South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut (My Favorite Movies)

I’m going to change my tone a little bit here. All of the “My Favorite Movies” entries thus far have been about dramas and thrillers, but when a satire is done well, it can be one of my favorite things. I recently reviewed In the Loop, but I feel one of the best satires of the last couple of decades was the big screen version of South Park. Most people know the series is one of the boldest things out there at its best, and the film has Trey Parker and Matt Stone firing on all cylinders. Is it for everyone? ABSOLUTELY NOT. But if you can stomach some of the more shocking moments, you have to appreciate the brilliance.

The target of this film is not the United States Government as a whole. There are plenty of South Park episodes that accomplish that well. What the movie does is target censorship organizations such as the MPAA and FCC. The film is extremely profane, and that is the film’s point exactly. It shows how impressionable children are to profane films, and how people overreact when children utter a profanity, and here it leads to an all-out war with Canada.

One of my favorite aspects of the film is that it is a musical. And don’t disagree, one third of this film’s running time consists of musical numbers. It begins with an innocent enough intro entitled “Mountain Town”, but then we get the not so innocent “Uncle F**ka” as the next song, which is able to fit in no less than 28 F-words in less than a minute, and trust me that count is conservative. They came so fast and furious I was guessing, trying to decipher the backing vocals. This song is part of the new Terrence and Phillip movie which is opening in town. It’s all the rage with the kiddies, and soon the whole town is singing the chorus of “Uncle F**ka” in class. This is all much to the chagrin of the parents and adults in the town of South Park.

So what do the parents do? Do they talk to their kids and try to solve the problem? Do they accept the fact that ‘R’ rated films exist? No, they begin an all-out war against Canada, the source of the Terrence and Phillip film, leading to the film’s best song, which once heard will not leave your head, “Blame Canada”, which was nominated for an Oscar. The children of South Park start “La Resistance”, an effort to free Terrence and Phillip. My favorite scenes of anything South Park focuses on the children and how they are the innocents and how the adults are all freaking insane. (Watch the episode “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers”.)

In another plotline, spoiler alert: Kenny dies. Once dead he observes Satan and Saddam Hussein’s plot to rise to Earth once Terrence and Phillip are executed by a group of angry parents led by Sheila Broflovski, mother of Kyle. I love how Satan is somewhat of a protagonist in this film, and is seen as bullied and abused by his boyfriend Saddam. Yes, you read that right.

The thesis statement of this film is essentially laid out towards the end. You see films in which many people are killed, and they are rated PG-13. However, you have a film like Frost/Nixon in which the F word is used no more than 5 times and it gets an R rating. Which film would be more beneficial for a child to see? A smart political drama, or some dumb movie where stuff blows up real good?

South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut is the only movie I can think of that is actually about the fact it is so profane. It is a stern indictment of the way our country handles obscenity, which really is pretty pathetic. I was recently watching The Departed on FX. (Spoilers ahead) All profanity has been edited out with various “freakin’s” and such. However, we come to the end and what do I see? Leonardo DiCaprio’s brains splattered all over the wall at the climax. Nothing censored. I would gladly have my hypothetical children listen to nonstop language that they would hear on a school bus anyway then have them watch five guys shot graphically in the head. One of the common arguments pro-movie violence is that "My children will never do that!" Yeah, sure, Columbine much?

It’s just all so stupid. That is the view of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who spend their free time pointing out what they deem to be ridiculous. Sometimes they can lose focus of their attacks (see: Team America: World Police), but this film has them at their best. It takes a lot to challenge the status quo, and that makes South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut one of the bravest comedies of all time.

P.S. – Dey tuk r gerbs!