Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

By Mal -
8 out of 10
I reckon there’ll be 2 schools of thought on the Borat movie: those who found it a funny combination of satire and general tomfoolery; and those who found it distastefully anti-American. The latter camp, I’ll call the Mark Kermode position.

Yes, a lot of it is puerile and a lot of it is poking fun at Americans. Sometimes, the fun is poked at people who’ve apparently done nothing to deserve it. The fact that these people are American, however, is mostly incidental. As I see it, Sacha Baron Cohen simply needed 2 things for this film: ‘victims’ who were unaware of the character; and a large target audience. Both of these things were to be found in the States. Racism, ignorance and misogyny, however, can be found worldwide.

Anyway, yes, I found it funny. I laughed so hard at times, it hurt. Just as Chris Morris had seriously large balls to mess with drug dealers on the streets of London in Brass Eye, Baron Cohen appears brave to approach youths hanging out on the street at night. Not nearly in the same league as Morris — Borat had a camera man with him, whereas Brass Eye’s scene was shot with a camera out of sight — but still fairly ballsy.

Overall, if you’re going to see it, you’ve probably already decided you’ll like it. If not, keep an open mind, don’t take it too seriously and give it a try. You never know, you might enjoy yourself.

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