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Idiocracy

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Not to be confused with Ideocracy.

Idiocracy
Film poster in the style of Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" showing an imperfect slob
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMike Judge
Screenplay by
Story byMike Judge
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTim Suhrstedt
Edited byDavid Rennie
Music byTheodore Shapiro
Production
company
Ternion
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • September 1, 2006 (2006-09-01)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2–4 million[citation needed]
Box office$495,303[1]

Idiocracy is a 2006 American science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Judge and co-written by Judge and Etan Cohen. Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph and Dax Shepard, the film tells the story of Joe Bauers (Wilson), an American soldier who, along with sex worker Rita (Rudolph), takes part in a government hibernation experiment. The experiment goes awry and Joe awakens in the year 2505, in a dystopian[2] world that is incredibly dumbed-down by mass commercialism and mindless TV programming, to find that he has become the smartest man on the planet.

Idiocracy serves as a social satire that touches on issues including dysgenics, commercialism, and anti-intellectualism. The film was not screened for critics, and the distributor, 20th Century Fox, was accused of abandoning it. Despite its lack of a major theatrical release, which resulted in a mere $495,000 gross at the box office, the film received positive reviews from critics and has become a cult film.[3]

Plot

In 2005, U.S. Army librarian Corporal Joe Bauers is selected for a suspended animation experiment as the "most average" individual in the entire armed forces. Lacking a suitable female candidate, the military hires a sex worker named Rita by bribing her pimp Upgrayedd. When the officer in charge is arrested for running his own prostitution ring under Upgrayedd's tutelage, the experiment is forgotten. Over the next five centuries, societal expectations lead the most intelligent humans to choose not to have children while the least intelligent reproduce indiscriminately, creating increasingly dumber generations.

In 2505, Joe and Rita's suspension chambers are unearthed by the collapse of a mountain-sized garbage pile; Joe's chamber crashes into the apartment of Frito Pendejo. Wandering around what was once Washington, D.C., Joe finds a population that has become profoundly anti-intellectual, speaking only low registers of English and wallowing in overconsumption and crass popular entertainment. Technology is still advanced but often malfunctioning, driven by garish commercialism or extreme simplicity, such as healthcare workers handling computer equipment akin to elementary education software. Believing he is hallucinating after a year of hibernation, Joe enters a hospital and realizes the truth. Arrested for not having a bar code tattoo to pay for his doctor's appointment, he is sent to prison after being assigned the grossly incompetent Pendejo as his lawyer.

Rita also leaves her chamber, resuming work as a sex worker, but soon realizes that people have become so stupid that she can charge customers money without actual services. Joe is renamed "Not Sure" by a faulty speech-recognition tattooing machine and takes a rudimentary IQ test, then tricks a guard by claiming that he is meant to be released, and simply runs out the door, successfully escaping prison in one piece. He finds Frito, who reveals that a time machine exists to return him to 2005, and Joe bribes him with promises of riches through compound interest on a bank account he will open for Frito in the 21st century. Leading Joe and Rita to the time machine, Frito takes them into a gigantic Costco store, where Joe is identified by a tattoo scanner and apprehended.

Taken to the White House, Joe is appointed Secretary of the Interior, as the IQ test identified him as the most intelligent person alive. President Camacho introduces Joe to the cabinet, and gives him the impossible job of fixing the nationwide food shortages, dust bowls, and crippled economy within a week. Joe discovers that the nation's crops are irrigated with Brawndo, a "thirst mutilator" whose parent corporation owns the FDA, FCC, and USDA. When Joe has the irrigation system replaced with water, Brawndo's stock plummets, causing massive layoffs and riots, without any visible agricultural improvement.

Joe is sentenced to die in a monster truck demolition derby featuring undefeated "rehabilitation officer" Beef Supreme. However, Beef's oversized vehicle is crushed trying to enter the arena, and Joe manages to defeat the other vehicles. Rita and Frito discover that Joe's reintroduction of water to the soil has allowed vegetation to grow. Showing the sprouting crops on the stadium's Jumbotron prompts Camacho's presidential pardon. Joe and Rita decide to stay in the future, although later they discover they had no choice as the "time masheen" Frito mentioned is merely a childishly inaccurate history-themed amusement ride. Following Camacho's term, Joe is elected president and marries Rita. They conceive the world's three smartest children, while new Vice President Frito takes eight wives and fathers thirty-two of the world's stupidest children. The film ends with Joe's inaugural speech, where he praises earlier civilizations for their technology and wonders, and expresses hope this society will one day as well.

In a post-credits scene, Upgrayedd awakens from a suspension chamber, setting off in search of Rita.

Cast

Themes

The idea of a dystopian society based on dysgenics can be traced back to the work of Sir Francis Galton. H. G. Wells' The Time Machine postulates a devolved society of humans, as does the short story "The Marching Morons" by Cyril M. Kornbluth, akin to the "Epsilon-minus Semi-Morons" of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.[6][7]

Production

Early working titles included The United States of Uhh-merica and 3001.[8] Filming took place in 2004 on several stages at Austin Studios[9][10] and in the Texas cities of Austin, San Marcos, Pflugerville, and Round Rock.[11] Test screenings around March 2005 produced unofficial reports of poor audience reactions. After some re-shooting in the summer of 2005, a UK test screening in August produced a report of a positive impression.[12]

Release

Idiocracy's original release date was August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge.[13] In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. In August, numerous articles[14] revealed that release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only in seven cities (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin, Texas),[10] and expanded to only 130 theaters,[15] not the usual wide release of 600 or more theaters.[16] According to the Austin American-Statesman, 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, was entirely absent in promoting the feature;[10] while posters were released to theaters, "no movie trailers, no ads, and only two stills",[17] and no press kits were released.[18]

The film was not screened for critics.[19] Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP.[15] That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News, Time, and Esquire.[20][21][22] Time's Joel Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but, "still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox."[21]

In The New York Times, Dan Mitchell argued that Fox might be shying away from the cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics, because the company did not want to offend either its viewers or potential advertisers portrayed negatively in the film.[23] This theory has been given extra weight by Terry Crews, who stars in the movie as President Camacho. In a 2018 Interview with GQ Magazine he talked of advertisers being unhappy at the way they were portrayed, which affected the studio's efforts to promote the movie. He said, "The rumor was, because we used real corporations in our comedy (I mean, Starbucks was giving hand jobs) these companies gave us their name thinking they were gonna get 'pumped up', and then we're like, 'Welcome to CostCo, we love you' [delivered in monotone]. All these real corporations were like, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute' [...] there were a lot of people trying to back out, but it was too late. And so Fox, who owned the movie, decided, 'We're going to release this in as few theaters as legally possible'. So it got a release in, probably, three theaters over one weekend and it was sucked out, into the vortex".[24]

In 2017, Judge told The New York Times that the film's lack of marketing and wide release was the result of negative test screenings.[25] He added that Fox subsequently decided to not give the film a strong marketing push because the distributor believed it would develop a cult following through word-of-mouth and recoup its budget through home video sales, as Judge's previous film Office Space had.[25]

Box office

Film Release date Box office revenue Box office ranking Budget Reference
United States United States International Worldwide All time United States All time worldwide
Idiocracy September 1, 2006 $444,093 $51,210 $495,303 #6,914 Unknown Unknown [1]

Box office receipts totaled $444,093 in the U.S., with the widest release being 135 theaters.[1]

Reception

Although it was not screened in advance for critics, Idiocracy received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 74%, with an average rating of 6.5/10, based on 50 reviews. The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "Frustratingly uneven yet enjoyable overall, Idiocracy skewers society's devolution with an amiably goofy yet deceptively barbed wit."[26] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[27]

Los Angeles Times reviewer Carina Chocano described it as "spot on" satire and a "pitch-black, bleakly hilarious vision of an American future", although the "plot, naturally, is silly and not exactly bound by logic. But it's Judge's gimlet-eyed knack for nightmarish extrapolation that makes Idiocracy a cathartic delight."[28] In an Entertainment Weekly review only 87 words long,[15] Joshua Rich gave the film an "EW Grade" of "D", stating that "Mike Judge implores us to reflect on a future in which Britney and K-Fed are like the new Adam and Eve."[29] The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin found Luke Wilson "perfectly cast ... as a quintessential everyman"; and wrote of the film: "Like so much superior science fiction, Idiocracy uses a fantastical future to comment on a present. ... There's a good chance that Judge's smartly lowbrow Idiocracy will be mistaken for what it's satirizing."[19]

The film was also well received in other countries. John Patterson, critic for UK newspaper The Guardian, wrote, "Idiocracy isn't a masterpiece—Fox seems to have stiffed Judge on money at every stage—but it's endlessly funny", and of the film's popularity, described seeing the film "in a half-empty house. Two days later, same place, same show—packed-out."[30] Brazilian news magazine Veja called the film "politically incorrect", recommended that readers see the DVD, and wrote "the film went flying through [American] theaters and did not open in Brazil. Proof that the future contemplated by Judge is not that far away."[31]

Critic Alexandre Koball of the Brazilian website CinePlayers.com, while giving the movie a score of 5 out of 5 along with another staff reviewer, wrote, "Idiocracy is not exactly ... funny nor ... innovative but it's a movie to make you think, even if for five minutes. And for that it manages to stay one level above the terrible average of comedy movies released in the last years in the United States."[32]

Home media

Idiocracy was released on DVD on January 9, 2007. It has earned $9 million on DVD rentals, over 20 times its gross domestic box office revenue of under $450,000.[33]

In the United Kingdom, uncut versions of the film were shown on satellite channel Sky Comedy on February 26, 2009, with the Freeview premiere shown on Film4 on April 26, 2009.

Legacy

During the 2016 presidential primaries, writer Etan Cohen[34] and others expressed opinions that the film's predictions were converging on accuracy,[35][36][37][38] a sentiment repeated by director Judge during the general election.[39] At the time, Judge also compared Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump—who later won and became President of the United States—to the film's wrestler-turned-president, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.[39] When asked about predicting the future, he remarked, "I'm no prophet, I was off by 490 years."[40]

Comparisons have been made between the film and Trump's presidency.[41][42][43] An article for Collider pointed out the ways in which Trump's positions echoed the political decisions of the characters in the film in areas such as science, business, entertainment, environment, healthcare, law enforcement, and politics.[44] Internet memes have spawned comparing Trump to the film.[45][46][47][48]

Salon writer Adam Johnson warned against using the film as a simplistic shorthand for the Trump administration, and accused the film of supporting eugenics, saying, "While the movie is savvy enough to avoid overt racism, it dives head first into gross classism."[2]

Then Joe Biden was elected president…

Spin-offs

In August 2012, Crews said he was in talks with director Judge and Fox over a possible Idiocracy spin-off featuring his President Camacho character, initially conceived as a web series.[49] A week before the 2012 elections, he reprised the character in a series of shorts for website Funny or Die. In June 2016, before the presidential election in November, Rolling Stone published an article stating that Judge and Cohen would produce Idiocracy themed campaign advertisements opposing Donald Trump's presidential campaign if given permission from Fox to do so.[50] In July 2016, Crews told Business Insider that the ads would not go forward as planned, but that they would have featured Camacho wrestling in a cage match against the various candidates.[51]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Idiocracy". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007. Retrieved February 2, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Johnson, Adam (March 6, 2016). "'Idiocracy's' curdled politics: The beloved dystopian comedy is really a celebration of eugenics". Salon.com. AlterNet. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  3. ^ Walker, Rob (May 4, 2008). "This Joke's for You". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on June 18, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2009.
  4. ^ @sararueforreal (April 30, 2015). "#TBT a picture from #Idiocracy "IT'S GOT ELECTROLYTES"" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ^ "Sara Rue as Jo on All for Love". Hallmark Channel. Archived from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
  6. ^ Tremblay, Ronald Michel (November 4, 2009). "Humankind's future: social and political Utopia or Idiocracy?". Atlantic Free Press. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
  7. ^ Grigg, William Norman (May 14, 2010). "Idiocracy Rising". Lew Rockwell. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2010.
  8. ^ Pierce, Thomas (January 11, 2007). "So What Idiot Kept This Movie Out of Theaters? (3rd item)". NPR. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
  9. ^ "Idiocracy at Austin Studios. Facilities usage". austinfilm.org. Austin Film Society. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  10. ^ a b c Garcia, Chris (August 30, 2006). "Was 'Idiocracy' treated idiotically?". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
  11. ^ "Texas Film Commission Filmography (2000-2007)". Office of the Governor. Archived from the original on August 22, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2010.
  12. ^ "Mike Judge's Idiocracy Tests! (etc.)". Eric Vespe quoting anonymous contributor. AintItCoolNews.com. August 22, 2005. Archived from the original on February 26, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
  13. ^ Franklin, Garth (February 28, 2005). "Mike Judge Still Not In '3001'". Dark Horizons. Archived from the original on February 5, 2008. Retrieved August 21, 2010.
  14. ^ Carroll, Larry (August 30, 2006). "MTV Movie File". MTV. Viacom. Archived from the original on August 14, 2006. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
  15. ^ a b c Pearson, Ryan (September 8, 2006). "The mystery of 'Idiocracy'". Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved November 25, 2006.
  16. ^ About Movie Box Office Tracking and Terms Archived August 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
  17. ^ Kernion, Jette (October 22, 2006). "Time for Mike Judge to go Indie". Cinematical. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012.
  18. ^ Patel, Nihar (September 8, 2006). "A Paucity of Publicity for 'Idiocracy'". Day to Day. NPR. Archived from the original on April 18, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018. Transcript.
  19. ^ a b Rabin, Nathan (September 6, 2006). "Idiocracy (review)". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Archived from the original on August 25, 2010. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
  20. ^ Vespe, Eric (September 2, 2006). "Open Letter to Fox re: IDIOCRACY!!!". Ain't It Cool News. Archived from the original on April 11, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  21. ^ a b Stein, Joel (September 10, 2006). "Dude, Where's My Film?". Time Magazine. Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  22. ^ Raftery, Brian (June 1, 2006). "Mike Judge Is Getting Screwed (Again)". Esquire. Archived from the original on April 26, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
  23. ^ Mitchell, Dan (September 9, 2006). "Shying away from Degeneracy". New York Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2006.
  24. ^ GQ (12 July 2018). Terry Crews Breaks Down His 10 Most Iconic Characters. GQ. Archived from the original on 25 November 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2018 – via YouTube.
    "Terry Crews Breaks Down His Favorite Iconic Characters". GQ. Condé Nast. December 7, 2018.
  25. ^ a b Staley, Willy (April 13, 2017). "Mike Judge, the Bard of Suck". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 13, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
  26. ^ "Idiocracy". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  27. ^ "Idiocracy". Metacritic. CBS. Archived from the original on June 16, 2010. Retrieved September 8, 2009.
  28. ^ Chocano, Carina (September 4, 2006). "Movie review : 'Idiocracy'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 11, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
  29. ^ Rich, Joshua (August 30, 2006). "Idiocracy (2006)". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 23, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
  30. ^ Patterson, John (September 8, 2006). "On film: Stupid Fox". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  31. ^ "Idiocracy". veja.com (in Portuguese). Brazil: VEJA. March 21, 2007. Archived from the original on July 23, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010. ... o filme passou voando pelos cinemas americanos e nem estreou nos brasileiros. Prova de que o futuro vislumbrado por Judge não está assim tão distante.
  32. ^ Koball, Alexandre (April 12, 2007). "Idiocracy (2006)". CinePlayers.com (in Portuguese). Brazil. Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
  33. ^ "Idiocracy (2006) - DVD / Home Video Rentals". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
  34. ^ "Idiocracy Writer Shocked How Well the Movie Predicted the Future". IFC. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  35. ^ "Is Donald Trump the Herald of 'Idiocracy'?". Collider. March 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  36. ^ "Idiocracy Writer Admits He May Have Predicted the Future". GOOD Magazine. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  37. ^ Berry, David (March 1, 2016). "The idiaccuracy of Idiocracy: When life imitates art for better or for the actual worst". National Post. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2016.
  38. ^ Lange, Ariane (June 3, 2016). ""Idiocracy" Writer Says Donald Trump Made The Movie A Reality Faster Than He Ever Imagined". BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 16, 2020. Idiocracy screenwriter Etan Cohen talks to BuzzFeed News about his 2006 movie "coming true" with the 2016 election and the anti-Trump ads he's working on with Camacho himself, Terry Crews.
  39. ^ a b Friedman, Megan (August 19, 2016). "Director Mike Judge Says It's 'Scary' How Idiocracy Has Come True". Esquire. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  40. ^ Stein, Joel (May 12, 2016). "We have become an Idiocracy". TIME. Archived from the original on November 27, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  41. ^ Wilstein, Matt (August 14, 2017). "Mike Judge: Trump Makes 'Idiocracy' Look 'Optimistic'". www.thedailybeast.com. Archived from the original on September 24, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  42. ^ Stanley, Tim (November 9, 2016). "Donald Trump for president: Idiocracy is coming true". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on June 14, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  43. ^ Moore, Jim (April 2, 2017). "Trump's Idiocracy: The New Paradigm Of Fools". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  44. ^ Trumbore, Dave (September 1, 2016). "Is Donald Trump the Herald of 'Idiocracy'?". Collider. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  45. ^ "Trump Idiocracy (@trump_idiocracy) - Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  46. ^ Raymond, Adam K. "Win or Lose, Trump Has Proven Idiocracy Painfully Prescient". New York. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  47. ^ "Who Said It: Presidential Hopeful Donald Trump or 'Idiocracy' President Camacho?". September 16, 2015. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  48. ^ Place, Nathan (July 22, 2016). "Watch: Trump's RNC Speech is a Lot Like the 'Idiocracy' State of the Union". Archived from the original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved June 13, 2018 – via www.thedailybeast.com.
  49. ^ Yamato, Jen (August 6, 2012). "Idiocracy Spin-Off In The Works? Terry Crews Talks". Movieline. Archived from the original on August 9, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  50. ^ Daniel Kreps (June 4, 2016). "'Idiocracy' Team Ready Anti-Donald Trump Campaign Ads". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 12, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  51. ^ Guerrasio, Jason (July 20, 2016). "Terry Crews says there won't be any 'Idiocracy'-themed ads attacking Donald Trump after all". Business Insider. BusinessInsider.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
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