest (!) who found God. We also get a Puerto Rican named Jose Luis
de Jesus Miranda, who believes he is the Second Coming of Christ
largely due to a bloodline of descendants from Jesus Christ. In
addition, we get an actor playing Jesus at a Florida Biblical
amusement park, which includes a whipping of a bloodied Christ
carrying the cross accompanied by applause from the audience; ex-
Mormons questioning Joseph Smith as a leader; an Amsterdam club where
marijuana is smoked but not as a sacrament (this segment confused me
but who knows, they were all probably high); a gay Muslim bar; a far
too short segment on the late film director Theo Van Gogh who made a
film that offended Muslims and was killed for it; a rabbi who denies
the Holocaust, and so much more. Interspersed throughout the film are
clips from old Jesus flicks and George C. Scott as Abraham in the
hysterical John Huston film, "The Bible" (there is also a funny clip
from "Superbad.")
Most of "Religulous" is very funny but I can't say it is all sharply
observed or on-target. The truck stop chapel footage could've been
better served had it been towards the end. Some segments deserve more
focus, particularly the ex-Mormon bit, the comparison between Abraham
sacrificing his son for God to a recent murder of five children by
their mother ("God told me to do it"), more scenes of Bill Maher's
late mother and her sharing in her son's concept of doubt, and the
concept of original sin and why Jesus Miranda believes sinning no
longer exists (that was a howler).
What does work is when Bill Maher asks truly valid questions. Why does
the Old Testament not talk about the virgin birth? Why no written text
exists on Jesus's teenage years? Why a certain preacher believes that
Jesus was a rich man and why he can't get that old camel and the
needle quote correct? I also liked Maher's observations on miracles
and when rain is simply rain. Also interesting is seeing the area of
Meggido and how it seems an unlikely location for the end of days.
As I said, "Religulous" is damn funny stuff and invigorating and
illuminating. But it needed sharper questions from Maher about the
validity of religion and how and why it shapes people's lives,
particularly when the concept of sin is often omitted. Maybe it scares
Bill to get too deep or maybe he had already made up his mind about
religion before he even made the film.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author of this page at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
Email me at Faust668 at (no spam) msn.com or at faustus_08520 at (no spam) yahoo.com |
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