I saw “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” about a week ago, and still can’t decide whether it is a brilliant piece of unstable contemporary satire or whether it has as much to say about the human condition as the whoopee cushion and fake doggie doo.
While I know very well that the cardinal rule of movie making is to make money so you can make more movies so you can make more money, I wonder if Stone and Parker managed to put a little heart into it. Or maybe they simply wanted to break the film record for vulgarism per minute of screen time. Or both.
The best definition of art I’ve ever heard is “Whatever makes us proud to be human.” That was LeRoi Jones. Well, “South Park” didn’t quite do that for me, but I’m not ready to dismiss it totally, either. Whatcha think?
Art, no. But utterly hilarious, yes.
“Blame Canada” better win the Oscar, because EVERY song in that movie is fifty times better than the wussy Phil Collins/Randy Newman/Diane Warren crud that’s been nominated!
I was delighted that Stone and Parker pushed the envelope with this movie. I HOPED that Mike Judge would do something outrageous with the Beavis & Butthead movie, but he just made a 90 minute version of the TV show. Stone and Parker took full advantage of the opportunities the new medium provided (and THEN some).
Brilliant social satire. I went in expecting it to be the 90 minutes of the medium-grade vulgar humor of the show. Well it had all of that, but it also had a clear theme and an important message. If you take just about any bit within the film, it’s a mini-satire revealing while poking fun at a serious societial issue.
I’d love to call this movie utter crap, but the simple fact is, I enjoyed the hell out of it. And yes, “Blame Canada” should get the Oscar.
A hush fell over the courtroom, killing six.
I’ve only seen the movie once (I’ve got to get off my ass and buy a copy), but I’ve listened to the soundtrack dozens of times. IMO, it’s a wonderful homage to the long tradition of movie musicals; they did something quite special with this movie. Not to mention that it’s wall-to-wall hilarious!
And yes, it even has a message. Well, hell, why not? Actually, I disagree with its message - I fail to see the logic of the ‘any attempt to shield third-graders from sex or violence in the media is a fundamental assault on the First Amendment’ point of view, but I suppose that’s better argued elsewhere - but, hey, it has one, and manages to express it fairly cogently.
And while ‘Blame Canada’ isn’t even one of the better songs in the movie, I agree with astorian that almost every song in the movie is far, far more alive and vigorous than the standard soundtrack dreck (including ‘Blame Canada’, and even ‘Up There’, which cheerfully uses the same sort of musical vocabulary as the standard drivel does). ‘Blame Canada’ should win its Oscar hands down, if there’s any fairness to it.
Speaking of which, wouldn’t ‘Up There’ be a great theme song for Satan and Drain’s wedding? 
“Living in this complex world of the future is not unlike having bees live inside your head.” - F. Scott Firesign
The scene with Saddam in bed with Satan, where Saddam pulls out his penis, is brilliant. Think about all the levels here:
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Is it offensive for a cartoon character to pull out it’s penis?
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is it more offensive because it’s photorealistic?
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Oh wait! it’s fake! it’s not offensive! But, really, it’s animated, so the whole thing is fake, so that shouldn’t have a difference…
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But wait! It’s photorealistic! It’s more real than the character who whipped it out! it’s offensive! Or is it…
“Blame Canada” may have been nominated because it’s the “cleanest” song in the movie. Could you imagine Celone Dion being asked to sing “Shut Your ^^%%& Face, Uncle ^^” at the awards ceremony? (It would have been priceless!)
When I first saw South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, I immediately proclaimed it “The Feel-Good Movie of the Summer.” And I meant it, too.
Incidentally, I too am surprised that “Blame Canada” received the Oscar nomination, and not one of the other songs instead. I personally feel that “What Would Brian Boytano Do?” would have a better chance of winning the best song Oscar, even though it contains the line “Brian Boytano doesn’t take sh*t from anybody.” “Up There” would have been a great choice also, except that it’s too short – everyone knows that a winning song has to be exactly 3 minutes long :rolleyes: .
“What would Brian Boitano do?” would have made a great Oscar number, particularly if they could have gotten Brian to play along and skate in ways that suggest the various lines of the song. You can see him fighting the giant robot in the year 3010. And they could have gotten Brian Dennehy to appear out of the wings (of the stage) for a cameo.
Brilliant social satire, and I think even Focus on the Family realized it too, or they wouldn’t have given it their highest Fire and Brimstone rating. (“Do not see this movie or God will cause your eyeballs to melt.”)
I saw it twice; once in English and once in French.
Matt. You saw it in French? I can’t imagine…
Actually, I thought the movie was a disappointment. I did not think it was nearly as funny or perceptive as some of the regular shows (“Cartman Gets an Anal Probe”, the show where the kids visit the rain forest and the first show introducing Big Al spring to mind).
I think it’s a masterpiece but I’m having a hard time putting into words why. I, myself, loved the music and humor but there is enough in it to appeal to everyone. The theater I saw it in was packed with people of every age, race, religion, and sexual preference, but even though much of the humor revolved around our stereotypes and differences everyone was roaring with laughter without fail. Maybe the one thing we all have in common is we’re united against Saddam Hussein?
Now there’s nothing unexpected about the water giving out; “Land” is not a word we have to shout.
I don’t know that this was the message of the movie, but there’s an important word missing from the concept: government. I don’t think most people feel that a parent’s making decisions about what their own children consume is an assault on the 1st Amendment. Government effort to enforce standards is. The movie struck me more like a warning against parents abdicating their responsibilities and blaming others (like, say, Canada) instead.
Otto: OK, I don’t find government helping parents protect their kids from violence and sex in the media to be a fundamental assault on the First Amendment. Yes, that’s what I was saying. No, I’m not going to argue about it right now - I’m going to be out of town (and probably away from Web access) for the next week. I just wanted to make the point that I appreciated the fact that the movie had a point to it, even if I disagreed with it. M’kay?
‘Blame Canada’ v. other songs in the movie (e.g. ‘Brian Boitano’): ‘Boitano’ is probably the cleanest - after all, ‘Blame Canada’ has the ‘now when I see him, he tells me to fuck myself’ line.
btw, earlier this winter, Boitano did a skating routine on NBC to ‘What Would Brian Boitano Do’. It wasn’t anything exceptional, and they bleeped the two obvious words. But I thought it showed class and a sense of humor for Boitano to do it at all.
“Living in this complex world of the future is not unlike having bees live inside your head.” - F. Scott Firesign
The Peyote Coyote wrote:
But those episodes weren’t musicals!
(Well, okay, “Rainforest Schmainforest” did have that one song-and-dance number in it. But it wasn’t the same.)
I thought the film was an example of an excellent use of satire. It made me think back to an essay written by the undisputed master satirist, Jonathon Swift, titled, ‘A Modest Proposal’ in which Swift proposed an answer to the problems in Ireland by suggesting the Irish eat their young.
Great film I look forward to what those two do next.
I wonder if Brian Boitano will now take “What would Brian Boitano do?” as his theme song. Every time he appears on TV from now on he can be introduced by that song. I wonder if people who have songs written about them get sick of hearing them. Is Rosanna Arquette sick of hearing “Rosanna”? Does Warren Beatty get introduced by the song “You’re So Vain”. Does Christie Brinkley get introduced by the song “Uptown Girl”?
Depends on what form that “help” takes.
That means I win! <smirk>