What can you say about Bill Maher? He doesn't just touch a nerve, he pokes it. Then he sticks that nerve with a dull, rusty needle. I say that with all due respect towards a man with whom I sometimes disagree but usually think he's close to the mark. Many people think he is uncomfortably close to the mark.
Maher takes on religion with a similar style in Religulous. The title is a morphing of the words religion and ridiculous. He's traveled the world asking people about their religion and questioning their faith. Some of his subjects are ok with the questions, others clearly offended by the fact that their faith is being questioned. Maher doesn't take any sides, believing only in the religion of doubt.
I thought the movie was both funny and thought-provoking, in a way similar to Michael Moore's recent films.
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It was good, I agree, although slightly 'over the top' in the latter segments, so much so that it brings a slight eye rolling even to as fervent a non-believer as myself.
It's also a bit of an extension of "The God That Wasn't There", a film from a few years back, that IMHO is much better at laying out and presenting facts about religion that most religious folks fail to know, consider or accept.
Ultimately, these are both great efforts but preaching heavily to the choir. I don't believe either steer clear enough of offensive or condescending statements, and I believe that's where you lose the opportunity to have a planted seed remain and germinate. I'm still waiting for the release of a film that takes the foundation of these, especially the historical sides of "TGTWT", and puts it out on the table in a fashion that might cause some of the fervent believers to mull on it awhile and reconsider some of their own assumptions.
I may have lots of time on my hands soon and I have a video camera. Perhaps we should coordinate.
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