Dir.
Larry Charles, UK/US, 82 mins
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Divitian, Pamela Anderson
Review by Miles Paulley
Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest character
to have a film adapted from his television series is the
delightfully joyous and unknowing Borat; a journalist sent
from his home nation of Kazakhstan to the U S of A to find
out more about the Western culture. The film itself is clearly
from the perspective of the Western world looking in on the
less advanced nations of the middle east; by which I mean
it plays to the Western worlds perceptions and stereotypes
of the Middle Eastern culture and lifestyle. Cohen somewhat
demeans the image of Kazakhstan by ridiculing and focussing
on these perceptions. He uses quirky contradictions which
generate laughter but may not put a glowing light upon the
Nation of Kazakhstan. This is an indication to why the Kazakhstan
Government weren’t too pleased with this film.
However, having said this, Cohen has
used his comic talents to turn the tables onto the Western
audience. He allows us to objectively look at our own prejudices.
Watching Borat miss-interpret Americans’ information, to then see
them try to explain their values to him is amusing in its
own way. This is certainly when Cohen is at his best and
most humorous. Through his uncontemporary façade Borat
interacts with the American people in a completely original
way, allowing the audience to see the Americans patronise
Borat and unknowingly highlight their own prejudices. A cowboy
is shown telling Borat he should cut off his moustache and
not to look like Muslims “..people will wonder what
bomb you have..” , following this a polite group of
Americans talk to Borat around a table telling him about
etiquette. Borat pushes their politeness to see how they
react (he brings down his deposits from the toilet), but
finds he has gone too far when he introduces them to his ‘friend’,
a poor black prostitute. They then refuse her presence and
chuck them out of the house.
Aside from the prejudice undertones,
Borat is a very quirky and entertaining piece of film.
At times it is hard to comprehend whether it is a documentary
or a fictional film. Here, all credit should be given to
Cohen for believable acting and to Charles for his clever
filming approach. The films ‘liveness’,
associated with documentaries, helps create a feeling that
anything can happen at any moment, therefore, waiting for
responses to Borat become even more engaging. This spontaneous
element to Cohen’s work aids comic value and helps
to keep the gags and jokes flowing at a steady pace. A particular
favourite being Borat approaching a car salesman asking “I
to attract a woman with shave down below, what car do I buy?”,
the salesman replies “That would be a Corvette.” These
insights lighten the tone of the film and pull us away from
the cultural prejudices previously mentioned.
In fact, the narrative of the film
is particularly weak, but this doesn’t seem to hinder any enjoyment of the
film. Borat simply has the pretence of going to America to
understand them, once there, he falls in madly in love with
Pamela Andersons’ Baywatch character C.J. and vows
his mission is to get to LA to find her. The story then follows
Borat and his sidekick Azamat as they travel across the country
in an oddly quirky and very small van. Together the pair
establish a comic likeness to that of Laurel and Hardy, which
is at times over cooked, but mostly effective in keeping
the audience giggling. This film, however, is the first in
a long time that has forced me to wince away from the screen.
So watch out for the scene where Borat and Azamat have a
naked fight in a hotel, it’s truly cringeworthy.
This leads to the style of the film, which could be labelled
as a docu-comedy, as it mostly resembles a television documentary
in its techniques, to then smoothly transform into film sequences.
It is hard, therefore, to pinpoint which of the scenes are
organised and acted out, and which ones Cohen ad-libs his
way through. Nevertheless, all scenes grab your attention
and fit well together.
Although Borat is perhaps the most
politically incorrect film of the year, its post 911 impetus
is certainly an original way of allowing the audience to
subjectively look at ourselves and our culture. But let's
not get too deep, after all, it’s
only a bit of fun, that’s if you weren’t deeply
offended by it.
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