Religulous (2008)
Let me start off by making something clear; as the years have gone by, I've come to like Bill Maher less and less. While I admit that he's an extremely intelligent person, and makes many fine points, he comes off as overly hostile and confrontational. That's why Religulous was such a pleasant surprise. Maher seemed to leash himself to only asking questions.
Religulous was directed by Larry Charles, who helped bring us Borat back in 2006. Religulous maintains Borat's execution, while providing a new theme. Bill Maher interviews a huge line of devoted religious members of the three big monotheistic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Maher attempts (that's a key word) to restrain his attack-dog style of interview, and uses his questions to pry out each individual's conviction to their own faith. The method bears a startling resemblance to Socratic Method, as the more question's Bill fires off, the more ridiculous the interviewee begins to sound. This would always end in a vapid expression on the poor person's face while Maher would recount their points, highlighting any contradictions. I found this to cheapen the over all premise of the movie because if an individual (Maher) has enough experience in Socratic method, than they have the power to make almost anything sound preposterous. Most of the religious discrepancy and contradiction Maher revealed seemed to be trifling scriptural detail. I was hoping that at some point he'd take on values, morals, or doctrine. He rarely did so. This is not to say the exchanges presented in the film were not entertaining, Maher knows how to dig out laughs and he includes plenty.
The film's strongest point is the level of ridiculousness Maher manages to squeeze into the the 101 minute run time. Maher interviews a church of Truckers, a professional Jesus interpreter, the owner of the Creationism museum, a hasidic Jewish rabbi who does not believe in the state of Israel (also known as an anti-Zionist), various evangelist preachers, Muslim religious leaders, and a guy who seriously believes he is the second coming of Jesus because just he has the same name. Another interesting aspect Maher includes is his use of Scientology. He never openly mocks Scientology on the assumption that most people already find it to be beyond bizarre. He does, however, use it as a litmus test to compare it to other religions. His point, why is volcano full of evil spectral aliens crazy while a virgin birth is not.
One gaping flaw in Religulous is it's lack of diversity in the religions it covers. Maher sticks to western, monotheistic religions. He never tries to approach a single eastern religion. This may be because eastern religions tend to have a much deeper basis in philosophy, and since Maher is shooting for laughs, he may have felt their was little to gain from such discussions. Whatever the case, Maher would have done well to mention something about the eastern faiths.
Behind all of the comedic smoke and mirrors in his film, Maher attempts to clearly paint his message at the end of the documentary. Maher finds that religion can lead to some serious lapses in logic, and because most leaders are to a certain degree religious, entrusting our leadership in them is a dangerous practice. Maher labors to underline the dangers of Religious Politics, and to a certain degree his message is well founded. He calls for the non religious to stand up, and start voicing their own opinions. He points out that atheists are less likely to vote than the religious, and he concludes that to be the most ridiculous aspect of the religious issue.
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