Team America: World Police

In that piece I wrote for Flak Magazine about "South Park," I used Team America as a way to discuss the right-leaning tendencies of Matt Stone and Trey Parker. After watching the film again on the new DVD, I still feel pretty much the same about it as I did in the theater. It starts off well, but it works better as a parody of 80's action films than as any sort of commentary. It strikes me as a very conflicted film, a movie that obviously sees horrible flaws in America's foreign policy but that can't quite bring itself to condemn anything. It's satire with no bite, reserving its venom for its easiest targets.

Parker and Stone have made a career out of mercilessly skewering the famous, beautiful people, on their show "South Park," at awards galas (they once went to the Oscars dressed as J. Lo and Gwyneth Paltrow), and in their films. The humor usually comes from the extreme nature of the parody rather than its savage wit. One need think only of the Jennifer Lopez episode of "South Park," in which all of America prefers the stereotypical, offensive talking fist of Eric Cartman to the actual film and music star. It wasn't a clever take on J. Lo so much as it was so unneccessary, so venemous, so mean-spirited and hard to take that you sort of had to laugh. You're laughing both because the episode is incredibly hilarious, and because you know this sort of thing is beyond the pale.



Team America comes off with less success. I have a theory...the movie spreads itself a bit too thin. First off, Parker and Stone had to create not just marionettes that could be manipulated into a complex action film storyline, but an entire miniature world for these puppets to inhabit. And this sort of animation is arduous and phenomenally painstaking, as is highlighted in various special features on the DVD.

So then, after you deal with the technical challenges of making Team America, you have to make it work as a parody of 80's films. So Parker wrote an entire soundtrack and several hilarious songs (which are the highlight of the film), they studied Jerry Bruckheimer movies and littered the movie with references and genre parodies. So you already have a film just on that level - a puppet movie goofing on 80's action films.

But then, I'm asking for the movie to exist on this entire satirical/political level as well. I realize this is unfair. Two levels should really be enough for a comedy, and the fact that the movie is frequently really funny pushes this over the top into a positive review. Before we go any further, let's make that clear. Team America: World Police is an inventive, funny, well-designed and innovative comedy that's worth the time of any fan of animation, action films or "South Park."

Okay, that being said, I think Parker and Stone became so distracted by the demands of making this movie, they didn't bother to figure out what they really wanted to say. Normally, this would not be a big deal. You'd only go to the movie for the jokes and the puppets and the gimmicry, and that's what you'd get. But by choosing to deal with all of these really crucial, important political issues in their dirty puppet movie, Parker and Stone kind of take on this challenge.

And then they don't rise to the occasion. There's a really clever idea buried somewhere in this story, about a top-secret team of agents who foil international terrorist schemes against America, but the movie never quite gets there.

As I said, the songs really make the whole enterprise take off. We open in an incredibly-designed puppet Times Square, where brilliant actor Gary Johnston performs the lead in the hit HIV-themed musical "Lease." The big number? "Everyone Has AIDS." If that joke makes you laugh (it should be most of you), you're probably going to dig the vibe of a good deal of this movie.

In fact, nearly everything in the film's first hour works for me. As I said before, the 80's parodies are dynamite, particularly when it comes to the soundtrack. As well, Stone and Parker rather brilliantly draw attention to the shortcomings of the animation style. Puppets never point exactly where they're supposed to, martial arts combat looks exceptionally awkward, and characters make reference to their limp, lifeless legs and irregular gait.

Casting Kim Jong Il as the villain is similarly inspired. He's the best character in the movie, immensely evil but also kind of lovable, and even tragic. The real Kim Jong Il is famed for his love of movies (rumor has it his private collection includes over 25,000 films). I'm certain he'll eventually manage to get his hands on a copy of Team America. Though it would seem obvious that he'd be upset or offended by a comedy that turns him into such a cartoon, but I think it might play right into his massive ego as well. I mean, if America starts churning out cartoons in which he's the villain, that must mean they seem him as a threat, right? At least they're finally paying attention to him.

So, propping up foreign dictators aside, what are the problems with Team America? I feel like the movie loses focus. It never actually gets around to critiquing anything about the War on Terror, which is apparently its major theme. The concept of turning America's battle against terrorists into a macho, pumped-up 80's film is funny, but that's not nearly enough for an entire movie, and it's not enough to balance out the constant bashing of all sorts of major figures and themes of the American Left.

Where is the critique of the country's leaders? Of American policy? Of anything other than loudmouth American celebrities like Alec Baldwin who speak their minds politically? By basing the story around the fictional Team America, and then making them the symbol for everything American, Parker and Stone rob their film of any real targets other than the predictable: Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Janeane Garofalo.

By the film's end, I had long grown weary of Parker and Stone's snarky lack of concern for world events. The only real idea they offer in the entire movie is the following concept, which I will heretofore refer to as the Dick-Pussy-Asshole Doctrine.

There are three kinds of people: dicks, pussies and assholes. Dicks are people who favor going to war, people who think they are tough...you know, conservatives. Pussies are people who don't want to go to war, who are more concerned with what's fair than who's tough...you know, liberals. And assholes are people who want to kill us...you know, foreigners.

So, according to Parker and Stone, conservatives need liberals to remain human and reasonable, and liberals need conservatives to protect them from evil foreigners.

I mean, putting aside my clear disagreements with this view of the world, I don't think there's really enough to this idea for an entire movie. It's pretty thin, pretty empty, and not very insightful. This comes as a surprise to me, because even when I disagree with the views presented on something like "South Park," they always at least seem sane and logical.

So that's why I'm happy to attribute this problem to distraction, rather than ignorance or a lack of concern. I just think the size and scale of the production probably overwhelmed the nuance and the fine-tuning of the actual content. Which is fine. As I said, the final byproduct is certainly entertaining and worthwhile. I just can't shake the feeling this movie could have, should have, been so much more.