Do they actually make documentaries anymore?

[etruth]

I'm not particularly interested in seeing the recent Bill Mahr movie Religulous.  I'm sure I can find more reasonable atheist opinion elsewhere; but I did want to agree with the first paragraph of the Christianity Today review of the film:

"Let's face it: most documentaries these days don't bother to document anything in an objective, journalistic

Comments

[bertuzzifan]

We still make documentaries... they're just not the a-listers that have all the buzz. March of the Penguins was great, and I've heard great things about In the Shadow of the Moon. But those aren't the ones we're talking about. We're talking about the "documentaries" where somebody "takes on" something. McDonalds, gun control, religion, the Bush administration, whatever.

I don't think the attack movies are a particularly bad thing... they're just not real documentaries. Watching the little guy with the camera take on the big guy makes for a fun movie, especially if you don't like the big guy in question. But I think our problem is that we classify these as documentaries.

[etruth]

But I think our problem is that we classify these as documentaries.

Exactly, they're polemics. There's certainly a place for those, but they do get annoying after awhile.

[aefenglommung]

The only performance of Bill Maher I would cross the street to see would be a car wreck with him as the star, and I'd be ashamed to say I watched that, too.

[level_head]

Here's one lifetime atheist vastly annoyed by Bill Maher.

He and I recognize that religions, and specifically the Judeo/Christian traditions, have been forces for good in the world as well as harm. The more time that passes, the more the balance shifts in favor of good, and these religions align with other good things such as freedom and democracy.

For this, I am in favor of them. And it is for those reasons -- that they are forces for good -- that Bill Maher despises them.

Since US religious people tend to be patriotic Americans, Maher believes that his task is to destroy their faiths. His real target, of course, is America.

===|==============/ Level Head