Team America: World Police

Team America: World Police
File:Movie poster team america.jpg
Directed by	Trey Parker
Written by	Trey Parker Matt Stone Pam Brady
Produced by	Frank C. Agnone II Amine Tay Anne Garefino Trey Parker Michael Polaire Scott Rudin Matt Stone
Starring	Trey Parker Matt Stone Kristen Miller Masasa Moyo Daran Norris Maurice LaMarche Jeremy Shada Fred Tatasciore
Cinematography	Bill Pope
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	October 15, 2004 (Theatres) May 17, 2005 (DVD and VHS)
Running time	98 min.
Language	English
Budget	$30,000,000

Team America: World Police is a 2004 film comedy film, written by Pam Brady, Trey Parker and Matt Stone and directed by Parker and Stone, previously known for the popular animated series South Park. The film is a parody of action films and their related stereotypes, the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the resultant war, and American politics.

The film, which features a cast entirely composed of wooden marionettes, focuses on a fictional team of soldiers, known as "Team America: World Police," who attempt to save the world from a violent terrorist plot led by Kim-Jong Il. The film was primarily inspired by Thunderbirds, a popular television show created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson which also featured an all-marionette cast. Like Parker and Stone's South Park, the film was subject to much critical and political debate, recieving praise for its humor and satire while also drawing controversy for its simplification of current issues. The film also drew controversy due to an extended sex scene between two of the film's puppet characters.

The film was released in the United States on October 15, 2004 and, despite recieving mostly positive reviews, was a box office disappointment, barely recollecting its production budget and failing to exceed the performance of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. The film was released on DVD in the United States on May 17, 2005, available in both R-rated and Unrated versions.

Plot

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, an international military force known as Team America: World Police is formed, with the intention of stopping terrorsits from performing their evil deeds. The team, located within the structure of Mount Rushmore is composed of Lisa, a young psychologist; Carson, Sarah's love interest; Sarah, an alleged psychic; Joe, who is in love with Sarah; and Chris, a technological expert who harbors a mysterious hatred of performers. The team is led by Spottswoode, a United States government agent, and the team's information is received by I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E., a highly-advanced supercomputer. One day, the team combats a terrorist group in Paris, France, and although they succeed, most of the city is destroyed in the process. Following the battle, Carson proposes to Lisa, but their marriage is cancelled when the surviving terrorist murders him.

In search of a new member, Spottswoode recruits Gary Johnston, a Broadway actor with college majors in Theater and World Languages; Gary is hired as a spy, utilizing his talents to infiltrate terrorist organizations. Unbeknowst to the team, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il is supplying international terrorists with weapons of mass destruction, planning a mysterious worldwide attack. I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. is informed of a terrorist meeting in Cairo, Egypt, and Gary successfully infiltrates their group; during this time, Lisa and Sarah both become romantically attracted to him.

The team attempts to capture the terrorists, and although they successfully foil their plan, their actions again leave most of the city in ruin; the group is criticized by the Film Actor's Guild, a union of liberal Hollywood actors. Meanwhile, the United Nations assign Hans Blix with the task of inspecting Kim-Jonh Il's lair, but the investigator is killed by Kim-Jong Il's man-eating sharks. As the team relaxes following their victory, Gary expresses his guilt to Lisa, remembering a time where his acting talent caused his brother to be killed by gorillas. As the two express their feelings and engage in sexual intercourse, a group of terrorists destroy the Panama Canal.

The Film Actor's Guild blames Team America, believing they are responsible for the terrorists' actions. Gary, realizing his acting talents have once again resulted in tragedy, abandons the team, causing considerable conflict among the remaining members. Believing the terrorists to be operating within Derkderkastan, the original members depart, only to be captured by a group of terrorsits; meanwhile, Michael Moore infiltrates the team's base and destroys their equipment by suicide bombing the area. Kim-Jong Il, upset with the terrorists' actions, expresses his frustration and despair ("I'm So Ronery").

Meanwhile, a very depressed Gary becomes an alcoholic, only to be reminded of his responsibilty by a drunken drifter, who compares the world's three dominant personalities to human sex organs. In North Korea, Kim-Jong Il reveals his plan to host an elaborate peace ceremony, inviting not only the Film Actor's Guild but also the world's political leaders; during the celebration, a series of bombs will be detonated throughout the world, reducing every nation to that of a Third World Country. Gary returns to Mount Rushmore and finds the area in ruin, although Spottswoode and I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E have survived; after rejoining the team, Gary is sent to North Korea.

After infiltrating the lair, Gary frees the team, and after a violent battle against the Film Actor's Guild, they confront Kim-Jong Il; although initially unsuccessful, Gary convinces the world's leaders to unite by reciting the drifter's emotional speech. Kim-Jong Il is then defeated by Lisa, only to be revealed as an alien cockroach from another planet; Kim-Jong Il flees in his spaceship and departs, promising to one day return. As Gary and Lisa begin a relationship, the team reunites, preparing to combat the remainder of the world's terrorists.

Targets of satire

Team America itself satirizes the perceived jingoism that leads American administrations to take unilateral foreign policy action that critics deride as "policing the world". The Film Actors Guild (F.A.G.) satirizes the naïve and egotistical nature of Hollywood celebrities' political activism. The "Film Actors Guild" is a reference to the Screen Actors Guild, and the acronym of the fictional organization, F.A.G., is a somewhat antiquated derogatory term for homosexual men, though in the context of the movie it means coward or appeasers.

There is a scene early on in the movie where Gary (the main puppet character in the movie) is in a play called Lease, singing the song "Everyone has AIDS". This is a satirical play on the musical Rent, wherein several of the characters are suffering from AIDS. Gary himself satires Mark Cohen, the main character of the play, evidenced by the telltale scarf that Gary wears, which is Mark's trademark.

According to Parker and Stone, to avoid being pigeon-holed as simply a movie about the 2004 U.S. election, the film deliberately does not name any American politicians; Kim Jong-il and Hans Blix are the only real political figures directly identified in the film. Team America acts without any guidance from the White House or the Department of Defense. On the other hand, others see Team America's incompetent and needlessly destructive operations as a jab at current American counter-terrorism policies. Both F.A.G. and the Team's reliance on an actor who is inexperienced in politics, foreign policy, or military operations possibly satirizes Western idolisation of actors, as well as the tendency for famous actors to believe they can contribute to and involve themselves in world politics.

Political and social commentator Andrew Sullivan considers the film brilliant in its skewering of both the left and right's approach on terrorism. Sullivan (a fan of Stone and Parker's other work, as well) coined the term "South Park Republican" to describe himself and other like-minded fiscal conservatives/social libertarians. Parker is a registered Libertarian.

Many Hollywood actors are directly satirized, by name. Sean Penn is portrayed making an outlandish claim about Iraq, which might be a reference to the portrayal of happy, kite-flying Iraqi children in Fahrenheit 9/11: "Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows, and rainbow skies and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles." Janeane Garofalo's character states, "Our job as actors is to read the newspapers, and repeat what we've read on TV, like it is our own opinion." In the film, Alec Baldwin is portrayed as the leader of F.A.G. and proclaimed on two different occasions to be "the greatest actor ever." Shortly before the film's release Penn sent Parker and Stone an angry letter inviting them to tour Iraq with him and ended it with the words, "Fuck you." A transcript of the letter was later posted on the Drudge Report. They also stated that Baldwin took a very different view of the film, even offering the use of his own voice for the Alec Baldwin character. Matt Damon was also parodied to be mentally handicapped, only saying his name throughout the movie, similar to the character Timmy in South Park; although this was only due to the fact that the puppet's head came out looking abnormal.

Filmmaker Michael Moore is depicted as a suicide bomber, while referred to as a "giant socialist weasel" by the supercomputer. Stone explained the reason for this portrayal in an MSNBC interview:

"We have a very specific beef with Michael Moore...I did an interview, and he didn't mischaracterize me for anything I said in Bowling for Columbine. But what he did do was put this cartoon [titled A Brief History of the United States of America, written by Moore, animated and directed by Harold Moss and the Idealabs studio] right after me that made it look like we did that cartoon."

Bowling for Columbine includes a brief interview with South Park co-creator Matt Stone, who suggests that South Park was largely inspired by Stone's childhood experiences in Littleton, Colorado. Stone presents a vision of Littleton as painfully normal, and highly intolerant of non-conformist behavior. In a segment that immediately followed the interview in the first release, an uncredited cartoon in a style strongly reminiscent of South Park is featured, depicting the National Rifle Association and Ku Klux Klan as interchangeable evil organizations. However, this sequence was not the work of Matt Stone, nor that of Trey Parker. It became a point of contention between the two and Moore, as they believed Moore meant to imply they had contributed to his film beyond the interview. The animation was in fact made by FlickerLab. Subsequent releases attempted to counter this assumption by delaying the animation until ten minutes later in the film.

Team America also parodies movies relying on ethnocentrism in their US American audience. When a new location is shown, the caption will give the place's name and its distance from the United States in miles (in reality measured from New York City). All landmarks in Paris and Cairo are closely located. Also, other languages are simplified to the point of ridicule. French is reduced to stock phrases such as "sacrebleu", the only Spanish line is "no me gusta," repeated several times, and Arabic is given as a guttural combination of the words "derka", "jihad", "sherpa", "bakala", "Mohammed," and "Allah." The Korean language was also simplified for the movie. While no real Korean words were actually used in speech, the real verb endings of "~~ㅂ니까 (~~mnikka)?" (sentence ending in a question) and "~~ㅂ니다 (~~mnida)" (sentence ending in a statement) were used after nonsensical words to give the dialogue a Korean-like sound. A few lines do sound like authentic Korean: when the guards see Gary, one says something like "nuga iya, saekki," or "who are you, fucker?" The movie's soundtrack features a song entitled "North Korean Melody", reminiscent of North Korean pop music such as the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble; its only recognizable words are "Kim Jong-il," referring to Kim's cult of personality, the usual topic of the country's mass entertainment. Despite not using real Korean words in speech, real Korean written characters are used in all Korean writing in the movie. The stereotypical Asian pronunciation of English "R"s instead of "L"s is used heavily by Kim Jong-il. For example, he greets people with "Herro," and calls Hans Blix "Hans Brix," even singing a song in the movie entitled "I'm So Ronery." When Koreans write their names or introduce themselves, they always use their family name first: Kim (family name) Jong-il (given name). Western culture is the opposite. So, when Hans Blix meets Kim Jong-il in Kim Jong-il's palace, Blix addresses Mr. Kim as "Mr. Il." This could be a reference to Harry S. Truman's infamous faux pas when greeting of Chiang Kai-shek (the president said, "Mr. Shek").

The film's opening credits, as well as the blowing up of famous landmarks, satirizes the film styles of movie makers Michael Bay, Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin. Indeed, one song in the film makes particular reference to how Michael Bay "missed the point" when he made Pearl Harbor, and that the film "sucked."

In some scenes, particularly in the Panama Canal scene, hemp plants are placed around the scenery, made to look like ferns due to their relative size. Also, some plant leaves were made up of shredded dollar bills.

Despite the teaser trailer's boast that George W. Bush and John Kerry (along with several other celebrities) are "going to be really, really mad when they see Team America: World Police," neither Bush nor Kerry are actually seen or mentioned, although marionettes that look similar to them (and their wives) can be seen in the audience of Lease, a parody of Rent and to some extent of the original Broadway play and film The Producers.

Filmmakers' response to critical reaction

In an interview with Matt Stone following the film's release, Anwar Brett of the BBC asked the same question that many film critics had wondered aloud in their reviews of Team America: World Police — "For all the targets you choose to take pot-shots at, George W. Bush isn't one of them. How come?" Matt Stone replied, "If you want to see Bush-bashing in America you only have to walk about 10 feet to find it. Trey and I are always attracted to what other people aren't doing. Frankly that wasn't the movie we wanted to make."

Kim Jong-Il, a noted film buff, has never commented about his depiction in Team America: World Police, although shortly after its release North Korea asked the Czech Republic to ban the movie.

Box office performance

Team America made $12.1 million in its opening U.S. weekend. Since then the movie has made $30 million after over two months in release. Worldwide, it eventually garnered over $50.8 million at the box office.

Individuals parodied

Famous people depicted as puppets in the film are: Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Helen Hunt, George Clooney, Liv Tyler, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Janeane Garofalo, Matt Damon, Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Glover, Ethan Hawke, Kim Jong-il, Peter Jennings and Hans Blix. With the exception of Jennings, all are killed in dramatic and extremely violent ways (e.g. Moore suicide-bombing Team America's Mount Rushmore headquarters and Samuel L. Jackson getting his head split open by a kung-fu kick). None of the real-life actors lent their voices, although Alec Baldwin expressed an interest in doing so. Both Clooney and Damon are said to be friends with Stone and Parker, and according to a report, Clooney has stated that he would have been insulted had he not been included in the movie. Also, Damon was meant to be an intelligent person in the movie, but when Stone and Parker saw that his puppet "looked retarded", they decided to have him only able to say his name.

Music

Marc Shaiman was originally hired to compose the original score and help Trey Parker compose the film's songs. He left the film after helping to compose "Everyone Has AIDS" and "Derka Derk (Terrorist Theme)" (with Trey Parker composing the rest of the songs on his own, according to the end credits). To compose the score, Shaiman was replaced by Harry Gregson-Williams. In a curious twist, Shaiman later conducted the orchestra in the film's scoring sessions.

The film's songs include:

• "America, Fuck Yeah"
• "Freedom Isn't Free": Played when Gary (Trey Parker) decides to take a "detour" with Baxter, the limo driver. The song concludes with the declaration that freedom in fact costs $1.05.
• "Derka Derk (Terrorist Theme)", an instrumental parody of "Cantina Band" from Star Wars.
• "Only a Woman": Played during the love scene between Gary and Lisa.
• "I'm So Ronery": Sung by Kim Jong-il (Trey Parker) when he feels everyone is incompetent.
• "Montage": Sung when Gary (Trey Parker) is training with Spotswoode (Daran Norris). The song is a stylistic parody of "Push It to the Limit" by Paul Engemann and "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler, both songs famed for appearances in '80s films. The song originally appeared in the 6th season South Park episode "Asspen".
• "North Korean Medley": Gibberish song (Kim Jong-Il's name repeated over and over) used to distract the group of people in Kim Jong-Il's large mansion before Alec Baldwin's speech.
• "The End of an Act": Played after Gary quits Team America and gets drunk. It's a love song featuring the refrain "Pearl Harbor sucked, and I miss you.". This song's lyrics are a parodied version of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith which appeared on the Armageddon soundtrack. That film was also directed by Michael Bay. Also, its music has resemblances to "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin which appeared on the Top Gun soundtrack.
• "Everyone Has AIDS", sung by Gary in the Broadway play Lease (musical parody of Rent).
• The song playing when the team walks through Kim Jong-Il's palace is Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity", which was also featured in Kill Bill.
• There is also a bonus song sung by Kim Jong-il named "You Are Worthress Arec Barwin" during the end credits of the film. The song provides some explanation of the film's ending sequence and Kim's motivation for blowing up the entire world/Killing all of humanity .

Cast

Cast
Actor	Character(s) (Voice)
Trey Parker	Gary Johnston/Joe/Kim Jong Il/Hans Blix/Carson/Matt Damon/Drunk in Bar/Tim Robbins/Sean Penn/Michael Moore/Helen Hunt/Susan Sarandon/Other voices
Matt Stone	Chris/George Clooney/Danny Glover/Ethan Hawke/Other voices
Kristen Miller	Lisa
Masasa Moyo	Sarah
Daran Norris	Spottswoode
Phil Hendrie	I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E./Chechnyan Terrorist
Maurice LaMarche	Alec Baldwin
Chelsea Marguerite	French Mother
Jeremy Shada	Jean Francois
Fred Tatasciore	Samuel L. Jackson

See also

• List of films set in or about North Korea

References

• Moriarty Visits Matt & Trey On The TEAM AMERICA Set! - set report from AintItCool.com
• Team America: World Police - synopsis, clips and images from LatinoReview.com
• (October 2004). Play: South Park's Puppet Regime. Wired 12.10. Accessed October 6, 2004.
• BBC Interview with Matt Stone

External links

• Official Site
• QuickTime trailer
• Template:Bcdb
• Team America: World Police at IMDb
• Team America: World Police at the All Movie Guide
• Team America: World Police at Rotten Tomatoes
• Team America: World Police at Box Office Mojo
• An analysis at Flakmagazine
• Roger Ebert's review
• Team America Photo Gallery