Bill Maher, actor, political satirist, observational humorist, talk show
host, general protagonist, and now, documentary film maker. Maher has
built his career on explaining his point of view in the most comedic way
he knows how, generally his point of view will immediately split the
crowd down the middle, and his latest film Religulous is absolutely no
different, in fact, it’s the best example.
Maher visits and interview people from some of the biggest and some of
the smallest examples of modern religion establishments on the planet,
from visiting the Vatican to the bible slapping Salt Lake City to
Jerusalem and even to one of the stranger visits in Amsterdam, all in
the name of ‘Why the hell are you doing that?’. Maher simply doesn’t
understand in people viewing a higher power and wishes to look into all
religions and their structures to find out why they dedicate their lives
to their cause.
The material is plenty here, as Bill goes over all the major religions
and their players, he also somehow manages to get permission to film and
interview several high rollers in the organised religious stakes, but
the real entertainment is Bills interviewing skills. When finding out
that there is a Movie World style theme park based on Jesus and he
execution and resurrection, that seems strange enough for one, but Maher
seems to add a few more layers of crazy using his own wit and skill.
Instead of using a Michael Moore brute force method of interviewing and
film styling, Maher speaks with the players, lets them answer a
question, and then uses their own answer to slingshot back into their
face, leaving the greatest and most bewildered looks on many faces. He
isn’t trying to make the interviewees look like idiots, but it becomes
abundantly clear that while they may walk onto the screen with all the
confidence and answers they think they will ever need, Maher is simply
too strong and knows exactly how to pluck away at the layers until the
brutal honesty beneath is revealed. It’s these interviews that develop
into the story of Bill, while still under the opinion that most of the
people he talked to are clearly delusional, appears slightly lost in the
masses of belief structures, and while wanting something to grasp onto,
there is nothing he can trust in.
While the movie has a very biased guide in showing what the idea of
religion has done to modern man, it still allows for the option of using
the information given to make up your own mind, which is massively
important in any documentary film, let alone one on a topic such as
this.
Directed by Larry Charles of Borat and Bruno fame, the film is shot in
virtually the exact same style and was the perfect selection for the
feature. The aggressive zooms and eye level focus gives a cemented look
into each person’s emotional rollercoaster as the crew travel around the
world debunking along the way. Visually the Bluray quality isn’t
anything fantastic, while the colours, backgrounds and skin tones are
perfectly represented, the quality of the footage is nothing that
couldn’t have been handled by a standard DVD disk, and side by side, i
doubt any comparison would show a difference. Audio wise, it’s much the
same boat, as the audio is 99% dialogue based on your standard
documentary equipment (Shirt and Boom mikes) the Dolby 5.1 rarely comes
into play, and when it does have a minor kick, it acts as somewhat of a
distraction more than a blessing.
Overall, in typical Maher style, this film will anger a lot of people,
belief structures aren’t something that members like being questioned,
so if you belong to one of the majors, prepare to be enraged a little,
but the interviews are so well done and presented, it’s hard to compare
them to anything. It follows a entertaining story which informs and
observes, and most importantly, it makes you think. Instead of inserting
funny cartoons and novel skits in to entertain in between scenes, the
entertainment is the film itself. If you have a open mind, or THINK you
have a open mind, you must watch this film, and see just how open minded
you really are.
Special Features:
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Deleted Scenes
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Directors Commentary
