Obscure Films For Saturated Times: Idiocracy (2006)

This is supposed to be a weekly blog but I've decided to bend the rules today and write about a film that was virtually unnoticed when it was released but has now achieved cult status all while re-defining the term. Today's film is Mike Judge's Idiocracy.

Back in 2006, this film was virtually non-existent; no one knew what it was, who had done it or what it was about. Now, I can't lie and say that I was a fan from the beginning but I can say that I was hooked on it pretty early on and it still holds up as a great comedy, but it is already losing its appeal due to its saturation as a cult film as many great cult films unfortunately fall victim to. Now that Hollywood is running out of fresh ideas, cult films are being remade into feature films with bigger budgets, bigger stars and bigger marketing campaigns that the term cult doesn't seem to apply to the original film any more. To some people like myself, this makes us ashamed to say we loved the original in the first place. It isn't like me to review a film like this on this blog, but it still is a good film, despite all of the hype.

The plot is simple: Joe Bauers, played by Luke Wilson is an "Average Joe" who works for the military, sitting on his ass, defending the library - How novel. Because Joe is very average, he is called in for a secret black ops mission to become cryogenically (cryo·gen·i·cal·ly) frozen for a year, along with a female, Rita (Maya Rudolph) who is also considered average, although she is a prostitute. The hibernation chambers become neglected when the army base is destroyed and Joe and Rita sleep for five-hundred (500) years and awaken to see that in the year 2505, people are ridiculously (ri·dic·u·lous·ly) stupid.

Joe becomes arrested and looked down upon by everyone because he is of average intelligence and "talks like a fag" (speaks normally). Due to his above average scores on an "intelligence test" Joe is recruited by the President Commacho (A WWF-style "President" played brilliantly by the awesome Terry Crews) to fix society's problems including the food shortage, a dust bowl and everything else that can go wrong when society is too stupid or lazy to fix their problems. The dust bowl has occurred due to the watering of crops with Brawndo (Gatorade) because it has replaced water thanks to Brawndo purchasing the Food and Drug Administration as well as the FCC. Because the TV told them so, the idiots believe Brawndo has to work better than water because "it's got electrolytes" while water is looked down upon as being for the toilet only. Joe deals with trying to persuade the people that using water will work on crops and that being smart is not bad. Of course, no one believes him and he is sentenced to rehabilitation which is very reminiscent (rem·i·nis·cent) of the Roman gladiators fighting off the impossible for others' enjoyment.

The film's opening prologue breaks everything down ever so humorously while the frightening social commentary on current American society make this feel like it could really happen. A husband and wife with high I.Q.'s talk to the viewer documentary-style about how they want children and how things like their work schedules and the state of the market prevent them from doing so. Contrasted with this is a man with limited intelligence named Clevon who impregnates anything with a vagina and has dozens of kids, making his family tree that of a willow. Now, of course, the professional couple end up not having any kids and the male ends up dead due to a heart attack while masturbating to provide sperm for artificial insemination, proving that intelligence is no longer a factor in natural selection any more.

As usual, this is as far as I am willing to go with the plot because first of all, it's not my style to give spoil the whole movie by writing the synopsis, and secondly, while Idiocracy doesn't have the best plot from here on, it does have a damn good message in it: Don't be afraid to be smart (and don't let stupid win). The first time I saw this film, it was good for a bunch of laughs and the laughs still work on repeat viewings, but after a second viewing, I saw the true terror of this film. I had been working in retail for about ten (10) years and I quickly identified with Joe's frustrations with trying to reason with these kind of people; however, since then, I have realized that society is becoming more and more stupid and that the events of this film are not only plausible, they are seemingly impossible to avoid, thus making Idiocracy a sort of apocalyptic horror film.

Now, I suppose I should comment on the cult status that Idiocracy has obtained in the last few years. Given that it didn't receive a proper theatrical release, the film went unnoticed until it hit DVD. I think a lot of people found the dark humor to be spot on with society's present trajectory (tra·jec·to·ry - a path, progression, or line of development resembling a physical trajectory) and identified with it. Sadly, I do see a lot of the average binge-drinking college kids quoting this movie and while I'm glad it's finally getting the exposure it deserves, it can only seem like a paradox to me that gives the film more of a validation of things to come.