Year One is a side-splitting take on ancient and modern religions that wonders if humanity really needs a messiah.
Legendary comedy director Harod Ramis (Stripes, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Animal House) takes cinema-goers to the dawn of time where a tribe of Cro-Magnon hunters and gatherers eke out their existence in the forests of a primal world. Among their fur-clad number is the lazy hunter Zed, played to perfection by Jack Black. Zed is as convinced of his greatness as he is unaware of his ineptitude, managing to wreak destruction in an off-handed way at almost every turn. Black's overwhelming and unmerited confidence is similar to his performance as music teacher impersonator Dewey Finn in School of Rock, and just as funny. He is perfectly partnered by Superbad star Michael Cera as the gatherer Oh, a stone-age parody of the geeky teenager.
Year One's religious content starts early with the reject duo, Zed and Oh, arguing in front of the 'Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil'. Oh warns him that tradition forbids him eating its fruit, but Zed cannot see how continually restraining themselves is going to help them discover the meaning to their existence:
"We've been doing what we've been told our entire lives - and how has that worked out for us?”
Zed eats the fruit and survives unrebuked by the heavens. Instead he becomes convinced that God has chosen him to lead people (or at least Oh) to a deeper understanding of the meaning of life. What follows is a series of adventures that intertwines Zed and Oh's lives with other key Biblical stories, including Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac and the judgment of Sodom & Gomorrah. And God remains as absent as he was during the eating of the forbidden fruit.
The representatives of traditional religion fare as badly as you would expect at the hands of a film dedicated to the triumph of the individual. Strangely the jokes do a good job of bringing out just how weird patriarchs like Abraham must have looked to the pagan worshipers of their time. Abraham invites Zed and Oh home for dinner, then suggests that they join his family as they cut off their foreskins to demonstrate their devotion to the one true God. Black leaves the audience rolling with his verbal backing out - "I know this fore-skin idea sounds like a good idea now." - but rather than mockery, it comes across like a fair response given that God is absent and Abraham looks every inch of a religious nutter. In fact Zed's village shaman appears just as bound to tradition, and Sodom's high priest is clearly deceiving the people for personal gain. Organised religion comes off as a hand-break on any serious attempt to understand the meaning of life.
Now this is a criticism that Christians would do well to take notice of. Too often the faith of the Bible has been interpreted as a series of unreasonable rules to live by for the very reason that its adherents have failed to give any reasonable explanation for its validity. In fact, it is little wonder that comedians like Jack Black can get so many laughs from Christianity's idiosyncrasies because Christians themselves have often been guilty of reducing their faith to a sometimes contradictory set of do's and don'ts.
Year One will lead audiences to cheer for the man who pursues his meaning for life outside of 'the gods' and 'tradition', however ineptly Zed does it, because he is clearly sincere and reasonable in his desire to find a better world - more so than the religious people he is pitted against. A princess concludes that this primitive is, "A man chosen to question the will of the gods" and loves him for it. And though Zed spends most of the film proudly bearing the title of 'chosen', he eventually comes to the conclusion that one of humanity's greatest problems is its propensity to elevate individuals to the level of 'messiah'. "You don't need a Chosen One!" he tells a crowd intent on making him their leader. "Maybe we can make our own destiny - maybe we can all be Chosen!" Rapturous cheers and applause follow - from the citizens of Sodom.
It's encouraging though that for a film so wickedly funny in its criticism of religion, Year One remains respectful of the individual's desire to connect with God. In the most solemn moment of the film both Zed and Oh genuinely reach out to the Creator, asking him to intervene in situations they are clearly powerless to control. Even Oh, a proto-atheist, asks,
"God, if you exist . I would really appreciate it if you would make Eema love me . if you exist."
It is an honest appeal, without a hint of humour, from characters who realise they need more than themselves if they are going to make it through this life. It's no wonder that the film's writers turn their eyes heavenward, even in the midst of so much religious lunacy, when you consider that even amongst Australian film watchers 74% still believe in the existence of God. Religious affiliation may be on the decline but the Almighty continues to find his way into the modern heart.
