Religulous (2008)

Director:

Larry Charles

Writers:

Release Date:

3 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Comedy

Tagline:

Do you smell something burning?

Plot:

Bill Maher's take on the current state of world religion.

Plot Keywords:

Jew | Muslim | Religion | Trucker | Christian

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Bill Maher	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tal Bachman	...	Himself
Jonathan Boulden	...	Himself
Steve Burg	...	Himself
Francis Collins	...	Himself
George Coyne	...	Himself (as Father George Coyne PhD)
Benjamin Creme	...	Himself
Jeremiah Cummings	...	Himself
Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda	...	Himself
Fatima Elatik	...	Herself
Yahuda Etzion	...	Himself
Reginald Foster	...	Himself (as Father Reginald Foster)
Mohamed Junas Gaffar	...	Himself
Bill Gardiner	...	Himself
Ted Haggard	...	Himself (archive footage)
Rabbi Halperin	...	Himself
Dean Hamer	...	Himself (as Dr. Dean Hamer)
Ken Ham	...	Himself
Mohammad Hourani	...	Himself (as Dr. Mohammad Hourani PhD)
Julie Maher	...	Herself
Kathy Maher	...	Herself
Aki Nawaz	...	Himself (as Propa-Gandhi)
Andrew Newberg	...	Himself (as Dr. Andrew Newberg MD)
Fred Phelps	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mark Pryor	...	Himself
Shmuel Strauss	...	Himself (as Rabbi Shmuel Strauss)
Ray Suarez	...	Himself
Jimmy Turkmani	...	Himself
Ferre van Beveren	...	Himself (as Reverend Ferre van Beveren)
Yisroel Dovid Weiss	...	Himself (as Rabbi Dovid Weiss)
John Westcott	...	Himself (as Pastor John Westcott)
Geert Wilders	...	Himself

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and sexual material.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | Arabic | Persian | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44539) | UK:15 | Australia:M | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | South Africa:18 | New Zealand:M | Ireland:15A | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Mexico:B15 | Hong Kong:IIB

Filming Locations:

's-Gravenhage, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Company:

Thousand Words

Trivia:

The film used the fake working title "A Spiritual Journey" in order to obtain interviews with religious leaders. They did not know that Bill Maher was involved in the film until he arrived for the interviews.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The truck stop chapel is not actually located in Raleigh, NC, as claimed in the film, but is near Charlotte, NC. Raleigh and Charlotte are further from each other than LA and San Diego. Charlotte is an extremely conservative town compared with Raleigh.

Quotes:

Bill Maher:But it's not really a wise list of the ten. The first four are about just worshiping God, and, basically, a jealous god. And he doesn't want you to have any other gods. The only two that are really laws are: don't steal and don't kill. Why is this the wisest group of ten that doesn't include child abuse; it doesn't include don't torture; it doesn't include a lot of things, rape, that, I think, if I were making a list today, we would probably include.
Mark Pryor:[Arkansas' Democratic Senator] Society is so different today. Our society is so radically different...
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Soundtrack:

Yiddish Blues

Contemplative Religiosity For The Masses

Saw the world premier of this at the Traverse City Film Festival. I am a big Bill Maher fan and this was definitely the movie/documentary I was most looking forward to at the festival.

I was not disappointed, though I think it could have been developed a bit more. It seemed to play to the lowest common denominator in that a lot of issues were touched on, sometimes in rapid fashion, but none was examined closely for any length of time. Any astute viewer of Real Time already knows what Maher thinks about religion and many of his arguments with regard to the same. I was hoping for a more in depth analysis of some of the primary aspects of how religion can negatively affect our world in ways that people might not intend. The documentary did that only on the surface. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising as the need to draw people into contemplative thought in this area is probably more of a priority than retaining those that already are there (not to mention selling more tickets).

Subsequent to the showing, director Larry Charles had a discussion on stage with Michael Moore, with questions from the audience. Larry pointed out that he had many many more hours of footage that didn't make it into the final cut, and that he thought maybe a series could be released on cable of this material. I would very much like to see that happen as I think it would quell the thirst I had for more substance with less of the fluff.

However, kudos for Maher and Charles for doing this. If it is successful in getting people to think about religion in real world terms, then it has accomplished its goal.