Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
Bill Maher confronts numerous, diverse religious people about the absurdity of their faiths, and contends that religion is bad for humanity.
Liked
Maher's sharp wit and wealth of knowledge, a few thoughtful interviews.
Disliked
His humiliation style, the lack of clear narrative.
Thoughts
Pretty good.
I liked how Bill Maher was so well versed about this topic. He clearly did his research, and had a lot of ammunition at his disposal when confronting his subjects. My favorite was his pointing out the eerily identical circumstances of a messiah in numerous religions, including Christianity. Also, I liked the thoughtful conversations he had with his family. Occasionally, there would be some funny moments of splicing a subject's arguments with contradictory evidence.
The problem for me was that I didn't like his style of undressing these (mostly) decent people. When Sacha Baron Cohen did it, he did it for entertainment. Here, it was different. From the very beginning, Maher made no bones about his agenda. Still, at times it was squirm-inducing, or repetitive. Only until the end, did I see a progression of his visual essay, culminating into his belief that religion will doom us all.
As a current agnostic, I expected it to be "preaching to the choir", but actually there was a wealth of information that made me think. Unfortunately, due to his zealous vitriol, I find it hard to imagine that an open-minded religious person would have the patience to watch some of these moments.
It's his film, he can do whatever he wants. He did a very good job at showing the absurdity and dangers of religion. However, if his intention was to promote discussion and thought, I think he failed.
What I would change
I would have preferred a more civil debates.
