So, are we once again allowed to watch Team America: World Police?
As you may remember, back in December, the entire nation totally freaked out over the possibility that North Korea might be offended by the James Franco/Seth Rogen comedy The Interview. Hackers — who many assumed were working for North Korea — released embarrassing emails that were exchanged among Sony executives and filmmakers. Barely literate threats were posted, warning that any theater showing The Interview would be blown up. Common sense should have told us that these were empty threats but instead, everyone panicked.
Sony announced that they would not be releasing The Interview. The film would never see the light of day. Overdramatic people like me got on twitter and announced that, if Sony didn’t release The Interview, then free speech was dead. “It is every American’s duty to see The Interview!” I tweeted, “If you don’t see The Interview, you’re letting the terrorists win!”
Then Sony changed their mind and released The Interview after all. People got to watch it. Critics got to slam it. Free speech lived for yet another day.
As for me, I never got around to watching it.
Uhmm, anyway…
What got forgotten in all of this drama is that some theaters announced that they would show the 2004 film Team America: World Police in the place of the Interview. In many ways, it was a brilliant idea. Team America, after all, is a brilliantly profane satire from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Not only was the film a parody of overdone Hollywood blockbusters but it also featured the members of Team America using their powers to take out Kim Jong-il, the father of the political leader targeted for assassination in The Interview. Even better than that, it featured Team America violently destroying the vapid (and surprisingly well-armed) celebrities who Kim Jong-il had tricked into supporting him. How can you not love a film that features a puppet of Michael Moore blowing itself up?
Oh, did I mention that the entire movie features puppets? Because it so does!
The use of puppets allows Parker and Stone to not only create some spectacular action scenes but also to feature parodies of more than a few real-life celebrities, all of whom are portrayed as being stupid, trendy, and easily manipulated. The fact that Sean Penn saw himself lampooned in the film and then wrote an angry letter to Parker and Stone (ending it with, “Fuck you!”) is one of many reasons to love Team America.
So, we weren’t going to get to see The Interview but at least we could see Team America. But then Paramount Pictures announced that they were not going to let any theater show Team America. As annoyed as I was by what happened with The Interview, the ban on Team America was even more annoying.
I mean, we all knew The Interview as probably a really bad film. But we also knew that Team America was great! Indeed, banning Team America seemed like exactly the type of thing that one of the film’s puppet celebrities would have demanded.
Plus, as Team America‘s theme song reminded us — “America! Fuck yeah!” Bowing down to dictators does not make anyone want to shout, “America! Fuck yeah!”
More like, “America! Fuck no!”
Anyway, eventually Sony relented and released The Interview. But I haven’t heard anything about Team America. However, it’s currently available on Netflix so I’m going to assume that it is once again legal to watch Team America. But that doesn’t change the fact that I still felt like I was breaking the law when I recently rewatched it.
Yet another reason to love Team America: World Police.
Through the Shattered Lens 