For this assignment, I attended the OUAB movie night which showed Religulous. This movie is very critical of religion as the title implies since it combines religion and ridiculous. Bill Maher travels across the world, interviewing people and most of these people are those who believe in religion. He questions their faith and makes jokes about it.
Maher uses humor very effectively. He interviews people who usually end up saying or looking ridiculous. Some of the people that he interview come off as self absorbed idiots. I think that editing helps him accomplish this. This helps put the audience on his side with their laughter if they aren't offended. And even if an audience member is offended, different religions are questioned so even a staunch Christian or Muslim could find some humor. Maher also uses logic which is an easy target for a topic as faith based as religion. He also talks about his past in a church which establishes his credibility.
The ending appeals to fear. Images of wars and violence are shown as Maher says that religion will be responsible for our demise and that religion has always been our problem. This is very heavy handed and theatrical, which doesn't go with the tone of the rest of the movie. He seems like a preacher himself standing in the place that people believe Jesus will rise and the apocalypse will come. Like religion he doesn't provide much evidence that religion will be the undoing of the world. So I thought it was somewhat hypocritical. I was not convinced by the end of the movie. Even though I am not into religion, I don't think people are wrong for believing and that it will ruin the world. Maher did make valid points that religious fanaticism isn't right and that people do use religion in a way to control others but there are some positive aspects of religion he ignored.
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I think you make some great points in your post. I also went and saw Religulous. We share a lot of the same views such as how he ends the movie. I too thought it was odd how he stood in the Holy Land as if he is a prophet or priest making great declarations. I think you are dead on when you speak of how he is hypocritical by not providing much evidence on how mankind will end due to religion. Overall, I really liked your post!
ReplyDeleteI thought that this movie sounded very interesting. It really seems like he had some good points about religion but I can also see how you thought it was a little hypocritical. Just like you im not really into religion and I agree with you on many of your thoughts. However, I would like to hear more about how this event affected you more.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis of the movie and how you looked into the humor it is hard to find humor on that type of subject. I have not seen this movie but it does sound interesting even though I am a religious person. The end, as you described, does not seem to fit and that again attracts me to it; I think i might watch this movie. I am interested to see if it effects me any differently than you.
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