Team America: World Police

LINKS
—Overview
—Roundtable Discussion
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Forum

I’ll admit it: At times during this film, I laughed out loud. These guys, who are infamous for creating South Park, definitely know what’s funny. Many of the physical gags in this film are hilarious. Even some of the “straight� sequences, which would probably be either disturbing or mundane if carried out by human actors, bring forth a chuckle just because they are performed by marionettes. Incidentally, the fact that Trey Parker and Matt Stone chose to go with puppets should not be surprising, seeing as their flagship show is nothing but animated paper cut-outs. These guys are not afraid to try new things—and they often succeed. It doesn’t hurt that the puppets, sets, direction, and special effects in Team America are all superb.

The film also boasts at least two songs of note. The better of the two describes the purpose of a montage sequence in a film while a montage is actually going on. Such self-conscious appropriation of Hollywood action film sequences is one of the strongest aspects of the film. Likewise, many of its parodies of various personalities, movies, and cultural trends are also spot on. This is particularly true in regard to its mockery of celebrities who tend to think fame confers wisdom. At one point, members of the fictional Film Actors Guild are told it is their duty to read things in the paper and then go on television and repeat what they read as if it is their own opinion. Probably not far from reality. That Parker and Stone chose to put the fate of the world in the hands of an actor is also a biting commentary on our own obsession with celebrity.

Despite all of these positive points, the main problem with this film is that these guys just don’t seem to know when to stop. The fact that they struggled to bring Team America, a film that stars puppets, down to an R-rating is a clear indication that something is amiss. Like Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films, Parker and Stone seem compelled to keep forcing a belly laugh until all that’s left is an uncomfortable silence. It’s like they’ve been waiting since grade nine to put every crude thought they’ve ever had into a film, and now they finally get a chance to do it. More than once during the film I was thinking, “No, he’s not really going to…� And then he did. Ugh. (I’ll spare you the details.)

Parker and Stone have built their careers by pushing boundaries. And while I’m not one to stifle creativity, at such times I found myself asking, “What’s the point?� It is probably breaking some sort of taboo to quote another film reviewer in my own review, but I can’t think of a better way to sum up my feelings in this regard other than quoting Roger Ebert: “I wasn’t offended by the movie’s content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides—indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they’re wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn’t matter.� Like Ebert, I wasn’t exactly shocked or outraged by the juvenile crudeness (I was fourteen-years-old once, too, after all). I was just disappointed that things rarely rose above a Beavis and Butthead snigger. Parker and Stone are big-time filmmakers now. And while sparks of genius keep illuminating the darkness, they insist on acting like two ignorant schoolboys giggling at the back of the classroom, refusing to grow up. The big question is, why?

That said, Team America: World Police boasts one of the most clearly articulated themes I have ever seen in a film. Parker and Stone break the world down into three types of people: 1) those who act, 2) those who talk, and 3) those who destroy. The first group is usually charging off, hell-bent on righting some kind of wrong. In this film, Team America is the epitome of this type. While their intentions are good, sometimes their enthusiasm pushes them overboard, and they have to be reined in by people in group 2).

Unfortunately, while people in group 2) do serve as a valuable calming influence, they also tend toward navel-gazing and criticism, often hindering the good work that people in group 1) want to do. So, sometimes they need people from group 1) to give them a reality check and/or a kick in the pants. In Team America, you could say that the United Nations—represented by the Film Actors Guild—falls into this category.

Then you have group 3). Like the terrorists who exemplify this type in the film, these people don’t care who gets hurt by their antics, just as long as they get the reaction they want and their demands are met.

I’m not sure how much time Parker and Stone spent thinking about where they fit into their clever typology, but I’d like to offer my own take on it here: While I wouldn’t exactly call them terrorists, in this film at least, Parker and Stone display their group 3) colors proudly. I have no idea what their demands are, but Team America: World Police is like a bomb set off in a crowded marketplace. It is clearly designed to offend and anger as many people as possible. Let’s just hope for Parker and Stone’s sakes that this doesn’t turn into a suicide mission—at least from a career point of view.

Proverbs 9:8 says “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.� Heeding this advice, rather than rebuke Parker and Stone, as many other Christian commentators have done, I would like to challenge them instead:

If you were to look in the Foam Lake Composite High School yearbook for 1989, you’d see that my most embarrassing moment for grade twelve was when my principle, John Senkiw, accused me of practicing mediocrity. I’m not sure why he singled me out from amongst my group of goof-off friends, but obviously he saw some potential in me, and it bothered him to see me waste it. Fifteen years later, I still haven’t forgotten his words, and they spur me on whenever I’m tempted to do something sub-par.

Today, I would like to pass on that same assessment to Trey and Matt: I believe you are practicing mediocrity. You are pandering to the lowest common denominator to get a cheap laugh and make a fast buck rather than rising to the level of sophistication and insight I know you are both capable of attaining. In many ways, Team America was a brilliant film. But your propensity for crudity severely compromised the positive contribution this film could have made. At best, Team America offers a veneer of social commentary and some cheap laughs. But it could have done much, much more.

No doubt, there’s great potential here. Matt’s interview and the short animated sequence both film makers created for Bowling for Columbine display an acute ability to see through the tripe that distracts so many of us. They are among those rare individuals who are able discern the truth, and reflect it back to us in a way that is as instructive and unnerving as it is humorous. The ability to look beyond hype and status quo and give others a clearer perspective is a gift—one that is God-given—yet, I also believe that gift is being squandered. Worse, it’s being used to destroy rather than build. I believe in Parker and Stone. I really want them to become all they can be. The question is, do they?

—Roundtable Discussion

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Forum

Friday Night Lights

LINKS
—Review by Kevin Miller
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film pdf file
—Spiritual Connections

First of all, Friday Night Lights is a great sports movie. It has everything you expect from a film in this genre: an appealing—albeit motley—bunch of players, each with his own hopes and inner conflicts; a seemingly insurmountable obstacle for the team to overcome during the upcoming season; a coach who drives them hard but who really has a heart of gold; and tons of bone-crunching action that looks as if it came from a ten-year “best of� sports highlight reel. Films like Hoosiers, Remember the Titans, and Miracle set the stage for this genre, but Friday Night Lights has stolen the show.

But Friday Night Lights is more than just a great sports movie; it is a great movie—period. In fact, I would almost say it is a “perfect� film. You’ll have to watch it to know exactly what I mean by that, but it has everything to do with quality. The acting, the directing, the lighting, the script, the camera that won’t stop moving—I could burn through a phone book of superlatives in every one of these areas. More importantly, however, I loved this film because it does exactly what all movies should do: It makes viewers feel something, perhaps more powerfully than they have ever felt it before. In this case, the overwhelming feeling is one of inspiration. Friday Night Lights compels you to examine your life, to make sure you haven’t lost track of why you are living it, and to refocus on doing your best, on striving toward achieving something extraordinary. Although sports is the central metaphor, Friday Night Lights is really about what it means to be human, the things that get in the way of that pursuit, and how those thing might be overcome..


Hell is a small town in this film, and its name is Odessa, Texas. The only means of salvation are to get out (if you’re smart enough or rich enough) or to make it big playing football. Since few people are able to do either one, most resign themselves to “memories and babies� and spend the rest of their lives reflecting on the glory days while living out their vanquished dreams through the local high school football team. Having failed to achieve anything of consequence themselves, they feel their only hope for significance is for the Permian Panthers to have a winning season. And they will do everything they can to ensure that happens. As a Canadian, I’ve always wondered why small town America is so obsessed with high school football. This film gave me at least a partial answer as to why.

As you can imagine, such expectations put an enormous amount of pressure on the young men who make up this team. For most of the guys, football ceased to be about fun a long time ago. Coach Gary Gaines wears his role like a death sentence, at one point telling his guys, “You have the responsibility of protecting this team and this school and this town.� Whew. Anyone up for a little two-hand touch? Consequently, the upcoming season isn’t really something to look forward to; it’s just something to endure, to survive. If the Panthers win State, then the pressure is off. If not, well, as one of the team’s boosters tells Gaines, “Things won’t go well for you.� Despite the pressure, it’s obvious that Gaines and his boys really do love the game. If only people would leave them alone long enough so they could relax and enjoy the experience. Who knows? Perhaps they might even become a better team as a result.

The pressure to perform affects each character differently. Gaines is more disappointed than intimidated by the constant harassment and abuse. He seems to be operating from a set of inner convictions that few other characters in this film possess. Quarterback Mike Winchell is another story. Driven by a football-obsessed mother at home and a fan base that celebrates him one moment and then vilifies him the next, his every look and mannerism tells you he just can’t wait for this show to be over. Then there’s Boobie Miles, the NFL-bound star who blows his chance at the big-time for a shot at small-town glory. Finally, you have Don Billingsly. He’s so wound up most of the time due to his abusive, former State Champion father that he can’t even hold onto the football. Indeed, whatever dysfunctions are present in Odessa, they all manifest themselves in this football team in one way or another. And it’s all the players can do just to hold things together.

At one point, Coach Gaines senses Winchell is about to crack, so he decides it’s time for a little “man-to-man� with his quarterback. During their conversation, Coach Gaines tells Winchell that he is old enough by now to realize that sometimes life gives you the short end of the stick. The question is: What are we going to do about it? Will we allow it to define the rest of our lives, as some characters in this film do, or are we going to find some way to overcome it? For Gaines, it all comes down to where you find your identity. On what will you base your life? Winning? That didn’t work so well for people like Don Billingsly’s dad. When his team won State, he was the centre of everyone’s hopes and dreams. But when the season ended, he was faced with the glaring question: What do you do when the cheering stops? By the time we meet him, he is still trying to find a satisfactory answer to that problem, one that goes beyond self-medication, that is.

So if not winning, then what? Coach Gaines’s answer sounds frustrating at first: Perfection. By this, however, he does not mean flawlessness. To him, perfection means knowing that you did your best, knowing that there wasn’t one more thing you could have done to achieve your objective. It means having love and joy in your heart for your fellow players and your fellow man. For Gaines, true victory is a victory of character. It’s not whether you win or lose or even how you play the game. It’s about who you become as a result.

Interestingly, Jesus made a similar entreaty to his disciples: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect� (Matthew 5:48). I’ve always found this verse somewhat frustrating as well. Who can be perfect? Doesn’t the mere attempt just lead to striving and guilt? But when you look at it the way Coach Gaines does, suddenly it makes “perfect� sense. Jesus isn’t saying that life—being human—is about being the best. It’s not even about performing “your own personal best.� It’s about allowing the challenges you face to mold you into the best person you can be. This is accomplished not through striving or guilt but by inviting God to manifest his perfect character through you during such circumstances. “We all dig our own holes,� says Gaines. If so, then perhaps yielding to this sort of perfection is the key to digging our way out.

LINKS
—Review by Kevin Miller
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film pdf file
—Spiritual Connections

Ladder 49

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections


Faith, family, and firefighting—these are the core values that bubble and surge constantly at the heart of this film. Every so often, one of them rises to the surface to raise a question about which is most important and how each value can be pursued without sacrificing the other two. While these dilemmas are not always resolved, they do lead to some interesting reflections on all three topics.

Firefighting: Ladder 49 is a film that celebrates firefighting as a profession and firefighters as people. With the embers of grief from 9/11 still smoldering, how could it do anything but? Consequently, it features numerous scenes of firemen dropping everything and dashing out to answer the next call. They charge into flaming infernos, rescue helpless victims, and generally play the hero. During such scenes, Ladder 49 is like a fire hose stretched taut with water: Everything is functioning exactly as it should. The fires blaze with authenticity, the acting never fails to convince, and the situations the firemen encounter feel adequately realistic. Surprisingly, even John Travolta does not seem out of place as the firehouse captain.

While out on a call, there is not much time for philosophizing. Situations come up, and the firemen react. But back at the firehouse, it’s a different story. Here, we get to see the other side of these men as they laugh, learn, grieve, and ponder the significance of what they do. This is a true family, a band of brothers. They love hard, fight hard, work hard, and play hard. In this group, nothing can remain hidden for long. Authenticity is not an option. Differences come up, and resolving them is rarely pretty. But when the next call comes, all conflicts are cast aside in favor of creating a unified front against their common foe. This is community as it should be.

Family: Ladder 49 is also a strong affirmation of family. Virtually all of the firefighters are portrayed as working class men who enjoy nothing more than a backyard birthday barbecue with their wives and kids. And those who aren’t married become like an extended network of uncles and older brothers to those that are. Once again, there is a strong sense of kinship at work here that makes the viewer long for that sort of thing if he or she hasn’t experienced it already.

Everyone struggles to find a balance between career and family. But in the world of firefighting—or any career that has the potential to place your life in jeopardy—this conflict is intensified, often to the breaking point. When you are young and single, dashing into a burning building is a rush, “drama in real life.� But as this film’s ten-year timeline illustrates, when a spouse and children enter the picture, suddenly, things become more complicated. Can you be an effective firefighter and a family man? At what point does your obligation to one role begin to militate against the other? Sure, you’re doing it to save other people, as our hero Jack Morrison often tells his children. But what if his children lose their father in the process? How do you balance the value of the two lives—the firefighter’s and the victim’s—in their eyes?

Jack wrestles with this question throughout the film, but the only real answer he seems to come up with is that any loss of human life is tragic. Therefore, he and his crew will do their best to save everyone they can. And if they run into a burning building, they will do their utmost to make sure that every last member of the team makes it back out. And if one of their teammates doesn’t make it out, well, that’s the way it goes in this business. It’s back on the truck and out to the next call. Life goes on. “Let’s do it for Johnny!� It is unfortunate that a film that deals so blatantly with issues of life and death does not allow the discussion to get beyond such locker room rhetoric or reassuring platitudes uttered to a child before bedtime.

Faith: Apart from Raising Helen, which features a priest as one of its main characters, I don’t think I’ve been to church so many times in one movie. Each time a major event occurs—birth, wedding or death—it’s off to the cathedral. Even though these guys are a little rough around the edges, some central part of them recognizes the need to acknowledge a higher power on such occasions. That said, for these men, faith seems more like a flashlight than a streetlamp. It is a culturally inherited set of rituals and beliefs. They don’t use it as a central, guiding light to illuminate the path their lives should take. They merely turn to it when the power goes out. Even then, it’s usually after the fact as they attempt to resolve their grief. In the middle of an emergency situation, appeals for help from the divine never even enter the equation. The firefighters function on guts and pure survival instinct. I think this is operative for many people today. If we are really honest, even those of us who claim some sort of religious affiliation often tend toward “practical atheism� -- we don’t pray until we have to. Even then, we are apt to resist going that route if at all possible. It is interesting to ponder why that is . . .

Nevertheless, these guys have a firm grasp on one of the most important Christian virtues: sacrifice. This word comes up again and again throughout this film. The firefighters sacrifice for each other, for their families, and for the people they are trying to rescue. Sometimes, this happens in a very literal way, as in “a life for a life.� At other times, it is less blatant. A missed soccer game here, a surrendering of the ego there. Sure, some people will say this film lionizes a group of men and women who are no more or less heroic than the rest of us. Not every firefighter is as pure-hearted as Jack Morrison. But at the heart of this film is a tremendous sense of honor and loyalty that is thoroughly admirable, whether or not it is completely accurate.

When addressing his disciples, Jesus said “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends� (John 15:13). These men seem to have no problem doing that. But what about laying your life down for a stranger? Is that not an even greater test of virtue? And yet, this is exactly what these guys are called upon to do all the time. The fact that they do so willingly demonstrates clearly that whether or not they appear to have it all together on the outside, these guys have got it right where it counts. I sure hope the same can be said about me.

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections