“We live in a post-Fahrenheit 9/11 world,” declares Trey Parker, co-creator of the hit TV series South Park on the phone from L.A. He’s promoting his new film Team America: World Police, yet another collaboration with Matt Stone, the other genius behind South Park. The movie takes a hilariously intelligent look at America’s so-called ‘War on Terror’ and at the social fallout surrounding its opposition.
In Team America, Parker and Stone employ a cast of two kittens, one human being and 93 22-inch marionettes to tell the story of Gary Johnson, a narcissistic Broadway star who gets recruited by America’s super-secret anti-terrorist squad to infiltrate a network of evil doers intent on attacking the United States with nuclear weapons.
Gary soon realizes that he might be in way over his head. Thanks to his undercover operations, the team uncovers proof that the terrorists are planning an imminent global attack, but unfortunately their reckless tactics in obtaining this valuable information have landed them in hot water back at home. Led by Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Janeane Garofalo, Susan Sarandon, and Sean Penn, the left-wing Film Actors Guild (think about it) is intent on stopping Team America before they can stop the terrorists.
The result is an incredibly intelligent satire of American foreign policy, its vocal left-wing opposition and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. The genius of this film is that neither John Kerry, George Bush, nor Michael Moore could watch it and not break a self-conscious sweat. Justified attacks come from all sides and leave no political group with the illusion of moral authority.
In step with their work on the Emmy and Oscar-nominated South Park franchise, the humour employed by Parker and Stone in Team America is senselessly offensive, but also fantastically funny if you have a sense of humour.
Unfortunately for Parker and Stone, the good folks at the Motion Picture Association of America didn’t quite get all of the jokes. Taking no issue with the gory violence or severe language, the MPAA initially slapped Team America with a rating of NC-17, the strongest rating possible, which bars anyone under the age of 17 from seeing the film.
The now infamous scene, which will undoubtedly appear uncut on the DVD version of Team America, features Gary and fellow team member Lisa “taking the F-train to Queens” in a variety of acrobatic positions. After watching this hilarious scene, which clocks in at about one minute of screen time, it was difficult to tell what exactly ended up getting cut out-it is still extremely explicit.
However, upon further investigation, it appears as though the MPAA took less of an issue with puppets blowing each other’s heads off than it did with puppets consensually choosing to urinate on one another.
“It is absolutely the most ridiculous, stupid thing in the universe,” explains Parker, “because our puppets are not anatomically correct. They don’t even have pubic hair!” After the golden showers were cut (apparently with a heavy heart) the MPAA awarded the film a solid R rating.
Controversy aside, the duo was quite serious when it came to making Team America into a good parody of the classic all-American action movie. “We really modeled this movie after the classic [Jerry] Bruckheimer structure” states Parker. “It just starts with a guy who is fucking rad and thinks he is rad and then sort of in the middle starts thinking-maybe I am not so rad… and then in the end decides he really is rad again.”
For Parker and Stone, the biggest challenge in the making of the film was mastering the puppet genre, and living to tell about it.
“It was awful,” confesses Parker, “We knew it looked tough but we had no idea.”
As Parker notes, the filming had to be expanded from one to three production units after the first week of shooting because, “we were only getting like nine shots a day… It was horrible.” Parker then adds this solemn warning: “Don’t ever make a puppet movie because it was the worst time in my life.”
Despite the production hardships, the finished product proves to be constantly funny, entertaining and in the end, actually enlightening. So if you’re tired of giving money to partisan vehicles of propaganda like Peter Jennings and Michael Moore so that they can further misrepresent and over-sensationalize the truth, try shelling out $13.50 to watch Team America just blow the whole damn thing up. Oh, and don’t forget the kinky puppet sex!
