Fresh and gross
SHALEENA KORUTH
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You'll laugh at Borat's antics. After you've recovered from the shock.
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Photo: AFP
Very funny: Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat.
SACHA BARON COHEN'S film with documentary clips, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is the freshest and grossest tongue-wag at the underside of American culture to hit the theatres to date. We know that underside because it is one shared by people everywhere, not just Americans: the unshaven, unwashed, unfit-for-airtime side of culture that wears prejudice and hypocrisy as unapologetically as it upholds etiquette and good behaviour. Borat is the monkey that slips into this playing field of American social norms and attitudes, wreaking chaos with his tall, gangling antics and a moronic naiveté that disarms even the most cynical of his "victims". Posing as a Kazakh journalist, Borat questions a gun seller about the best gun to kill a Jew with and disgruntles members of the Veteran Feminists of America by insisting that women have smaller brains than men. Because he is from Kazakhstan, totally unschooled in Western civilisation, he wins the sympathy and interest of almost all his American interviewees — until they can finally stand him no more — with no irony on their part and a lot on his. Borat wrecks their party, and sees if someone (interviewees included) will laugh. If you don't laugh, no matter, for, he's had his fun.
Unique brand of madness
But the fact is, you will laugh helplessly at Borat's unique brand of madness — whether it's a lesson on etiquette with an unsuspecting "manners" coach or a drive down a busy freeway with a roaring black bear (bought for personal protection in gun-toting America) in the back of his ice-cream truck. Setting out from a village in Kazakhstan to learn the U.S.'s culture for make benefit his country, Borat the reporter takes his charge seriously, to the point of touting every disgusting detail. You could laugh at a guy who proudly introduces a woman as his sister, the No.4 prostitute in Kazakhstan, but what if he preceded the introduction with a lascivious smooch? Most of us are for a moment too shocked to laugh. Does this guy take nothing seriously? That is the reaction of an entire crowd at a Texas rodeo as they stand, palms on their chests, awaiting Borat's rendition of the American national anthem, which he twists and mocks to the point that you wonder (while rolling in your seat) if he will even escape alive. Not to mention the moment when he respectfully asks his hostess at a Southern mansion where to deposit his little plastic bag containing... never mind, see the movie. The genius of the Borat character is that he holds nothing sacrosanct; political correctness came after him. Average people drop their defences in the face of his bumbling barbaric attitude and let loose their own hang-ups and prejudices.
Borat is played by Sacha Baron Cohen, a Cambridge educated Jewish Briton whose other most popular role, Ali G. — a black British rapper who interviews intellectuals for laughs — made him a TV celebrity in Great Britain in 2000. Like his earlier character Ali G., Borat dismantles taboos by confronting them and lampoons prejudice by playing along.
Since the movie was released, individuals portrayed in the film (starting with the Kazakhstan government) have expressed outrage at having been "suckered" by Cohen. A couple of teenage college students who rallied for the return of slavery during a drinking binge with Cohen are suing him and Twentieth Century Fox for taking their statements out of their (drunken) context. Most of his interviewees regret not reading the fine print of their consent forms thoroughly, and accuse Cohen of misrepresenting his film as affiliated with a company from Belarus.
Big hit
The truth is, all of these people were caught at the wrong time and on the wrong side of the camera. Their cries come a day too late because their fellow Americans are enjoying a good laugh at their expense. "Borat", the epitome of everything non-Hollywood has racked up Hollywood style profits. At 29 million in the first two weeks, Borat topped the box office and continues to pack theatres. The success of the film was propelled by Cohen's popularity on the Internet. His video clips on YouTube made him an icon and fuelled the rush to see the movie. The clips, many of which are deleted scenes, are as demented and original as the ones in the movie; not only do they provide samplings of Cohen's brand of hilarious journalism, but are proof of his success. Most of all though, they offer a side of America we rarely see and often pretend not to.
Borat's abominable attitudes, beginning with his demented anti-Semitism, are fronts. Cohen speaks Hebrew and has spent time in Israel embracing his Jewish heritage. He gets away with the anti-Semitism because he is Jewish himself, but successfully exposes anti-Semitic attitudes in present-day America.
Borat's journey
In the film, Borat and his producer begin in New York and head toward California with the intent of Borat securing the hand of Pamela Anderson, the well-endowed model of "Baywatch" fame. The film describes their journey. Apart from being anti-semitic, bigoted, anti-feminist and completely uncivilised, he is also cluelessly and truly brave. From its beginning in a Kazakh village to its ridiculous ending in California with Pam Anderson, the film lifts you up by the feet and dangles you over your comfort zones. Since most of us are unable to think clearly hanging upside down, we laugh at "Borat". Then we go home and think about it. No filmmaker could ask for a greater success, except Borat. He'd prefer a one-on-one with Pamela Anderson.
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