Religulous: Thank God It's a Thumbs Up!

October 04 2008 22:05 Filed in: Movies
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I don’t really like to use the term “important” when describing a movie. Sure a movie can be important to the industry. Groundbreaking effects like the original Star Wars or groundbreaking narratives like Pulp Fiction. This may be as close as you can come to an “important” movie in terms of our modern culture.

Bill Mahar’s Religulous does have a message. It’s a message many people don’t want to hear. Some people won’t listen to and a message that too many people will probably work hard to get you to ignore.

Mahar is a definitely a love him or hate him television personality with the popular late night political talk show Real Time on HBO. Despite his biting commentary on Real Time, in Religulous, Mahar pretty much let’s his interview subjects tell their side and show themselves and their beliefs for what they are.

If you didn’t know, it’s a documentary about religion in society and putting religious beliefs out on the table and examining them at face value. More importantly, it’s about breaking the mysterious taboo that religion has in society that it’s not appropriate to discuss rationally. We can disagree on just about everything else and still be civil, but as soon as you examine or question someone’s faith you’re suddenly crossing the line.
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Mahar is blunt with his interview subjects, but fair and challenging. Make no mistake though, Religulous is also devastatingly funny, cleverly edited and well constructed. Mahar, for being so blunt and opinionated on his show, is surprisingly skillful with putting his interview subjects in comfortable positions. In one segment, he interviews the head of a religious organization with the goal to “rehabilitate” homosexuals and bring them to Jesus. For the record, the interview subject was a “former” homesexual himself. By the middle of the interview, the subject is getting quite irate and ready to kick the film crew out, but Mahar, while still offering challenges manages to turn it completely around without backing down from his positions. By the end of the interview they are laughing, comfortable and joking. More than just one interview goes this direction. Some of his subjects even welcome Mahar’s questioning about their specific beliefs.

One of the most interesting interviews is in front of the Vatican with a senior priest who is surprisingly blunt and dismissive about virtually every Catholic dogma and admitting how ridiculous it is to believe in some of the biblical mainstays literally. Another interview with a United States congressman will make you sit in disbelief and embarrassment.

The tone of the film gets darker in the last third or so when it turns away from Christianity and towards Jewish and Islamic issues. He treads lightly with the Islamic subjects and it gets somewhat uncomfortable, and quite frankly, a little scary. Eventually, the conclusion of the film is about the dangers of religion and in particular the how the religious differences between Jews, Christians and Muslims are the root of a serious problem.

Some people are going to dismiss this film because of their dislike of Bill Mahar. Others will dismiss it simply because of the religious content and the “audacity” of examining religious beliefs at face value, but that’s exactly what the film is meant to do. If faith isn’t strong enough to stand up to scrutiny, is it worth having?

With no hesitation, I recommend Religulous as a film that you should make a point to see. Granted, it’s not for everyone. Unfortunately, the people that aren’t going to give this film a look are probably the people that need to see it the most.

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