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Andy Bichlbaum demonstrates the Survivaball costume the Yes Men say Halliburton is creating as a response to global warming.(SHADOW DISTRIBUTION)

Yes, We Can, Maybe

This time, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno assess their pranks themselves

Published: Friday, October 2, 2009 1:06 AM CDT
BY STEVE ERICKSON 
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The first film about the prankster/ activist Yes Men was directed by a group of filmmakers who were obviously sympathetic to their project, but weren’t active participants in it.

“The Yes Men Fix the World” is the second documentary devoted to the group’s antics, but the first directed by Yes Men duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, though a co-director is also credited. Onscreen, the film states that it’s “written, directed, and produced by the Yes Men.”

It attempts a self-critique but can’t help feeling somewhat self-serving. After one prank involving Dow Chemical’s responsibility for cleaning up Bhopal, India, some news reports claim that the Yes Men raised false hopes among Bhopal residents. The Yes Men travel there to find out whether this is the case. Not surprisingly, given who directed the film, the Indians they talk to have no problem with them and direct all their anger toward Dow. “The Yes Men Fix the World” rests on the fine, sometimes uncomfortable line between activism and self-promotional branding.

As “The Yes Men Fix the World” begins, Andy prepares to appear on BBC News as a spokesman for Dow. He declares that the company will liquidate the $12 billion-value of its Union Carbide subsidiary to pay for a real cleanup of the Bhopal chemical explosion. The prank is quickly revealed, but not before Dow’s stock value declines by $3 billion. The Yes Men impersonate Halliburton executives at another conference, demonstrating bouncing “Survivaballs,” purported to be sustainable living systems for weathering global warming. At an Exxon gathering, they propose making fuel from the bodies of victims of climate change. The pair fail to get the kind of reaction for which they hope — the objects of their pranks are either blasé or disgusted, but seem no more enlightened. They next turn to creating a spoof edition of the New York Times, offering all their hopes for a better future in print.

“The Yes Men Fix the World” takes on subjects addressed in other documentaries and books. Canadian writer Naomi Klein is first on their list of inspirations in the end credits; in turn, she has endorsed the film. Its depiction of government corruption and corporate opportunism in New Orleans bears out the contentions of her book “The Shock Doctrine,” which examines how disasters become profitable. At 87 minutes, “The Yes Men Fix the World” is necessarily less comprehensive than other critiques of modern capitalism such as the Canadian documentary “The Corporation” or Adam Curtis’ BBC programs. The film’s chief villains are free-market guru Milton Friedman, and, beyond him, unregulated capitalism.

“The Yes Men Fix the World” tackles complex economic issues, and due to its limited running time, can’t help dumbing them down. The Yes Men interviewed about a dozen conservative economists and edited their discussions down to a comic parade of soundbites. While they later use longer clips from some of these interviews, it’s hard to escape the thought that they’ve wasted an opportunity for real dialogue with people on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Cutting together a 30-second clip of economists mouthing identical platitudes about the free market is a cheap shot, even though it’s funny. If any of these subjects said something intelligent, it got left in the editing room.

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“The Yes Men Fix the World” is honest about the limits of the kind of activism the pranksters engage in. Their work recalls everyone from the Yippies to Sacha Baron Cohen, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, as well as the apolitical gross-out antics of the “Jackass” crew. (The Yes Men’s grotesquerie is more cerebral, as when they suggested McDonald’s offer cheaper hamburgers containing human feces.)

The film has two main tasks — giving the audience a laugh and making a political point. The Yes Men use humor to reflect a measure of optimism. In the end, they nurture utopian hopes, but they never lose sight of the difficulties at hand. “The Yes Men Fix the World” remains poised between a desire to change the world and a recognition that impersonating Exxon executives is unlikely to do it, even if it generates a few laughs. While it urges the audience to become activists, the film acknowledges that sweeping changes may only be achievable within the pages of a “dream paper” edition of “The New York Times.” It may reveal more about the difficulties of progressive activism than it intends.

THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD

Directed by Andy Bichlbaum,

Mike Bonanno & Kurt Engfehr

Shadow Distribution

Opens Oct. 7

Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St.

filmforum.org


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