TEAM AMERICA: Didja notice....?

I've seen Team America twice and I'm dying to discuss some of its points with other attentive viewers. Click the "talk to me" link below if you want to leave a comment!

For the safety and convenience of readers who haven't seen it but plan to, the "spoilers" will be presented in Invis-O-Text (© 2004 by Throbert McGee). Simply highlight the blank space with your mouse to read the text!

[Invis-O-Text: ON] In the "Gazing forlornly at D.C. monuments" sequence from Team America, the very last monument that Gary visits is the memorial to homeopathy's founder Samuel Hahnemann, located at 16th and Mass Ave.
 
I used to work nearby, but I actually discovered it years ago while taking photos of snowbound Northwest DC during the blizzard of -- um, was it it '95 or '96? I forget.
 
Since Parker and Stone have taken jabs at "alternative medicine" on South Park, I thought that the inclusion of the Hahnemann memorial was a cute little in-joke.
 
On the other hand, it's just a trifle disturbing that the photo of the Hahnemann Memorial that I googled up is on the nih.gov site, without a single comment about what a pile of crap Hahnemann's theories were! (I don't have a problem with the National Institute for Health giving a nod to Hahnemann, since in some ways his methods were an improvement for his era. But there should really be a disclaimer about homeopathy, which in its "orthodox" form is a bogus waste of patients' money.) [Invis-O-Text: OFF]

[Invis-O-Text: ON] It just occurred to me today that Spottswoode "translates" to notices that someone has an erection, which reveals/confirms something about the character.
 
Till now, I hadn't thought of Spottswoode as being necessarily gay, despite the fact that he requests a hummer from Gary. But the significance of his name, combined with the hummer, combined with the fact that limo driver Baxter totally reminds me of Carmen Giya, the super-swishy "secretary" to Roger De Bris in the original 1968 version of The Producers, makes me think that Spottswoode was intended as a (wink-wink) "bachelor uncle" type. [Invis-O-Text: OFF]

More as I think of them...

Oh, here's a biggie:

[Invis-O-Text: ON] Although Michael Moore's self-detonation was probably the most eagerly anticipated Celebrity Snuff Scene, and the "killer panthers" sequence was the funniest, I was more struck by the fact that Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon died in the manners most reminiscent of 9/11: burning and falling from a high building.
 
Was this deliberate? I dunno -- while they're offensive leftist moonbats, I'm not sure if they're the worst celebrity apologists for Islamic terror. In my opinion, George Clooney shoulda gotten a 9/11-style demise in Team America for his sneering remarks about "the axis of evil." (What, are you saving the word "evil" for some special occasion, you brain-dead hunk?)
 
On the other hand, I'm sure it was a deliberate choice to have the victims of the movie's major terrorist attack die by water -- the symbolic opposite of 9/11's infernos, and thus the least likely to trigger uncomfortable associations for the audience. The Panama Canal sequence managed to be somber despite the fact that you could see the strings and despite the humorous touch of having one of the victims wail ¡No me gusta! in classic Spanish 101 style. [Invis-O-Text: OFF]

posted by Throbert | 11/26/2004 08:56:00 PM |

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