Year: 1999
Director: Trey Parker
Writer: Matt Stone, Pam Brady, Trey Parker
ย In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be a need for South Park. But in our society fueled by hypocrisy, greed and intolerance a film like this is essential to remind us what freedom of speech is all about. It seems that only cartoons are able to satirize today’s world, because they’re cheaper and people feel less threatened by little animated characters. There’s still the occasional “Happiness” or “Election”, but for regular doses of unrestrained satire, you better turn to the animated shows of Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Mike Judge (King of the Hill) and, of course, Trey Parker. I truly believe that Parker is one of the most gifted new talents in movies, for he makes totally unique pictures. First there was “Cannibal: the Musical”, which blends “Oklahoma!”-style songs and gore, then came “Orgazmo”, about a Mormon porn star super-hero! Through all this, Parker and his pal Matt Stone created the cult TV show “South Park”, which got them the lead in David Zucker’s hilarious “BASEketball, and now the chance to take their show to the next level: the big screen!
The title is more than a nifty penis joke: this movie is indeed bigger, longer and uncut! The little kids of South Park Elementary go to places they’ve never been before, and their language is dirtier than ever! This movie ranks along “Scarface” and “Do the Right Thing” as one of those the most jam-packed with the F-word! It all starts out in the supposedly quiet, snow-covered little town of South Park, Colorado. We meet again with our cute but crude cardboard friends from TV. There’s Stan Marsh, who’s still love Wendy so much that he pukes every time he sees her, even though she has a thing with sophisticated British new kid Gregory. Then there’s Kyle Broflovky’s the little Jewish kid with an attitude, and poor Kenny McCormick with his coat over his face and a tendency to always die. Last but not least is Eric Cartman, one of the most hilarious characters ever. Man, is he a badass, filthy, sick, cruel son of a bitch. His voice (courtesy of Parker, who voices all the main characters with Stone) is absolutely unmistakable, and practically everything he says is a memorable one-liner. This fatass is only 8 or something, but man is he a screw up!
One of the things that’s cool with the film is that Parker didn’t just put three episodes together: this really a movie, and it goes further than the show since it has more time to develop a story. It all starts as Stan and his pals get into the R-Rated Terrance & Philip movie and are totally blown away by the filthy words they get to hear. Hence, they start going around spitting about f’ing donkey balls, f’ng shitface bitches and horse f**kers! No need to mention that their parents and teacher Mr.Garrison (and his fetish puppet Mr. Hat) freak out, but you won’t believe how far they go! Or maybe you will, which is the sad thing. Cause after all, what Parker and Stone do is take messed up things in our society and exaggerate them so they get funny and you can see how absurd people’s behavior can be. Led by Kyle’s mom, a raging, overbearing, totally insane bitch (immortalized in Cartman’s classic song “Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch”), the people of South Park protest Terrance & Philip, whom they accuse of perverting America’s youth.
But it doesn’t stop there: they have President Clinton declaring war to Canada (T & P happen to be Canadian stars), sending armies after armies up North, putting Canucks in death camps and imprisoning the farting Terrance & Philip until they go on the electric chair! Parker (who wrote-produce-directed the film) is really determined to show how America can be sick sometimes. He makes fun of the government, parents associations, the MPAA, the army, as well as various pop culture stuff. But the movie is more than a caustic satire of overzealous moral righteousness: it’s also a full-fledged musical, as the characters regularly burst into very catchy songs composed by Parker such as “Mountain Town”, “Uncle Fucka”, “It’s easy M’kay”, “Up There”, “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”, “Blame Canada” and much more.
This is really a non-stop extravaganza, equal part song, satire and filthy humor. It’s always very entertaining, and some scenes are stand-outs: the movie-within-the movie “Asses of Fire”, the scene on Conan O’ Brien’s show, Big Gay Al’s variety show, the God-hating Mole and la Resistance, and the whole subplot revolving around the homosexual affair between Satan and Saddam Hussein! As for the animation, it’s a bit rough, but it’s colorful and original and some parts (like the hell scenes) feature eye-popping computer animation a la Spawn. “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” is a hella cool movie, as highly entertaining and delightfully subversive as it gets. Who would have thought that South Park would lead to one of the sharpest satirical movies of the ’90s as well as the best musical comedy in at least 20 years?