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I went in my local Blockbuster the other day and EVERY COPY of "Religulous" was out. They had a lot of copies, too. Almost one whole rack, floor to (near) ceiling.
Of course, this is Los Angeles, where we probably have "heathens," "infidels" and "godless assmunches" listed in the Yellow Pages.
I enjoyed it overall, but would have liked a little more context on stuff like the ultra-Orthodox Jews.
When I was in Egypt, I talked to a Muslim woman who said her grandmother owned an apartment building in Alexandria and rented to Xians, Jews and Muslims. Some of the Jews were Orthodox and she said the Xian and Muslim kids would do stuff for them on their Sabbath, when they were not allowed to "work." Sometimes the kids got paid, sometimes they just did it for free.
This was before 1967, when the vast majority of the Jews were forced to leave Egypt. Often with about 2 hours notice, after living there for several generations. And on that Exodus, no Moses or pillar of fire showed up...
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Bonus rant, a DVD with an interesting title not worth renting: "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus." Some alt-country singer named Jim White, with gullible British film crew in tow, promises a look at the Real South.
Actually, you get a look at every tired old cliche about the South, dredged up again and re-spewed. The South has religious fundamentalists who blather in the Unknown Tongues! What a revelation! Jebus, does anybody in the world NOT know that?
Jim White is a pretentious asshat who loves to pontificate thusly: "In the South, you are either in church or going to Hell. There is no middle ground."
Pfft! Well, sure there is. Many middle grounds. Fallacy of the Excluded Thingamajig, anybody?
White rents a 1970 Chevy Impala with "a big engine," because "these people won't talk to you if you're driving a Land Rover or a Toyota or something."
In one scene they visit a junkyard. Most of the cars in it are Japanese. Whoops!
Irritation #1: White never tells you WHERE in the South we are, so I guess he was trying to make some point about how the South is a monolithic place where everything is pretty much alike. No matter where you go.
He roams from bayou Louisiana to wire-grass (northern) Alabama, up to the Georgia/SC state line, and ends up in West Virginia. Good grief! Even a Yankee who has driven thru those places knows they are vastly different.
Irritation #2: this whole project seemed intended to promote a gaggle of alt-country musicians, and they uniformly suck. If any of these people have day jobs, they better not quit 'em.
The best music in the whole thing is provided by 3 women in a diner who sing an a cappella version of "Knoxville Girl:"
No attention did I pay, I beat her more and more,
I beat her till the ground around stood in a bloody gore...
My mother used to sing me to sleep with that song when I was little. Which may explain a lot.
Anyway, if you want to see a good movie about creepy Southern religionists, put this thing back on the shelf. And try to find John Huston's adaptation of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood:
"I'm gonna start me a new church. Where the blind don't see, the crippled don't walk, and what's dead stays that way!"
:rofl:
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