Idiocracy

Dir: Mike Judge

2006

*****

Mike Judge's Idiocracy was a dystopian satire when released in 2006 that has somehow become a documentary. Judge's fast-forwarding time-travel comedy sees a future America in which advertising and commercialism rule, anti-intellectualism is celebrated and ideas of intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, justice, human rights and just basic thought-process and self-analysis have all but disappeared. The president of the United States of America is an ex-wrestler (Donald Trump is in the WWE hall of fame by the way), everything has been commercialized, people are named after corporate products and are treated as commodity and a well-known coffee shop chain is also a strip club. Environmental issues, history, welfare...all things important and sensible have escaped the human consciousness. It was funny in 2006 but less funny all these years later. Mike Judge got it wrong though of course, it's an absurd idea, this isn't a reflection of society 500 years in the future, it is a reflection of society only a decade later, what an idiot! I think the most telling thing about the film though is our protagonist. Corporal Joe Bauers finds himself 500 years in the future after being selected to take part in experiments in suspended animation. Bauers is average, not stupid but not particularly bright either. When the project is forgotten, he finds himself 500 years in the future and becomes powerful quite quickly due to his high (but average) IQ. The film doesn't really blame anyone for the state of the world as such, it's clear that greedy soulless corporations have taken over but the point is that the average Joe has let it happen. Joe let himself become forgotten and that has had a knock-on effect. It may seem like a ridiculous film but history has repeated itself in the very same way time and time again. So what is the conclusion? Well, there is none, we're all screwed and there is no getting around it. This works quite well in a satire but when everything in the film is suddenly becoming more and more a reality, it's not something I want to believe. It's a great film, one of the best satires since The Great Dictator but it should be noted that Charlie Chaplin actually regretted his film once he found out just what Hitler was capable of and what he had done. In Idiocracy it is about stupid winning, in the real world it is a split between stupid/ignorance/evil but if we tackle stupid first, the rest should be a doddle. This once great satire should now be watched as a powerful warning from the past.