Aug022004
Team America: An Act of Terror?
Filed Under Movies
Well, no. But a nice inflammatory headline, huh?
In the trailer to their new marionette movie Team America, Trey Parker and Matt Stone promise that George Bush, among others, won’t be happy when he sees the flick. Well, one down and ten or so to go. W. hasn’t even seen it yet and already his handlers are expressing their displeasure.
Though not the first time Trey and Matt have satirized a president, the Bush administration may want to “wait and see it” as Parker suggests. “That’s My Bush” was targeted more at the lameness of sitcom conventions rather than the policies of a President. Though much of the film references the current war on terror, the inspiration for it was action movies, specifically “The Day After Tomorrow” (which they wanted to shoot themselves perfectly straight, using puppets for all the parts).
And Bush isn’t even the flick according to Parker, despite how the website shows a similar looking marionette from the back (he may be added Parker admitted). Instead the main villains (if you can call them that) are the misguided legions of Hollywood liberals, who interfere with the terrorist fighting Team America group in an unspecified way. With a release date of October 15, three weeks before the election, it sounds almost eerily on message with the “heart and soul of America” speeches W.’s been delivering in battleground states (side note: with red and blue states, why aren’t these states called purple states? C’mon, America loves color coding.)
However, judging from ”South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut,” the satire will be anything but toothless. The actual villain implies a certain critique by his selection: Korean dictator Kim Jong II. (Of course, the duo may be done with Saddam Hussein jokes.) And the initial sequence set in Paris sets up parallels with go-it-along cowboy militarism and action movies that are very uncomfortable.
Though at times rumored to be Republican, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are apparently more libertarians. But they both claim people will leave the film wondering where they stand. I’m definitely looking forward to the film, and with the election thisclose, both sides are bound to be inflating their positions. I hope Trey and Matt not only don’t have any sacred cows, but no sacred donkeys or elephants either.
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