Bill Maher's "Religulous" Out Of Oscar Contention

Bill Maher's documentary exploring religion, "Religulous," is out of Oscar contention after being left out of the final 15 list released by the Academy in the Best Documentary category.

Other notable snubs: "Dear Zachary," "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" and "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired."

Instead, the final 15 are:

"At the Death House Door"
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
"Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"Fuel"
"The Garden"
"Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts"
"I.O.U.S.A."
"In a Dream"
"Made in America"
"Man on Wire"
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell"
"Standard Operating Procedure"
"They Killed Sister Dorothy"
"Trouble the Water"

The film was directed by Larry Charles and has made almost $13 million on a budget of just $2.5 million since its October 1 release.

Comments

[nonamesleft]

The Oscars are a joke.

[ReelBusy]

These are real snubs for this and GONZO.
Both great films.

[PaxMundis]

Unless you've seen the other movies, you have no basis in what you're saying.

[stillfresh]

I've seen Religulous twice. I couldn't get enough of Bill Maher's extraordinary gift for interviewing. He's the quickest, sharpest and freshest interviewer in today's mob of pansies. The movie is funny, outrageously raw and creative in ways that reveal the horror of modern religion's poseurs, charlatans and predators. I saw in a packed movie theater that formed a community of vocal cringing. Maher even trips up a scientist who can't defend his misty faith against facts. Shame on the Oscar vetters for shunning this movie. It asks the most important question of our time.

[PaxMundis]

". Maher even trips up a scientist who can't defend his misty faith against facts"

Actually, he does no such thing. Notice how that scene was edited. The scientist was barely allowed to say anything. The movie is very underhanded in its editing, and that's probably why the documentarians balked at it.

[Nikola Tesla]

There is no scientific evidence of god = no god.

[AurigaRa]

oddly enough the two Catholic priests were the only ones who appeared to have a brain,
Even as screwed up as the church is, they do have some liberal thinkers.

[Lex10]

Somehow I think they will all still be able to afford their second boats.

[Bitsko]

I highly recommend Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World." Absolutely stunning.

[Ajita]

I'll check it out! I'm a big Herzog fan, I've also got his "2000 Years of Christianity" on my list.

BTW, isn't his "Encounter­s..." playing in theaters now? I'm going to have to get it by torrent unless either some distributor decides to promote it here, or if Herzog actually releases an early US DVD for it.

[Bitsko]

Yes it is playing, but in only a few theatres.

[Unreadable]

I like Bill Maher and agree that modern religion of any kind is no more believable than ancient Greek mythology. That said, I can't see it as an Oscar nominee, much less an Oscar winner. In one word, the movie is shallow. It skims the top for cheap laughs and doesn't dig deeper. As an artistic investigation of religion's internal contradictions, it's nowhere near satisfying.

For example, where is the exploration of the faith vs. religion? I believe that religion is unscientific, but faith is simply extra-scientific: in other words, science in the hands of good-faith practitioners of scientific method works whether or not people believe in a god. It's like the so-called Continuum Hypothesis in modern mathematics: math works with or without it.

[Ajita]

I agree. It was neither really funny nor seriously questioning religion's flaws, but rather a badly thought-out shot at both.

[amanaceo]

I agree, not about the movie as I have not seen it, but your comments hold true when pitched against Maher's views from his shows. He seems to bundle all faith under organized religion.

[COPerez]

Faith is simply extra-scientific?

Are you kidding? Believing something without regard to - and usually in contravention of - evidence? It doesn't get much more unscientific than that.

While the process of science works whether you believe in something or not, that says nothing about the status or worth of those beliefs.

[tomas0808]

I think he's referring to FACTUAL phenomenon like when 250 Buddhists meditating in DC (?) lowered the crime rate some ridiculous high percentage

[Unreadable]

Intrinsic worth of faith is a separate issue. See, the concept of god is designed to be so that it is undetectable by any (including mental) experiment. The essence of scientific method is repeatability of experiments.

So, for example, to prove that miracles happen, you should prove that a certain miracle occurred under certain conditions, which means that you should be able to routinely reproduce that same miracle under those same conditions. That has never been possible so far.

What could be an experiment on the existence of higher being? Well, let's say something like this. We put together two groups of terminal patients at the same stage of the same disease, and leave the control group alone faithwise but regularly pray for each member of the second group. The hypothesis we would test for is that the second group would have more recoveries. And that we would need to repeat that experiment many times to see if there is indeed a statistically significant difference in recovery rates. And then we'd have to isolate any psychological reasons for recovery (such as self-fulfilling prophecy) from the supposed power of pure supplication to higher power.

And then, if we conjecture that prayer works, aren't we morally obligated to pray for all our patients? And doesn't that render all these experiments useless?

[Ajita]

Apparently atheists are terrible movie critics. I'm an atheist (no Im not a troll, check my previous posts here) and I had high hopes for this movie. But Religulous was disappointing. It was mildly funny but nothing more. Not provocative and definitely not worthy of an Oscar.
Here are some better ones:

Jesus Camp (Documentary)
The God who Wasn't There (Documentary)
Who Wrote the Bible (Documentary)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (way funnier than Maher, while making some great points)
Contact
Water (About Hindu Superstitions)
Damaged (By Black Flag)
The Second coming (Documentary)

[BCubedReg]

I'm a deist and I thought Bill's movie was great.

[Ajita]

Yeah, if you wanted some cheap laughs at organized religion, it was passable.

[Bitsko]

I'm with you there. The movie was more a bunch of gags and riffs than a documentary about the inanities of religion. Your list is first rate.

[Ajita]

Looks like I just made a new friend! I haven't added anyone to my friends list here in ages. Nice to "meet" you.

[Stagehnd1]

Screw The Oscars!!!! I won't be watching them then. Religulious was the best movie I've seen all year! I saw it three times in the theaters! Screw them, they are out of touch.

[GetoffMylawn]

As in "Chicago", perhaps the worst film ever made... Oscar. WTF!!!

[Myshkin57]

"Crash" was MUCH worse. I can't believe that even got made.

[PaxMundis]

Um, not so much. My guess is that Man On Wire will win.

[sfsilver]

I enjoyed Religulous and am a Maher fan, I watch the HBO program each week (during it's runs). I agree wholeheartedly with Maher's assessment of religion. I also don't have a real problem with this determination, because I really saw this film as a funny, enjoyable, entertaining and occasionally informative social satire/comedy, but as a fairly sloppy and weak "documentary". It has far more in common with "Borat" than with other films in the documentary category. I think it all comes down to what are considered rules of documentary film making, and many critics who enjoy the film admit it pretty much violates most of the accepted "gospel" on what is and isn't fair in a film purporting to be a documentary.

I'm delighted to see the masterful and wonderful "Man on Wire" on the list. If you haven't seen this you are missing a fascinating film that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

[BillORights1776]

I watch Maher, pardon the pun, religiously.
I saw Religilous opening weekend.

I'm not surprised it's not in the final nomination list.

Is it funny? Sure. Is it thought provoking? Only somewhat.

Yes he shows the extreme side of religious people, but he uses them as proof of his thesis that religion is bad. He _says_ it's not his thesis, but his closing monologue puts lie to that.

It's a movie that's worth seeing for sure. And I'm glad its doing phenomenally well. But it's not Oscar caliber.

[roger3815]

Finally! Someone giving religion the ridicule it deserves.

[CrackerJacker]

lol, have you not been paying attention to the Republican party? They do some really, really funny stuff! Scary, but so funny!

[woodcut]

I'd be ok if they taught creationism in schools, & had to watch this fantastic film too. Even trade, imo.

[BushisLiar]

Would you like to replace sex education with the stork fairy tale also?

[eXcommunicate]

As long as they were forced to watch porno too...

[jojojo]

I used to find Maher to be fun, and sometimes he still is. On some issues, however, he's just smirking and mean. I'm not a "believer"--an agnostic, I guess-- but , along with the wackos who use religion to preach hate, some pretty good people do/did believe in God: Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jimmy Carter,et al. I sometimes envy them the comfort they derive from their faith.

[shengirl]

a very nice post, thanks

[jojojo]

Thank YOU, shengirl.

[eXcommunicate]

Um, do your research - Mother Theresa was not a good person. Her quasi-sainthood is a myth I'm afraid.

[broezekiel]

can you cite something?

[Dave24]

Bill is a national treasure.

[BSERIUS]

after all the egg on their faces when they put Gore and Moore films in the "documentary " category holly wood nominating documentaries that have some truth to them

[StaggerLee]

So glad you could take time out from crying over the election to post. Hang in there, it's a process.