Borat undermines itself

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2006 Editions - Dec. 9, 2006


 

Movie REVIEW

Borat

Directed by Larry Charles

Twentieth Century Fox, 2006

Actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” is problematic at best. Good intentions behind the film are overwhelmed by elitism and the very likely negative social consequences of the film’s popularity.

The filmmakers may have intended to point out a vile underbelly of racism, sexism, misogyny and ignorance in U.S. society. Unfortunately, “Borat” doesn’t shed light on the roots of these negative phenomena. Instead, it actually displays the sort of insensitivity and chauvinism Baron Cohen wanted to undermine.

Borat Sagdiyev, played by Baron Cohen, and his manager come to the U.S. in an effort to make a documentary on American life. Shortly after his arrival, Borat becomes obsessed with marrying actress Pamela Anderson. Borat interacts with “average” Americans: extreme Pentecostal Christians, those who wish that the Confederate states would have won, and college frat boys who talk about how useless “bitches” can be.

The film’s format is creative. It has much the same style as reality-based shows like MTV’s “Punk’d.” Real people are unknowingly filmed in bizarre situations. For example, Borat tells a Texas rodeo audience, over howls and cheers, that he wants to see George Bush “drink the blood” of the Iraqi people. Only the filmmakers know the scene is part of a comedy. Many don’t realize they are being filmed. Unlike “Punk’d” or “Jackass,” these semi-real scenes are not independent vignettes, but are incorporated into a fictional movie.

This innovation is also the problem. The filmmakers decided whom to film in order to get the reaction they wanted. Not everyone in an audience would applaud calling for the U.S. president to drink the blood of innocents. But due to tricky editing, Borat implies this as fact. The filmmakers went out of their way to find people who would be the vilest, the most anti-Semitic, racist and chauvinist, and left out anyone who challenged the “stupid American” stereotype.

Later, Borat is portrayed as depressed, and seeks solace in a Pentecostal church. As an atheist, I’m not fond of Pentecostal religious services. But the churchgoers go out of their way to help Borat, and even take a collection for him. The movie holds these people up to needless scorn.

Borat, since he is from such a presumably backwards and useless nation as Kazakhstan, is an extreme misogynist and anti-Semite. What else can you expect from a nation where, Borat suggests, men marry 4-year-olds? (Borat married one six years ago, and now he “thinks she’s ready,” he says.) Where else can one engage in fun-filled festivals such as the “running of the Jew”?

Note my sarcasm.

Kazakhstan’s government has generally taken the jokes in stride, but the people in the village in Romania where the supposed Kazakh scenes were shot were not so pleased. Unhappy that their poverty was being mocked by rich filmmakers — who told them they were going to be part of an anti-poverty documentary — they sued and won.

“Borat,” despite some admittedly hilarious scenes, is an elitist and chauvinistic film, imitating all the behaviors it seeks to mock — the jokes are just aimed at different groups. It echoes the stereotype of the northern liberal in the U.S. who acts condescendingly toward rural and Southern people.

And the anti-Semitism, misogyny and racism? Audiences will interpret the movie as they see fit, based on their pre-existing ideas. The U.S. is still a racist country, rife with sexism and anti-Semitism, and some people influenced by such divisive and inhuman concepts may not get Baron Cohen’s social satire.

How could talk of “the running of the Jew,” a discussion of how “minorities are treated better than the majority,” how “women have smaller minds,” or how retarded people should be kept in cages, not embolden the negative currents in existence in U.S. culture today? Putting these jokes in a major movie makes them more “acceptable.”

Don’t be surprised if you hear some “jokester” singing Borat’s song, “Throw the Jew down the well (so my country can be free).”

Shock, vulgarity: these things often add a great deal to humor. (See “The Aristocrats” if you don’t believe me.) Elitism and chauvinism add nothing aside from social harm.

dmargolis @ pww.org