Religulous, Exeter Picture House
Cert 15, 101 minutes
By Graham Taylor
Religion is always a hot topic, and it’s the focus of American comedian, Bill Maher’s, new mockumentary, Religulous.
Maher is a strong believer that religion is the cause of this world’s suffering, and the wars and famine it brings. Despite being brought up in a very Catholic orientated environment, Maher believes in no God, and questions the religious facts about life.
This documentary, directed by Larry Charles, the man behind Borat, focuses on why people believe in a religion, and the driving force behind their faith, whether it’s to do with the loss of a loved one, or someone seeking guidance to push their life onwards.
Instead of speaking to respectable Christians/Muslims/etc, Maher and his team visit the wackjobs of America, who provide entertainment, but no insight into why people have faith in their religion.
One of Maher’s interviewees, a man who runs a business that helps gay men become straight, is meant to show the audience why he believes that being homosexual is wrong, but insteads tells us why you shouldn’t be gay.
Maher pushes for answers on all of the people he interviews, but not one of them can give one specific reason for supporting their views, leaving the interviewer to make some sort of cutting jibe to fill the blanks in.
This is the reason why Religulous fails at its task. It’s not at all insightful into the everyday person and why they are religious. You could say that the point is too highlight that nobody can explain their beliefs, but you want more. You wait for an explanation everytime a new point is made, but you are never given the detail you crave for.
Maher, although funny, is a very smug and rather unlikeable interviewer. He is very funny, and his cruel jokes are hilarious, but watching him taunt these innocent (or deluded according to our host) people who wish to believe in something, is occasionly uncomfortable to watch.
The film however, is extremely humourous. Not a minute goes by without a least one major laugh. Maher’s jokes on the similarities between Muslims and Jews are brilliant (although slightly distasteful) and when he interviews the man behind the religion of smoking pot, the viewer starts to understand Maher’s views.
I would agree that religion is the main course behind wars, regardless of what the people in the film say. This is one aspect of the film that is very clear. All of the men and women interviewed in the film all say that polictics is the main reason, yet they all seem to know that that’s nowhere near the truth.
Maher mainly tackles the Christian faith, and doesn’t delve enough into Islam and Scientology, two interesting and controversial religions that people want to hear about.
The laws of religion about women are briefly mentioned, but aren’t questioned. This is clearly an important aspect of religion, so you wonder why it has been left out of the film.
Religulous is uneven to say the least. It would have been a more interesting (but not as funny) documentary had their been a normal, average person interviewed.
But this is still worth a watch, despite it’s flaws.