Bombing at the Box Office: Reviewers' Responses to Agnosticism in Bill Maher's Religulous

Abstract

This article examines reviewers' reactions to Bill Maher's documentary film Religulous as a way of beginning a discussion of media and religious hegemony. Hegemony theory posits that dominant ideology typically trumps contesting views, even when the latter do manage to leak through the system. Given this, one might expect that film reviewers serve as a second line of defense for entrenched worldviews. Here, however, a thematic analysis of reviews from major national newspapers reveals that critics provided only slight support to traditional religious views Maher challenges in his filmic plea for agnosticism.

Notes

¹Ronald Bettig and Jeanne Lynn Hall, Big Media, Big Money (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003): 8.

²Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1978): 172.

³Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, ed. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith (New York: International Publishers, 1971).

⁴Louis Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, tr. Ben Brewster (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971), 143.

⁵Douglas Kellner, “The media and the crisis of democracy in the age of Bush,” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 1 (March 2004): 29–58.

⁶David Oh, “Arab Americans in the news: Before and after 9/11,” Ohio Communication Journal 46 (2008): 15–26. Kristen Hoerl, “Cinematic jujitsu: Resisting white hegemony through the American dream in Spike Lee's Malcom X,” Communication Studies 59 (Oct–Dec 2008): 355–370. Autumn Miller and Susan Ross, “They are not us: Framing of American Indians by the Boston Globe,” Howard Journal of Communications 15 (Oct–Dec 2004): 245–259.

⁷Marie Hardin, Julie Dodd, and Kimberly Lauffer, “Passing it on: The reinforcement of male hegemony in sports journalism textbooks.” Mass Communication and Society 9 (fall 2006): 429–446; Angela McRobbie, “Top girls?,” Cultural Studies 21 (Jul/Sep 2007): 718–737. Lindsey J. Mean and Jeffrey W. Kassing, “‘I would just like to be known as an athlete,’ managing hegemony, femininity, and heterosexuality in female sport,” Western Journal of Communication, 72 (Apr/June 2008): 126–144.

⁸Ellsworth, Elizabeth. Illicit pleasures: Feminist spectators and Personal Best. In, Patricia Erens, ed. Issues in Feminist Film Criticism (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990): 183–196; Mitchell, Danielle. “Producing containment: The rhetorical construction of difference in Will and Grace,” The Journal of Popular Culture 38 (2005); Celeste Lacroix and Robert Westerfelhaus. “From the closet to the loft: Liminal license and socio-sexual separation in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Qualitative Research Reports in Communication 6 (October 2005): 11–19.

⁹See as an example, Ronald Bettig and Jeanne Lynn Hall, Big Media, Big Money (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003). Bettig and Hall list a number of executives who are among the richest people in the world—for example, Sumner Redstone on page 17—who exert power over media content.

¹⁰Ibid. Bettig and Hall suggest on page 86–87, for example, that the strategic ritual of objectivity eliminates controversial viewpoints.

¹¹Ellsworth, Elizabeth. Illicit pleasures: Feminist spectators and Personal Best. In, Patricia Erens, ed. Issues in Feminist Film Criticism (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990): 191.

¹²Ibid, 1052.

¹³Celeste Lacroix and Robert Westerfelhaus. “From the closet to the loft: Liminal license and socio-sexual separation in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” Qualitative Research Reports in Communication 6 (Oct. 2005): 12.

¹⁴Brenda Cooper and Edward C. Pease, “Framing Brokeback Mountain: How the popular press corralled the ‘gay cowboy movie.’” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25 (August 2008): 265.

¹⁵Ibid, 250.

¹⁶Jacques Derrida, “Above all, no journalists,” in Hent DeVries and Samuel Weber, eds., Religion and Media (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001) 56–93. Note that his term for this was “Greco-Roman-Christian Hegemony.”

¹⁷Hillary Warren, “The Bible tells me so: Depictions of race, gender, and authority in children's videos.” Journal of Media and Religion 1 (2002): 167–179; Chiung Hwang Chen, “‘Molympics,’: Journalistic discourse of Mormons in relation to the 2002 winter Olympic Games.” Journal of Media and Religion 2 (2003): 5–28; Erica Engstrom and Beth Semic, “Portrayal of religion in reality TV programming: Hegemony and the contemporary American wedding.” Journal of Media and Religion 2 (2003): 145–163.

¹⁸Robert S. Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Linda S. Lichter. The Media Elite: America's New Powerbrokers (Bethesda, MD: Adler and Adler, 1986).

¹⁹Marvin Olasky, Prodigal Press: The Anti-Christian Bias of the American News Media. (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1988): 22–26.

²⁰Mark Silk, Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1995).

²¹Doug Underwood, From Yahweh to Yahoo: The Religious Roots of the Secular Press (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002).

²²Underwood, 5.

²³For a description of framing theory and the specifics of the former study's method, see Brenda Cooper and Edward C. Pease, “Framing Brokeback Mountain: How the popular press corralled the ‘gay cowboy movie.’” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25 (August 2008): 254–255. Other than the added factor of having a group of graduate students agree to frames, the method here was identical to their study.

²⁴Bettig and Hall (2003, cited earlier) suggest that with monopolization, corporate newspapers have greater sway than at any time in history. Not only are the twenty reviewers from these papers read in the largest communities of the country, they are also syndicated and printed again in smaller papers around the country.

²⁵Bettig and Hall, 49.

²⁶Christopher Kelly, “Religion seen as force of evil in Maher's Religulous,” Houston Chronicle, October 2, 2008, http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/movies/nowshowing/6036974.html (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Kelly).

²⁷Michael Phillips, “Religulous,” Chicago Tribune, October 3, 2008, http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/oct/03/entertainment/chi-1003-religulous-reviewoct03 (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Phillips).

²⁸Joe Neumaier, “Oh God! ‘Religulous’ features Bill Maher in ‘Real Time’”, New York Daily News, October 2, 2008, http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2008/09/30/2008-09-30_oh_god_religulous_features_bill_maher_in.html (accessed January 5, 2009).

²⁹Rafer Guzman, “Religulous,” Newsday, October 1, 2008 (hereafter cited as Neumaier). http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-etrelig5864082oct01a,0,5655818.story (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Guzman).

³⁰Neely Tucker, “‘Religulous’: O, He of Little Faith,” Washington Post, October 3, 2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/02/AR2008100203426.html (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Tucker).

³¹Kelly.

³²Wesley Morris, “Maher happily makes a mockery of religion,” Boston Globe, October 3, 2008, http://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=11384 (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Morris).

³³Mick LaSalle, “Religulous,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 2, 2008, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/02/DDE81391L1.DTL&type=movies (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as LaSalle).

³⁴Carrie Rickey, “Comic Maher has faith in his lack of faith,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 2008, http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20081002_Bill_Maher_demands_proof_What_he_gets_as_he_spans_the.html (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Rickey).

³⁵Stephen Holden, “Believers, Skeptics and a Pool of Sitting Ducks,” New York Times, October 1, 2008, http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/movies/01reli.html?ref=movies (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Holden).

³⁶Tucker.

³⁷Tom Maurstad, “Religulous,” Dallas Morning News, October 3, 2008, http://listings.guidelive.com/portal/page?_pageid=33,97283&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&item_id=66506 (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Maurstad).

³⁸Joe Morgenstern, “Bill Maher is the Borat of the God beat in “Religulous,” a provocation, thinly disguised as a documentary, that succeeds in being almost as funny as it is offensive,” The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122298339529899629.html (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Morgenstern).

³⁹Guzman.

⁴⁰Bill Goodykoontz, “Religulous,” The Arizona Republic, October 3, 2008, http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/articles/2008/10/03/20081003religulous1003.html (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Goodykoontz).

⁴¹Neumaier.

⁴²Goodykoontz.

⁴³Kelly.

⁴⁴Stephen Whitty, “‘Religulous’ finds its target but misses the mark,” Star Ledger, October 6, 2008, http://www.ucc.org/news/movie-review-religulous.html (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Whitty).

⁴⁵LaSalle.

⁴⁶Morris.

⁴⁷Kelly.

⁴⁸Roger Ebert, “The punch line is ‘apocalypse’,” October 2, 2008, http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081002/REVIEWS/810020306 (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Ebert).

⁴⁹Goodykoontz.

⁵⁰Kelly.

⁵¹Phillips.

⁵²Ed Symkus, “Maher and Charles take in religion in ‘Religulous,’” Plain Dealer, September 26, 2008, http://www.crescotimes.com/archive/x800448965/Maher-and-Charles-take-in-religion-in-Religulous (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Symkus).

⁵³Claudia Puig, “‘Religulous’ mirthfully heaps scorn on the faithful,” USA Today, October 3, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2008-09-30-religulous_N.htm (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Puig).

⁵⁴Holden.

⁵⁵Kenneth Turan, “Maher toys with religion's fringes,” Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/03/entertainment/et-religulous3 (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Turan).

⁵⁶Phillips; Puig; Rickey; Whitty.

⁵⁷Whitty.

⁵⁸Turan.

⁵⁹Puig.

⁶⁰Colin Colvert, “Maher finds ‘Religulon’ in documentary,” Star Tribune, October 2, 2008, http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/30183009.html?elr=KArksD:aDyaEP:kD:aUnc5PDiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Colvert).

⁶¹Kyle Smith, “Omigod!: Maher documentary's a religious experience,” New York Post, October 1, 2008, http://www.nypost.com/seven/10012008/entertainment/movies/omigod__131506.htm (accessed January 5, 2009) (hereafter cited as Smith).

⁶²Colvert.

⁶³Goodykoontz; Rickey.

⁶⁸Tucker.

⁶⁴LaSalle.

⁶⁵Steve Persall, “Bill Maher debates believers in documentary Religulous,” St. Petersburg Times, October 2, 2008, http://www.tampabay.com/features/movies/article833314.ece (accessed January 6, 2009) (hereafter cited as Persall).

⁶⁶Kelly.

⁶⁷Colvert.

⁶⁹Ebert.

⁷⁰Symkus.

⁷¹Symkus.

⁷²Holden.

⁷³Two reviewers used this term, Goodykoontz and Turan.

⁷⁴Goodykoontz.

⁷⁵Whitty.

⁷⁶Tucker.

⁷⁷Guzman.

⁷⁸Guzman.

⁷⁹Whitty.

⁸⁰LaSalle.

⁸⁴Turan.

⁸¹Phillips.

⁸²Goodykoontz.

⁸³Turan.

⁸⁵Guzman. Rick Warren is a popular evangelical pastor and author of a number of best-selling books. Tony Perkins is head of the Family Research Council.

⁸⁶Maurstad.

⁸⁷Ebert.

⁸⁸Puig.

⁸⁹Morgenstern.

⁹⁰Colvert.

⁹¹Phillips.

⁹²Goodykoontz.

⁹³Holden. As will be discussed in the conclusions, Holden was the only reviewer who turned this in a more negative direction.

⁹⁴Whitty.

⁹⁵I left out “certified loose cannon.” In spite of the fact that Phillips uses that term to describe Foster, he also calls both “refreshing.” Quite possibly, he is suggesting that the Catholic church considers him a loose cannon. If the reviewer felt that Foster was a loose cannon, how did the priest also deserve the adjective “refreshing.” After all, there were numerous “loose cannons” in the film, from a pastor who thinks he is Jesus Christ, to a Rabbi who denies the holocaust.

⁹⁶Actually, there is an assumption involved even here, the assumption that film reviews are important for box office success. There is some evidence to suggest it is, but the evidence is not strong. See, J. Eliasberg and S. Shugan, “Film critics: influences or predictors.” Journal of Marketing 61 (1997): 68–79.

⁹⁷Brenda Cooper and Edward C. Pease, “Framing Brokeback Mountain: How the popular press corralled the ‘gay cowboy movie.’” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25 (August 2008): 251.

⁹⁸This would seem to be easy research to conduct, as it would simply require a scholar to do exit interviews of movie audiences to determine if two sets of audiences (those who have read reviews and those who have not) have differing views as to the meaning of the film.

⁹⁹See for example, D. Rucinski, “Personalized bias in news.” Communication Research 19 (February 1992); S. Keeter, “The illusion of intimacy: Television and the role of candidate personal qualities and voter choice.” Public Opinion Quarterly 51 (1987): 344–374; W. Eveland and D. A. Scheufele, “Connecting news media use with gaps in knowledge and participation.” Political Communication 17 (2000): 215–237.

¹⁰⁰Observant viewers will note that Maher doesn't speak of “organized religion,” or “fundamentalism” because he is not focusing on the part but the whole. Faith of any sort (as opposed to reason) is suspect.

¹⁰¹We have no basis for delving into the issue but might guess that this could also be a personal move on the part of the reviewers to save face. Perhaps some of them are religious but do not hold to beliefs that are specifically attacked in the film. Seeing the film as an attack on a narrow brand of faith allows them to feel their religious views are more tenable.

¹⁰²Here too, one might note that this is actually a rather sloppy frame for the movie. Though some of the subjects the host speaks too might be far from the American theological center, others might be quite near it.

¹⁰³Goodykoontz.

¹⁰⁴Holden.

¹⁰⁵Colvert.

¹⁰⁶Underwood, 118.

¹⁰⁷Some clarification is needed here. Silk and Underwood claim that American media adhere strongly to the moral aspects of western religion. Lichter, Rothman and Lichter, as well as Olasky, would probably agree that, generally speaking, journalists are more connected to biblical morality than biblical theology. But, this second group of researchers would question how consistent journalists' attachment to traditional morality might be. In data from polls conducted by Pew and other organizations, journalists tend to demonstrate more liberal views than the general public on a number of moral issues (e.g., gay rights and abortion rights).

¹⁰⁸In interviews, Maher openly questions the ethical implications of a number of religious stories (e.g., Sodom and Gomorrah). And, in one interaction with a person of faith he suggests that humans would have learned an ethical principle—one that Maher appears to agree with—by empirical and rational means.

¹¹⁰Smith.

¹⁰⁹Maher actually suggests in the film that religious figures such as Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohamed were psychotic.

¹¹¹Rupe Simms, “The politics of religion in plantation society: A Gramscian analysis.” Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion 10 (1999): 96.

¹¹²David Dixon, “Aid workers or evangelists, charity or conspiracy: Framing of missionary activity as a function of international political alliances,” Journal of Media and Religion 4 (2005): 14.

¹¹³Cooper and Pease, 265.

¹¹⁴Trinity College, “Catholics on the move, non-religious on the rise,” news release, no date, http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/2009/03/catholics_on_the_move_non-religious_on_the_rise.html (accessed March 23, 2009).