America: FUCK YEAH, Pt. 2

We condescended to patronize the local megaplex last night to catch Team America: World Police in a depressingly un-crowded theatre. Depressingly, I say, because as many people should see this movie as Fahrenheit 9/11.
First, lets get it out there that the movie is flat-out fucking hilarious. One co-attendee said, somewhat misleadingly, that he's never laughed so hard at only four jokes. Misleading because there's much more than four jokes, although they do rely heavily on the South Park quadrangle of swearing, making fun of foreigners, dick jokes, and bodily fluids. Again, though, truly hilarious.
But the focus of the movie, fighting terrorists (albeit with puppets), cannot be removed from current political context, so let's look at it that way.

For those that haven't seen it yet, and don't want the plot or jokes ruined, don't read any further.

The clear enemies in the movie are, of course, terrorists and those who would sponsor them, namely Kim Jong Il. But the movie doesn't shy away from exposing America's more embarrasing tendencies toward unabashed patriotism, cultural cluelessness, and wanton destruction. As FoxNews put it in a preview of the movie, "Team America is out to save the world from terrorists, but who'll save the world from Team America?"

In the same interview, Trey Parker and Matt Stone admit that they don't really know anything about foreign policy, and from watching the film, you'll get the sense that they wish that other members of the Hollywood community would do the same. Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, etc. etc. actually take up arms to defend Kim Jong Il and his terrorist plot against Team America, all in the name of "peace." The UN gets it's comeuppance as well, when Hans Blix gets eaten by a shark after threatening Kim Jong Il with a very nasty letter for his refusal to allow unfettered inspections.

The movie accomplishes it's goal of offending pretty much everyone. Redneck flag wavers would be offended by the assertions of America as the blond-haired, blue-eyed, democratic savior of the world, if they were only smart enough to realize that they were being made fun of. Lefties obviously will be upset, and in fact, several patrons at our screening walked out shortly after the Michael Moore puppet made his appearance. Which, while somewhat missing the point, is fine with me, because if we can't agree on and laugh at some really crucial facts (namely that terrorists and Kim Jong Il are bad, Hollywood actors don't know shit about foreign policy and should butt the fuck out, and that Michael Moore is nothing more than a fat blowhard jackass), we've got bigger problems than movie attendance.

I think that the overall point of the movie is that, by and large, America is doing the right thing in fighting terrorism. However, in that it focuses more on Kim Jong Il than on Osama bin Laden as the figure of global terrorism, and in that it completely ignores the issue of Iraq, it's obvious that the creators disagree fundamentally with the direction the war is going. In fact, the Islamic terrorist plot is a bit of a red herring in the plot of the movie. Whatever. Fine. But it's other big point is that people like Michael Moore and the collection of Hollywood types portrayed are not doing the cause any good at all. Stalin called them "useful idiots," in that while they prevaricate and pontificate and protest, the trul evil-doers continue with their plans, completely uninterested in dialogue or negotiated solutions. That point is writ large onscreen, and early reaction from the butt of these jokes shows that they're not really getting it.

I don't want to turn this into some sort of polemic, though, thereby discouraging you from seeing the movie. But just like South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut had at its heart a fundamentally conservative message of parental responsibility, so does Team America have a point that sometimes might is right. Or, at the very least, that to not fight this war is wrong.