Posted on: 16-08-10 09:15:17
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815241/
It is difficult to classify this movie. It is certainly not a documentary, it is not a feature film. It could be classified more with "Borat" - something that resembles a reality TV and is supposed to shock the viewer due to its offensive content.
The biggest problem I have with this movie is that Bill Maher does not try to get into intelligent discourse with the religious leaders. He just asks provocative questions to people who do not seem to have proper grip over the philosophy of Christianity. He picks the interviewees that are most vulnerable and easy to poke fun at. As with any movie, this seems to be edited to include only the portion that gels with Maher's belief. It fails to show the other side of all the arguments. He also confines himself within the comfort of his own country most of the time, with few takes here and there in Holland, Britian and Israel. IMDB's plot summary describes this movie as "Bill Maher's take on world religion". However, except for poking fun at Christianity and Judaism, he hardly confronts any Islamic leader, and totally ignores Hinduism and Buddhism. He seems to be oblivious to the fact that civilization does exist in Asia, Africa and South America.(a typical American trait ;-))
The second problem I have with people like Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins is that they are so firm in their belief in Atheism that they themselves become fanatic like any religious zealots and seems to get provoked when anybody questions their disbelief in God. This is an another extreme of fanaticism. Why does your bad experience with a certain religion makes all the religions evil? Why can't rationality and faith exist together?
This movie is a popcorn flick and should be watched purely for its entertainment and shock value. For documentaries that deals with more serious issues, there are always CBC documentaries on Sunday nights.
I'm a very BIG fan of Bill Maher. I have lot of respect for comedians like Bill, John Stewart & David Letterman.
The reason Maher made this movie was to counter the current sweeping of Evangelical Christianity over North America and in particular USA.
With extreme hardtimes being faced by common masses, they are turning to religion in a big way and falling prey to the evangelicals sermons.
Maher has tried to counter this form of religous propagation in this documentary and NOT a discussion on religion as a whole.
I love to watch Mahers stand up shows and also when he shows up on Larry King on CNN.
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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.
Quote:
Originally posted by Vandematram
With extreme hardtimes being faced by common masses, they are turning to religion in a big way and falling prey to the evangelicals sermons.
Maher has tried to counter this form of religous propagation in this documentary and NOT a discussion on religion as a whole.
I love to watch Mahers stand up shows and also when he shows up on Larry King on CNN.
I like Maher too whenever he is on Leno. But my problem is that he has selected a vulnerable few to pick on them. Those people who do not seem to have a deep rooted knowledge of Christianity.
It is like interviewing Baba Ramdev or Swami Nityanand instead of Shankaracharya to find faults with Hinduism.
