Practical Assignment: Religulous Review

           Religulous is a humorous, yet informative, 2008 documentary by comedian Bill Maher. He spends the film interviewing various religious people of different faiths, asking them about their faith then pointing out the ridiculousness of it all. Maher interviews Christians, Hasidic Jews, a Jew for Jesus, Muslims, former Mormons, and a man who “prayed his gay away.” He also satirically preaches scientology at one point. Throughout this review I will summarize and analyze all of Bill Maher’s interviews. It’s also important to note that it is almost impossible to review this film without bias, so I’ll lay mine on the line right now: I agree with Bill Maher when he’s standing on the ruins in Megiddo, Israel (where the Book of Revelations says the Apocalypse will start) and says that most religions are poisonous to society and are hindering our development as a whole. It is important to note Maher is not as “radical” as he seems in the film with this statement, 16% of the United States is atheist. I feel that nobody should read past this point without seeing the film first, because spoilers do follow.

            I want my readers to visualize the following interviews in a certain way. Whenever the interviewee answers Bill’s questions with something non-factual (80% of the time), he puts cut-ins right after and text on the bottom. These are timed perfectly and really get his point across. Think of Family Guy mixed with Michael Moore’s documentaries, a hilarious combination. These really upped the humor, in my opinion a difference that separates TV movies from the silver screen. The film was directed by Larry Charles, who also directed Borat, and the comedic similarities run rampant throughout this motion picture. 

            Bill Maher starts off his documentary by visiting a southern church. There he starts an intelligent discussion with the various parishioners and the reverend. He asks them what they see in their faith, Christianity. The clergy refutes any scientific evidence Maher puts forth. They seem very stubborn and ignorant towards science and evolution. He asks them “Why do you believe in the talking snake and the man who lived in a giant fish?” This is in reference to the Garden of Eden and Jonah and the Whale in the Bible. None of them pose challenging answers. This question quickly angers a church-goer who refuses to be in the documentary any longer and storms off. *This is interestingly the angriest anybody gets at Maher in the whole film. Throughout the movie I was expecting Bill to get punched in the face, but he never did. Everybody was extremely patient with him and his mockeries of them.* Another church-goer states that he used to be a full-blown Satanist who sold drugs, was in charge of many prostitutes, and was always in possession of a large amount of cash. He reformed himself and gave all of those luxuries up. Bill, in shock, asks him why he would give up such pleasures. In his retort, the man states that he did it to save his soul and is now truly happy. This is an important quality of religion that Maher always overlooks in the film; the fact that religion has scared “most” people into doing the right thing, instead of acting like animals (radical martyrs aside). They finish the argument asking each other, what if the opposite is wrong? Maher ends the segment saying that people should not live their lives in fear of an afterlife, something I wholeheartedly agree with and appreciate. 

He then gives the Christian creationist museum in Kentucky a chance, taking in all that it has to offer. Quickly the viewer will notice the museum capitalizing on this religion. There’s a large gift shop and a singing performance of the Passion. The most ridiculous was the exhibit where the biblical figures live side by side with animatronic dinosaurs. Maher quickly gets into an argument with a fervent visitor while the museums PR people freak out over his presence there.

Another sidesplitting encounter takes place in a large Miami church, where a Hispanic man with “Jesus” in his name proclaims to be the second coming of Christ. He is shown to have over 100,000 followers, but Maher is able to break down his hoax during the one-on-one interview. This messiah can barely understand Maher’s jokes and seems more and more of a grounded person as he speaks.

Closing up the section on Christianity, we see a few more interviews in the film. There’s the Christian senator (Mark Pryor) who can barely put a logical sentence together and then states “You don’t need to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.” I liked when Bill expresses his worry that people like this are allowed to run our country. Next there’s the Jew for Jesus who became a believer when he wished for rain on a cloudy day and then it started to rain a minute later. He thanked God for this “miracle” and never looked back. Then there’s the man who “prayed his gay away.” He states that no person is born gay but then later states that nobody can choose to be gay either, something that makes this guy seem woefully ignorant. The man states that all gay people are truly unhappy inside, Maher then says: “How can that be? They have the word gay named after them!” A cut-in of the Manhattan Gay Pride Parade ensues, showing people in bliss. In a funny and ironic twist, Maher ends the interview by hugging the man goodbye and then seeing if he got aroused. Finally the last interview on the subject involves two ex-Mormons, people who completely denounced their cult-like community. I personally liked this change of pace because the interview featured people that were on Bill’s side, people that he didn’t have to argue with.  The two men went on to state how their families and friends shunned them for their decision. In one of my favorite parts of the film, Maher analyzes the Mormon religion with the two men, showing just how ridiculous it really is. He goes on to say how Monotheistic religions and American nationalism normally do not mix and that Mormonism was created to change that. That it’s based on Joseph Smith’s gospel about Jesus resurrecting in America to meet the indigenous people, a lost tribe of Israel. He states that John Smith’s lies have created a cult-like religion, that allows for polygamy and misogyny. Clips of Yiddish-speaking Native Americans were particularly funny. The portion of the film on Christianity has now ended and so have most of the entertaining parts. The sections on Orthodox Judaism and Islam are unfortunately not as over-the-top.

Next up is an interview with a Hasidic Rabbi who is an anti-Zionist, against the existence of the state of Israel. At first the man seems noble since he’s working towards peace in Middle East. He also states that the Jews are undeserving of the state of Israel. He quickly turns into a hypocrite when a cut-in video showing him shaking the radical president of Iran and anti-Semite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hand. This segment really highlighted the beauty of the film’s cut-in system to completely change your opinion of someone.

The documentary quickly shifts to Amsterdam, where Bill speaks to some of the City’s Muslims. He speaks to a Muslim man, woman, and Imam who all stating their love for Islam. They all proceed to speak about Islam’s focus on peace and completely downplay any emphasis on violence, or jihad, calling it “politics.” As per usual, Maher doesn’t buy it and berates them. He follows it with clips of Middle Eastern riots, jihadist pep rallies, and  9/11. I found this part of the movie to be fairly dry, to the point where I was getting drowsy. I feel that Maher should have had their monologues cut shorter and just have gotten straight to the point.

The last scene lampooning religions takes place at the Speakers' Corner in London, where Maher poses as a Scientologist. He preaches the beliefs of the religion, mainly its science fiction core. Normally a farfetched religious premise, Scientology seems right at home with the deadly fairy tales of the monotheistic religions from earlier in the film. I really liked how he mentioned the fees associated with their church’s “auditing,”  which is similar to Christian church dues that aren’t even taxed.

My harshest criticisms on Religulous are neatly summed up by Kenneth Turan’s LA Times review:

The humor he creates at their expense proves nothing except that dealing from a stacked deck benefits no one but the dealer… If people are incautious enough to be interviewed without knowing anything about the interviewer, if they are foolish enough not to recognize how foolish they will look, they have, in effect, signed their own death warrant, agreeing to be mercilessly drawn and quartered by some of the sharpest blades in the business.

He continues to state that Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark) should have known better during the interview, and that his verbal commentary leaves a “sour taste” in his mouth.

At heart, Bill Maher is a comedian, an entertainer. It would take an entertainer to bring a topic this controversial to the big screen. It is job to make the audience laugh, but if they think a little bit afterwards it is a bonus. I just wish that he was a little more forgiving and less brutal towards his interviewees. Maybe then these religious pundits would reevaluate their beliefs.

Overall, Religulous is a hilarious documentary that refutes religion, and is sure to get a lot of peoples’ blood boiling.  In the end the story comes full circle as Maher is once again standing on the ruins in Megiddo, Israel stating that religion is poisonous and will lead to nuclear annihilation of the human race. I just wish that Bill Maher could have eased up on his subjects and didn’t berate them as much. I also wish that his segments on Islam and Judaism showed more direction and were as entertaining as the others. Maybe one day there will be a sequel where he addresses Hinduism and Buddhism.

Works Cited

03, October. "Maher Toys with Religion's Fringes." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 03 Oct. 2008. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/03/entertainment/et-Religulous3>.

"Believers, Skeptics and a Pool of Sitting Ducks." Bill Maher and Larry Charles Offer an Irreverent Debate on Faith. N.p., 30 Sept. 2008. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/movies/01reli.html>.

"Religulous :: Rogerebert.com :: Reviews." Religulous :: Rogerebert.com :: Reviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081002/REVIEWS/810020306>.