The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Arts and Entertainment

Media Credit: courtesy of allmoviephoto.com Director Larry Charles and Maher share a moment of smugness.

Religulous is a documentary directed by the talented filmmaker Larry Charles who, two years ago, helped Sasha Baron Cohen unearth one of the most searing American satires in recent years with Borat: Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

While Cohen, as the shamelessly racist title character, undoubtedly stole the show, Charles still managed to direct the piece with a guerilla-style flair that perfectly captured the tension, awkwardness and down-right hypocrisy of Borat’s bumbled interactions with a handful of ignorant individuals. It was a brilliant (and mean-spirited) muckraking look at the United States, both gut-bustingly funny and jarringly real.

Religulous, which stars Bill Maher as its cynical atheist protagonist, creates a similar you-are-there grit that Charles captured in Borat. But while Cohen’s film felt spontaneous, charged and, at the end of the day, remarkably thoughtful, Religulous seems too complacent to justify the inherent smugness of Maher and his harsh, bullying stance on why religion is a giant man-made hoax. 

This is not Charles’ fault, who still attempts to shoot interviews and discussions (and occasional break-ins) with an honest and unconventional approach (the sound mics are usually revealed; the multiple camera angles are exposed as well).
The fault lies in Maher’s refusal to interview intelligent and articulate believers (they do exist, no matter what your stance on religion may be) who could combat Maher’s Real Time humor with thought-provoking counter-arguments on why religion is relevant and, above all, real. What we see instead in Religulous, is obese, uneducated truck drivers praying in a trailer church, an Anti-Zionist Jew defending his approval of Iranian policy and a Christian theme park employee playing Jesus Christ for a small group of elderly Americans. Bill Maher interviews such characters and others with an unrestrained sense of glee and disgust that, at times, comes across as more outrageous and inappropriate than the defenseless individuals who are attempting to partake in a discussion with him.

Maher, who graduated from Cornell University, is an unusually intelligent and provocative comedian who can outsmart even the most articulate Republican guests on his candid political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.

Why, then, does he mainly interview people who can hardly form sentences, let alone, argue facts with an established political commentator whose job it is to promote and sell his own beliefs, no matter who or what stands in his way?
Thus, there is an inherent sense of cruelty that permeates much of Religulous; a below-the-belt nastiness that takes away from the few powerful points that Maher only occasionally reveals in the course of the film.

One rare moment of much-needed insight comes accidentally while Maher is speaking to a priest outside of the Vatican. (The priest was found on the street. He never actually arranged an interview inside the Vatican.) Maher asks controversial questions that we, the audience are sure the priest will respond to with anger and vitriol.

Instead, he agrees with most of what Maher has to say about the absurdity of Biblical interpretation and, by the end of the conversation, much to Maher’s shock, sounds like more of an atheist than Maher claims to be.

It’s a fantastic moment of comedy that unintentionally undercuts Maher’s disgust for religion. It reveals both to Maher and to the viewer that there is nuance and surprise even in the most seemingly immovable of concepts and ideas. This essential gray zone of open-minded perspective seems to have no effect on Bill Maher, who is too busy attacking people with a belief system that he refuses to ever once put into question, even for the sake of argument.

He claims at the beginning of his film that he wants to understand why people go to religion for guidance.  This turns out to be not only false, but shamelessly hypocritical.  Maher wants people to listen to his beliefs and opinions, and God help you if you want to share yours with him.

If Maher was truly concerned about the danger of religion across the world, which he voices numerous times throughout the film, he would have fashioned a documentary that listened to both sides of the argument before articulately destroying the opposing outlook.

Smug liberal elitism doesn’t help sway any minds in this day and age, especially with something as coveted as religion.
So go ahead Maher, continue dismissively laughing off the zealous beliefs of Islam, Israel and Middle America, so long as you know that documentaries like Religulous only flame the fire of religious fundamentalism, instead of gradually putting it out.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools