I just saw The Southpark Movie. To be honest, I liked it. This wasn't the tv show, although it had many of the elements of it. These elements include the toilet humor of course. And also, the movie gives freedom to say anything. And they make full use of that. Five minutes into the film, I heard "Fuck", and it went non stop after that. I don't know if it beat out Goodfellas (vulgarity-wise), but it came pretty close. where it lacks in quality and wholesomness, it surely makes up for in its cutting edge satire. Unfortunately, this "cutting edge satire" comprises roughly 20 minutes of the film. After that, it seems to regurgitate retreads of a Disney musical. I do wish that they'd kept it to the point, which was a promising one. However, I choose to remember what the movie stands for rather than what it turned into.
Of course, my favorite victim in this was the MPAA, a tyrannical organization which has for too long controlled what movies are viewed.
The plot line is quite basic. Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny go to a new movie starring Canadian tv stars Terrance and Phillip. It's called "Asses of Fire", and is one of the crudest things I've ever heard on the big screen. When the kids leave, they've learned some new swear words. They have no idea what most of these words mean, so they're quick to use them anywhere. Kyle's mom is the object of the film's criticism. Rather than get mad that the children got past their parents to see this movie, she gets mad at Terrance and Phillip. Therefore, she gets mad at Canada. She convinces American parents that it's up to the filmmakers to make films children can watch, and they kidnap Terrance and Phillip. The big standing poing revolves around Kenny, who pretty much burns to death trying to light his own farts, just like he saw Terrance and Phillip do. Kenny goes to Hell (didn't go to church-it's interesting to see who else is in Hell, and it's also interesting to see that the animation is actually very good on Kenny's entrance to Hell), where Satan and the recently departed Saddam Hussein are having an affair. Saddam wants sex, and Satan wants a relationship. Here Kenny learns that the pending war between the US and Canada will trigger the apocalypse, and Satan will rule on earth if Terrance and Phillip's blood are spilled on US soil.
The movie itself was pretty funny. I laughed a good deal even when I was embarrassed at the fact that I was laughing. But it did have a point and a message to it, even though that message frequently got lost in the Disney style song and dance numbers. So this was something more than the television show. On tv, it's typically there just to be outrageous, with very little underlying cynicism. On the other hand, the movie is a social commentary in its own. It's not a new message, but it's very forceful in its beliefs. Its belief is that it's really kind of sick to hear a child say something shocking, or do something perverse, and then scapegoat it to popular media. Since the Columbine shootings a few months ago, we've heard nothing but this scapegoating. The movies are to blame, the internet's to blame, television's to blame, yada yada yada. Have the parents ever stopped to wonder why all children aren't doing twisted things like running through a school blowing things up? They certainly can't think that television shows like "Beavis and Butthead" and "Southpark" are only watched by a select few people; and that these select few people subsequently go on a rampage as a result of their sick mind. These shows are popular, and are viewed by millions. Many children view this, and I don't blame them for finding something like that funny. But it's not up to television and the film studios to police what children are watching, as much as some vocal parents might think so. We live in a society where many mature older children who can handle R rated violence are not allowed into a theatre to see something which entertains, simply because other children who can't handle it have parents who are unwilling to admit that maybe their children aren't perfect and need help for an obvious mental illness. If someone sees a movie with as much sick humor as Southpark has, then feels the need to repeat it, there IS something wrong with the child. When I was a kid, the word for these people was "crazy." These were the kids who weren't allowed to socialize with the normal kids because no one wanted to find out what would happen. Obviously we don't care anymore.
But we can't condemn the films these children watch, we need to watch the children. This seemingly blatant evidence is somehow lost among parents in this county, and as a result people get hurt. Is it really so difficult to see that the people who shoot up their high school are sick? They're watching the same shows that other children are watching, so why are the other children not insane?
Basically, the main point of "Southpark" is that parents need to start accepting blame, if it's necessary. I don't say that everytime a murder is committed, it's the parent's fault. We shouldn't blame parents for a child's sickness. However, these parents need to realize that it's not always a society that screws up. Maybe it's the child him/herself. I think it was said perfectly in the movie when Kyle finally stood up to his mother and said something to the effects of "whenever I do something wrong, you're quick to blame society, or something I watch on tv. But it's not that. When I screw up, deal with me." Whoa, kind of heady for a vulgar cartoon. Then again, I'd expect anything not dealing with a bodily function to be heady for this kind of movie.
It's kind of surprising to me that something as crude as this films (extremely funny though) can have as much intelligence as it does. I don't feel it's the best I've seen, but I do feel that it does deserve some praise. As a result, I give this film 3 out of 4 stars. This is not just raunchy toilet humor, although it has plenty of that. This is a satire of what's going on today, like Beavis and Butthead. Unlike Beavis and Butthead, Southpark offers an explanation, and I suppose that it's really necessary to do so considering the condition many parents think the country is in. Whereas Beavis and Butthead is a satire of American youth, who are left alone all their lives with nothing but a television, Southpark is a satire of the parents who allow such a thing, then get angry at the television they want to babysit when the baby sitter bombards the solitary children with this violence and profanity.
How can parents sit and say that television is to blame? I think it's quite obvious that it's not just the media we see today. With a certain amount of maturity, a person can watch these things with no ill effects. However, a parent is needed to teach a child the difference between right and wrong before the child can even handle something like "Southpark".
The message I see in this movie was illustrated when the lights came up. I looked over as I got up and I saw who was sitting two rows behind me during the movie. It was a mother with her two children. These two children couldn't have been more than 8 and 10. I'd bet any amount of money that this mother will become enraged when these young children start saying what they heard, not knowing quite what it means. Any movie that has Saddam Hussein playing with a dildo is definitely NOT appropriate for children, yet these parents bring their kids to this. It's rated R for a reason, people! The only reason the MPAA didn't rate it NC-17 was because it was a cartoon. This parent probably doesn't realize that maybe this film isn't appropriate for her children, yet will be quick to blame the film for any phrases repeated later. This is exactly what the film was trying to achieve. This is the same thing that I became angry about when Austen Powers came out. Why did parents allow the children to not only see this movie, but also to buy an adult-oriented doll which says "do I make you horny". Don't the parents realize that they're the ones who can control what children watch, not the movies? The media has no say in what children watch, they're just trying to make money in a flawed government.
We live today in a country where parents go to work all day and leave their children with the television. Some of these parents don't give their children the information to deal with it. This isn't a new problem. Before tv and film, there was still the problem of people doing the same things that are done today. But different things were blamed on for "corrupting the youth". Southpark shows us that the problem hasn't changed, but the scapegoat has.
My final message is the same as the movie's, one can't blame the media when that parent maybe wasn't vigilant enough to see that maybe that movie or show or even website was a little too much for the child to handle. Or maybe that parent was so worried about the child's well being that they think that a tv will work as a baby sitter. But if a tv must be a baby sitter, it can't be a profane one.
If you hate the tv show, don't bother with this one. It's even more profane than the tv show could ever be. But this movie also contains the cynicism and satirical nature that first drew me to Southpark. You won't find this in any episodes after the first few, but it's there in the beginning.