This is a copy-and-paste from a previous blog of mine (hence the post date), but I rather like it and think it makes some still relevant points. Therefore, here it is, along with some editing!
Saturday night I went, accompanied by a certain someone (who for my own sake will remain unnamed) to see Borat. I loved it, while my "certain someone" was less than amused. This certain someone was greatly offended by the movie, and in this person's words, was 'disappointed in me for stooping to the ignorant levels of the movie and actually laughing'. Why not? I can certainly see this person's point. I mean, it's full of wild racism, leering sexism, all-around grotesque intolerance. Or is it?
The movie introduces us to a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic crazy Kazakh, but what a lot of people failed to realize is that that Kazakh is us. Borat is more than an offensive spoof on middle-eastern culture - it is a brilliantly unapologetic commentary on all thing Americana. Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of this character on a TV show he regularly spears on, is a Cambridge-educated writer who wrote his thesis on Jewish involvement in the American civil rights movement. He's no intellectual pushover. This film, and in essence the show that spawned it, is his vehicle for commenting and exposing intolerance, even if crudeness is his secret weapon. There is no question that Borat is spectacularly lowbrow— but the film stoops to conquer, blowing the lid off people's secret prejudices and hidden resentments and airing out the rancid stupidity that breeds them. Cohen makes a farce out of things we're not supposed to joke about, cutting ugly hatred off at the knees and robbing it of its power by offering it up for ridicule. As this reckless innocent abroad travels to a gun store, a rodeo, a Pentecostal church service, the "Magnolia Mansion Dining Society" in Birmingham, Ala., and even a Pamela Anderson book-signing in California, something incredible happens, something that reveals the audaciousness and really, the genius of this film: Borat becomes less shocking than the real-life folks he encounters. Is it crude? Yes. It is over-the-top? Yes. But its piss-in-your-pants funny and incredibly provocative, and that's the point people are missing.
Case-in-point. I recently got into one of my famous political scuffles with several members of my family. I'll spare you the mundane details, but the long-and-short of it is that I happened to mentioned the fact that the democrats now had control of the house and senate and, well, to put it lightly, fireworks ensued. Somehow the conversation progressed to my grandmother claimed that Muslims had already killed "100,000 Americanos innocentes" and they would now have the opportunity to killed many more because of…blah blah blah. Of course, I retorted with the tried-and-true Bush-bashing. The battle ensued for no more than few minutes and ended on generally friendly terms. However, upon laughing hysterically at Borat's antics, I was accused of being a hypocrite. How could I stand up to my grandmother's ignorance so furiously and yet laugh at a movie which stoops to such "ignorant" levels? Well, there are several answers to this question.
The first answer is plain-and-simple: seriousness. When my grandmother speaks of the hundreds of thousands of people killed in 9/11, something which is blatantly nonfactual, she is being absolutely and concretely serious. When she chooses to ignore the obvious fact that Saddam Hussein had no connections with 9/11 and that there are reasons for the current invasion of Iraq that have yet to be discussed by the U.S. Government, she is being unmistakably unyielding. When Borat tells me that his Kazakh town is populated by a man designated as the 'town rapist' and that his sister is the 'fourth-best prostitute in all of Kazakhstan,' common sense tells me that Borat, who is fictitious character to begin with, is kidding. The prospect of these things, which the movie succeeds greatly on expounding, is drop-dead hilarious. The movie never attempts to be anything but a comedy, even in its most 'dramatic' moments. It doesn't take itself seriously, and establishes that mood even from its very first frames. That allows movie geeks like me to forgive the movie for its lack of cinematic prowess and just sit back and laugh. It's a well-made comedic satire and it is nearly flawless in its execution. Period. If you decide to view this movie any more seriously than it views itself, then you're missing the whole damn point.
Countless people are offended and shocked, I say LIGHTEN THE HELL UP! The government of Kazakhstan is very unhappy with this film and hired two Western public relations firms to counter Borat's claims, running a four-page advertisement in The New York Times. Sorry, but the musings of a British comedian on the big-screen is not going to convince me that Kazakhstan is actually anything like what it is depicted in movie. In fact, it won't convince anyone with half a brain. "The male nudity is so offensive! It's like watching porn!" First off, its not porn. It's a freakin' hilarious naked fight scene between an extremely obese man and his skinny counterpart which leads them to run naked through hotel elevators and a business conference. Granted, the scene is hilariously grotesque, but hey, its all for the sake of an awkward, uncomfortable comedic moment and its works brilliantly. After all, its you who watches this scene and thinks: Oh my god, its gay porn! "This movie is so anti-Semitic and racist!" The genius behind Cohen's humor is how he's able to make people believe with a simple accent and a few grammatical antics that he comes from a world so "primitve" that he doesn't even know how to use a toilet. In fact, it can be argued that Cohen specifically targets racists, anti-Semites, and homophobes and exposes them not only through the interactions with the people his character meets in film, but also by using the character himself. Although he had the police called on him 91 times during the making of the film, he was never once exposed as being a fraud or as putting on some kind of act. Hell, people are even suing him because they had no idea they were even in a movie. Apparently, its very easy to confuse someone with a middle eastern accent in this country as either "primitive" (i.e, Magnolia Mansion Dining Society) or as a terrorist (i.e the leader of the Rodeo who actually tells him to shave his mustache to look like an I-talian.) Hm, who's the racist now? Don't you see? The joke is ultimately not about Borat, but about us. That is the ultimate point the movie is making.
The brilliance of Borat is that its comedy is as pitiless as its social satire, and as brainy. Yes, that's right, brainy. So please, try not to take Borat's seemingly offensive antics to heart. Just go to the theater, accept that it's just satire, and laugh. After all, it's pretty damn funny.
High Five!
