By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
October 6, 2004
If you were sitting at a symposium and a well-spoken expert in a suit talked about the benefits of enslaving the poorest sectors of society, would you challenge the speaker’s theories, walk out enraged or clap politely?
In the documentary “The Yes Men,” the well-heeled Finnish crowd — under the impression that Hank Hardy Unruh was a spokesman for the World Trade Organization — clapped. In reality, he is a character created by the Yes Men who is trotted out to speak on college campuses and appear as a political expert on the news.
“The Yes Men,” now playing at local theaters, is an engrossing look at a team of political activist pranksters who go to extreme measures to try to change society’s perception of what is acceptable — and what shouldn’t be. Until now, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno worked in relative anonymity, going undercover as the WTO rep and his assistant, respectively.
“We never really thought the Yes Men would make a movie,” Bonanno said during a recent trip to Chicago. “When we started, it was just something really small we did to kind of bring an awareness about our political climate. We started with a small Web site that mimicked the WTO’s Web site and were really surprised when legitimate news organizations were asking us to participate in their debates and panels. That’s when Hank Hardy Unruh was born.”
Bichlbaum, who portrays Unruh, says neither of them has any business training. But his acting background helped him be at ease in front of large groups of people.
“I did ‘Hamlet’ when I was in college and have a little bit of theater experience,” Bichlbaum said. “I actually won an award for my performance. … It was a very different experience than the Yes Men.”
Bonanno shook his head to indicate his friend is lying. Big time.
It’s Bichlbaum’s knack for, well, lying so well that enraged a group of college students when he appeared on campus and suggested that poor people in Third World countries could be fed by reprocessing human waste. Oddly enough, the filmgoer gets the feeling that had he said the same thing at a symposium attended by professionals, they would’ve clapped politely.
“We were really surprised that there wasn’t more reaction to some of the things we said and did,” Bonanno said. “It was almost like everyone was waiting for a reaction from someone else, and when there wasn’t any, they didn’t want to be the first one to say anything.”
Though the film takes an anti-Bush slant, the Yes Men insist that should Kerry become president, they’ll turn their attention to him.
“You’ve got to keep an eye on all of them,” Bonanno said. “It’s our own series of checks and balances.”
