Team America: World Police
With a film like Team America: World Police, it is difficult to distinguish the line between what is satire of the West’s xenophobic mindset and what pokes fun directly at foreign communities such as the Middle East and North Korea. The brain-child of Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of South Park fame), Team America: World Police released on October 15th 2004 to general critical success, earning a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes and even making Quentin Tarantino’s Top 20 films since 1992. Like all projects from Trey and Matt, Team America quickly gained attention due to the controversial topic it was parodying, with even a senior official of the government condemning the film for mocking the war on terror.
The film actively seeks to parody The West’s foreign policy in their treatment of the middle east. With an All-American task force comprised of an actor, a football player, a psychic, and no shortage of ridiculous, fully-automatic weaponry, Team America is the very embodiment of an idiotic and over-armed America. Their actions reflect the West’s oversimplified perception of Muslims in general. In one scene, to infiltrate a terrorist hideout, Gary literally says “derka derka Mohammed Jihad” over and over again, showing his lack of understanding of the Muslim situation. What is even more ridiculous, the terrorists buy his outlandish display, adhering to the stereotype of the uneducated Arab. What’s more the idiotic group of patriots show no regard for foreign countries, even blowing up the Louvre and Eiffel Tower to get to the terrorists, and then celebrating their victory as the French citizens grieve over the destruction of their city.
Similarly, the “terrorists” in Team America are portrayed as a hyperbole of how they are seen in the Western World. The entire Muslim and Terror community is literally consolidated into one fictional country named “Derka Derkastan”, obviously showing how the West views Muslims as all part of one massive, hostile entity of terrorists in beards and turbans sporting harsh accents and explosives. They consort with belly dancers and play stereotyped music through strange instruments. This consolidation is further exemplified by the incorporation of a new villain, Kim Jong-Il.
Appearances are parodied too with our fair-skinned, light-haired protagonists squaring off against such hated people as Kim Jong-Il, the then Leader of North Korea, and the subject of many physical and verbal abuses by Matt and Trey. Our villain is given an extraordinarily offensive accent, and tasked with the goal of destroying America. When our protagonist Gary has to undergo surgery to blend in with the terrorists, he is given an offensively hairy face and browned skin, and uses a towel for a turban. It is a stereotype that makes the viewer want to both laugh and cringe. Not all viewers are amused though, Roger Ebert compairs the film to a "cocky teenager who ... do[esn't] have a plan for who they want to offend, only an intention to be as offensive as possible."
Like the rest of their work, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have found no shortage of people to offend. The creators have gone so far to say that the final result of Team America "wasn't the movie [they] wanted to make". Whether Team America is brilliant social commentary calling out the idiocy of America, or merely a childish comedy thinly veiled as something better is up to the viewer. It is difficult to tell where the idiocy of the film stops being a satire of American prejudice, and devolves to glorified name-calling. The film obviously preys upon stereotypes created by the public, in an attempt to draw out some cheap laughs. Even so, with every blatantly idiotic joke comes the question of why we as a society find the subjection of an entire culture so hilarious.
References:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/team_america_world_police/
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/team-america-world-police-2004
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/jan/14/team-america-world-police-review
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/team_america_world_police/
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/team-america-world-police-2004
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/jan/14/team-america-world-police-review