By
Cole Smithey
‘Team
America: World Police’
Directed by Trey Parker
2004, Rated R, 98 minutes
Geniuses of satire Matt Stone and Trey Parker
bring big laughs to the big screen with a cast
of square-jawed marionettes who fight terror
by way of North Korea’s Kim Jong II in a relevantly
childish reading of “freedom.” Inspired by the
’60s British television series “Thunderbirds,”
Stone and Parker use Jerry Bruckheimer’s action
movie plot template to parody America’s bullying
military with one-third-scale puppets that give
new meaning to “wooden acting.” The ridicule
hits a fever pitch anytime the comic duo’s brilliantly
phrased songs modify the puppet action sequences
(you’ll be chanting “Team America, Fuck Yeah”
for days). Kim Jong II exploits the Film Actors
Guild (including Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins,
Samuel Jackson and Sean Penn) for his evil schemes
while the Team America World Police recruit
a Broadway actor to infiltrate an Iraqi terror
cell. This all-out adult satire pulls no punches
and takes no prisoners.
Sean Penn sent Matt Stone and Trey Parker a
personal letter in which he berated them for
encouraging young people not to vote if they
don’t know anything about the issues or about
the candidates. Some irony lies in the fact
that Penn had not seen the movie before he sent
off his missive that allegedly stated: “I remember
several times getting a few giggles out of your
humor. I remember not being bothered as you
traded on my name among others to appear witty,
above it all, and likeable to your crowd. I
never mind being of service, in satire and silliness.
I do mind when anybody who doesn’t have a child,
doesn’t have a child at war, or isn’t or won’t
be in harm’s way themselves, is encouraging
that there’s no shame in not voting if you don’t
know what you’re talking about. You guys are
talented young guys but alas, primarily young
guys. All best, and a sincere fuck you, Sean
Penn.”
A larger irony lies in Penn’s overstated defense
of “children” before turning the tables on himself
by attempting to insult Stone and Parker for
being “primarily young guys.” Upon close examination,
you realize that Penn’s ham-fisted letter actually
supports Stone and Parker’s assertion. Penn’s
comment, about Stone and Parker not being in
“harm’s way,” ignores the endless personal attacks
and threats that the purposefully non-glamorous
duo have suffered as a result of their comic
contributions.
The greatest gift that Matt Stone and Trey Parker
possess is their inexhaustibly childish and
brash approach to big issues. Although they’ve
said in interviews that “Team America: World
Police” mocks terrorists rather than the war
on terror, the film rightfully does off-handedly
ridicule Bush’s “war on terror.” It slyly acknowledges
the truth of multinational global corporate
oppression: that there is no and can be no such
thing as a war on terror, just as there can
be no war on the desperation that drives ostracized
people from committing any act of abysmal desperation.
When our puppet commandos kick off “Team America”
by killing a group of Muslim terrorists in Paris,
they consequently destroy the Louvre killing
French civilians like so much inevitable collaterial
damage. It’s no accident that the French are
the first to suffer at the hand of America’s
fraternity-minded group of mercenary heroes,
complete with ammo belts hung across their chests
to preclude any confusion about the heroes’
agenda.
The liberal doses of crude vulgarity that Stone
and Parker smear over everything they do is
a keen equalizer that goes much deeper than
party lines or class striations. The purely
filthy satire enters your central nervous system
in coded systems of pop culture references that
expand in your sub conscious. It’s a thoroughly
integrated brand of intoxicating anti-propaganda
that sparks from everything you already know
on an intrinsic level. Think of it as comedy
by osmosis.
No quarter is given to corporate shills like
George Bush or John Kerry, or to puppet enemies
like Osama or Hussein. Instead the filmmakers
go right for the jugular of North Korea’s Kim
Jong Il as a lonely dictator baddie who feeds
UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix to a shark. That
scene won’t stick in your memory as much as
the much-debated hilarious puppet sex scene,
but the film’s final explanation of the world’s
problems as based on assholes, Pussies and dicks,
surely will. CV |