Team America: World Police
Links
—Overview
—Roundtable Discussion
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
Team America is a movie that will undoubtedly elicit a reaction from its viewers. What that reaction may be comes down to the individual . . . but it is doubtful that one could come out of the film without some strong opinions. This is the intent of the filmmakers, I believe, as it seems Trey Parker and Matt Stone were attempting to skewer just about everyone possible in this film!
Team America follows the misadventures of a group of elite soldiers, who are also marionettes, that are attempting to end the threat of terrorism across the globe. The strengths of this movie, more so than the promised political jabs at all possible sides, lie mostly in the film’s original music. Trey Parker not only directed this film, he also wrote it, provided many of the characters’ voices, and wrote some of the funniest original music ever heard in a film.
Parker and Stone, who are the brains behind the South Park television show, have shown their gifts for writing musical comedy before. They made the unique choice of turning their South Park television show into a feature length musical in 1999. Yes, a musical. The result was a funnier-than-it-should-have-been film, which even brought Parker a nomination for the best original song, “Blame Canada,� at the Academy awards.
Team America features a number of hilarious original songs that bring humor to the film on a whole different level than puppets that swear, kill, fist fight, and even . . . fornicate. The song writing shows that Parker has gifts for comedy beyond the lowball humor that he sometimes seems to shoot for. He has an acute awareness of how to make a film, and an obvious awareness of how to make daring satire.
As we are introduced to the main character, Gary Johnston, he is acting in a Broadway play called Lease: The Musical. In this great parody of the musical Rent, Johnston (Parker) sings an original song about the entire world having AIDS. Parker sends up Broadway musicals grandly in this hilarious track.
Later, as Johnston ponders his new relationship with Lisa, a teammate, the song the audience is treated to revolves entirely around how bad a film Pearl Harbor was, and gives us a chorus something along the lines of, “Pearl Harbor sucked . . . but just a little bit more than I love you.� Parker even seems to acknowledge the ridiculousness of his own film in this scene: as the camera follows Gary across the country on his little battery-powered motorcycle, the camera runs right into the puppet, knocking it onto the ground.
By far the most self-aware and classic song to be found in the film is the song about the storytelling device known as the “montage.� Sending up basically every action movie ever made, Gary trains to rescue his teammates in an onscreen montage. The music scoring this scene describes the techniques and purposes of the montage even as it is happening. “Even Rocky had a montage!� As Gary appears to become stronger and more prepared for the mission, the song is describing how each shot should show just a little bit of improvement. Brilliant!
Almost every original song found in this film is sidesplitting, and it shows us just how much potential Trey Parker and Matt Stone have in the realm of satire and parody. If they continue in this self-aware, no-holds-barred style, maybe they will realize some of their potential in films that focus more deeply on real-world issues -as did their short about fear in Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine- than the easier comedy fare they so often provide us.
Links
—Overview
—Roundtable Discussion
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Overview
—Roundtable Discussion
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
Team America is a movie that will undoubtedly elicit a reaction from its viewers. What that reaction may be comes down to the individual . . . but it is doubtful that one could come out of the film without some strong opinions. This is the intent of the filmmakers, I believe, as it seems Trey Parker and Matt Stone were attempting to skewer just about everyone possible in this film!Team America follows the misadventures of a group of elite soldiers, who are also marionettes, that are attempting to end the threat of terrorism across the globe. The strengths of this movie, more so than the promised political jabs at all possible sides, lie mostly in the film’s original music. Trey Parker not only directed this film, he also wrote it, provided many of the characters’ voices, and wrote some of the funniest original music ever heard in a film.
Parker and Stone, who are the brains behind the South Park television show, have shown their gifts for writing musical comedy before. They made the unique choice of turning their South Park television show into a feature length musical in 1999. Yes, a musical. The result was a funnier-than-it-should-have-been film, which even brought Parker a nomination for the best original song, “Blame Canada,� at the Academy awards.
Team America features a number of hilarious original songs that bring humor to the film on a whole different level than puppets that swear, kill, fist fight, and even . . . fornicate. The song writing shows that Parker has gifts for comedy beyond the lowball humor that he sometimes seems to shoot for. He has an acute awareness of how to make a film, and an obvious awareness of how to make daring satire.
As we are introduced to the main character, Gary Johnston, he is acting in a Broadway play called Lease: The Musical. In this great parody of the musical Rent, Johnston (Parker) sings an original song about the entire world having AIDS. Parker sends up Broadway musicals grandly in this hilarious track.Later, as Johnston ponders his new relationship with Lisa, a teammate, the song the audience is treated to revolves entirely around how bad a film Pearl Harbor was, and gives us a chorus something along the lines of, “Pearl Harbor sucked . . . but just a little bit more than I love you.� Parker even seems to acknowledge the ridiculousness of his own film in this scene: as the camera follows Gary across the country on his little battery-powered motorcycle, the camera runs right into the puppet, knocking it onto the ground.
By far the most self-aware and classic song to be found in the film is the song about the storytelling device known as the “montage.� Sending up basically every action movie ever made, Gary trains to rescue his teammates in an onscreen montage. The music scoring this scene describes the techniques and purposes of the montage even as it is happening. “Even Rocky had a montage!� As Gary appears to become stronger and more prepared for the mission, the song is describing how each shot should show just a little bit of improvement. Brilliant!
Almost every original song found in this film is sidesplitting, and it shows us just how much potential Trey Parker and Matt Stone have in the realm of satire and parody. If they continue in this self-aware, no-holds-barred style, maybe they will realize some of their potential in films that focus more deeply on real-world issues -as did their short about fear in Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine- than the easier comedy fare they so often provide us.
Links
—Overview
—Roundtable Discussion
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
1 Comments:
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