If my fellow Americans made themselves look a little foolish in this film, it was mostly on the side of being way too patient with the visitor.
Now 24 hours past seeing Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on opening day, I'm sure that I'm going to write a glowing review of this movie. It is an outstanding and fascinating piece of art which is very funny, and works really well on several levels. Oh, it's gonna be a heck of a review.…
Article comments
76 - Al Barger
Maahtha- Thank you for taking the time to write. Those are just the kind of thoughtful comments that we like, and we wouldn't dream of deleting them.
Most of these Americans - especially the Southerners - were entirely nice and said little if anything of any kind of a bigoted nature. And pretty much all of the few negative comments weren't serious. A couple of drunk frat boys bitching about women or about minorities getting the breaks is really just nothing at all.
77 - Maahtha
Thanks! One more long-wind (promise) to concur that Cohen certainly intends to "teach" people about their evils and not necessarily make them laugh.....
Cohen: "I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic."
This is in reference to those Texans in that bar singing "....throw the Jew down the well...." in which he accuses them of the same indifference that caused the Holocaust. WOW! Not to mention that he had been doing comedy on the stage for over an hour and everyone knew he was a comedian and many things were thrown down the well before Jews and the owner was Jewish and singing along. Is Cohen saying that if you are not Jewish but laugh at the 'running of the Jews' that you are indifferent to the mass murder of Jews? Conveniently, whether you get the joke, play along, you are 'apathetic,' or, if you don't get the joke, you are just a humorless idiot. So you basically have to be either Jewish or Sacha Baron Cohen himself to justifiably enjoy Borat.
Cohen: "...The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist....[where] the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old."
This is what people refer to when the obvious point is made about the actual lack of bigotry in the movie....the condescension and ignorance. But everyone of these things do exist in the world, women in cages (some tribe in Africa locks a woman in a cage and feeds her for weeks until she is plump enough to be desirable to the king....or you could just say women are in cages everywhere and they are called prostitues.)The drinking of urine happens on pretty much every continent and Gypsies from the same general area of that village in the film had discovered cow urine could be used as medicine, fermented urine is also used in some places. Also, the idea that girls even younger than 9 are NOT being forced to marry is...well, I wouldn't know where to even start with that one.
"I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews," Baron Cohen says.
Considering neither of these prejudices occurred in the film, it makes me wonder exactly WHAT he is trying to accomplish here. Again, if you laugh you are wrong, if you don't, well, you are still wrong.
I have nothing more to say about Borat, except what if those were Israeli flags in that antique store? A flag that MANY millions of people consider a symbol of genocide against the Palestinians? I don't think that but I am sure that things would not be going as smoothly for Cohen. That guy's wife looked so pitiful while he was being a real demon destroying that stuff. Besides, he destroyed items that, if they sold, would furnish some of the taxes that keeps his vacation spot in Israel secure.
Thanks again, no more essays.
78 - Al Barger
Maahtha-
I think you're being a bit hard on Cohen. I'm mostly taking the movie on its own, judging the art strictly by what's on the screen. In the moviefilm itself, he doesn't particularly overly seem to be judging folks. Here's how people reacted to Borat, and make of it what you will.
I haven't read that many interviews with Borat/Cohen. It makes more sense to judge the art mostly by itself. I might tend to suspect that the liberal Cohen might have been thinking that he was indicting people. But what possible reaction could any of these people have had to Borat that would NOT prove that they were racist homophobes?
In short, I'm content to enjoy the moviefilm and make my judgments of the participants without worrying too much about what I might think Cohen intended.
"Throw the Jew Down the Well" is a big favorite here on the farm. I've trained my Boo Kitty to sing along, ie meow on cue - at least when she's wanting fed. Just hearing the audio of the song, it's 100% clear that the audience is in on the joke. So what's the complaint? Going along with the comedian makes them racist? Does this apply to all us fans of Eric Cartman as well?
And you keep writting them long-winded explanations.
79 - Maahtha
In my first post I was attempting to make the point about the MANY responses to this film that I was hearing that could have cared less if something actually did happen in the movie but they were going to say that it did, why? That is what I pondered.
I suppose it's so much of the "we" should feel this about Borat and what Borat exposed about "us" that gave me the creeps. I have been hearing more and more of this in the past years...It makes me wish people would go back to being indifferent about things like they were about Kosovo and every other catastrophe in the 90's and only spoke of OJ and Lewinsky. All this so called 'social awareness' has just added to the chaos. People refer to the US as a single human entity far too much for me to be comfortable and it really bloomed with the response to this film.
So I guess I was hoping the creator of this film was just laughing and saying, "Naaah, it's just a dumb funny movie," but it was the opposite, he too was making things up that didn't happen and claiming at the same time to be teaching people about "themselves." Even the interviewer was like, "huh?"
I am not sure if I am misunderstanding your comment: "So what's the complaint? Going along with the comedian makes them racist?" but my point was that COHEN SAID that by those people singing along that they were practicing the same "apathy" that Germans did when the Holocaust ensued. I found the indictment bizarre and realized that there was nothing that audience could have done that would have made Cohen see them as anything but ignorant, just like so many of the responders to the film.
I won't go on about Cohen anymore because it is not that he is SO significant but I suppose I am forlorn about so many artists going the missionary and social issues route instead of blowing my mind with their music, art, and comedy. Bring back self-absorbed art! T. Amos and Bjork sing about Bush now and Chappelle cares about what offends the "Black Community" and Borat is just a symbol of what is "ugly in us." Jeeeez I am so dramatic eh? Well, damnit I am!
80 - Al Barger
Yeah, I understand how you can get frustrated with left wingers of various countries and stripes looking for every form of how to denigrate Americans (or at least white male conservative Americans) as the source of most of the world's evils.
But screw 'em. Idiots can think whatever they want. That nonsense mostly really only becomes significant when the pale penis Americans accept such foolishness and grant it the sanction of the victim. Such nonsense mostly only effects you if you choose to let it.
Cohen might wish to indict the audience going along with his performance of "Throw the Jew Down the Well," but that's just 100% dumb and the charges won't stick.
All in all, I'm happy to present what the Americans did in the moviefilm and let the world say what they will about US based on that. We looked pretty good.
81 - Jonny the Monkey
Jagshemash!
My name a Jonny the Monkey, Kazakh animal actor and number one most famous celebrity in all of Kazakhstan. Good friend Borat still only number four most famous in my country, even after great success moviefilm.
I writes to say if you enjoy Borat movie, then should go buy hims touristic guidings book too. It have many informations for travel to glorious Kazakhstan and also minor nation of US and A.
Plus if you turn to page 49, can see movieposter for mine blockbluster pornofilm 'King Khram'...
But be WARN - poster picture show mine phenis in all of its glory whole.
And why not? It is niice!
Chenquieh.
NOTE: This comment was 'hand signed' by Jonny the Monkey to his gypsy assistant Batyr, who then translated and posted those words here.