Kazakh Zingers
With Gale-Force Hilarity, 'Borat' Mockumentary Takes America by Storm
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006; C01
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" arrives with the following disclaimer: "No reputations, public images or feelings were harmed in the filming of this production."
Not!
Welcome to the by turns corny and lethal humor of Borat Sagdiyev, the fictional Kazakh journalist who, since making his debut on Sacha Baron Cohen's HBO program, "Da Ali G Show," has made a rude specialty of barging into American subcultures and alternately offending or making buffoons of his hosts (mangling the English language all the way). Who can forget the time he led the patrons of a country-western bar in a rousing rendition of "Throw the Jew Down the Well"?
In addition to the hopelessly un-cool "Not!," "Jew" is a favorite Borat punch line, but Gypsies and Uzbeks aren't much luckier, as he haplessly makes a hash of American notions of patriotism, pluralism and political correctness. In the comedic tradition of Larry David, "Punk'd," "South Park," the late Andy Kaufman and Stephen Colbert, Borat pushes humor to its most discomfiting edges, eliciting howls and winces in equal measure. The result is a perfect combination of slapstick and satire, a Platonic ideal of high- and lowbrow that manages to appeal to our basest common denominators while brilliantly skewering racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and that peculiarly American affliction: we're-number-one-ism.
In "Cultural Learnings," Borat, played with seamless disingenuousness by Cohen himself, has come to America to make a feature-length documentary for the people of his home country (played by Romania). He embarks on his journey with a producer named Azamat (Ken Davitian), making a triumphant exit from his village in a tiny car drawn by a horse.
The team's tour of America begins in New York -- where Borat mistakes a hotel elevator for his room and later meets with a group of feminists ("Give me a smile, baby, why angry face?"). But soon Borat and Azamat are on their way to California ("Pearl Harbor is there," Borat explains. "So is Texas"), which entails a trip through the American South that resembles nothing less than Sherman's march as conceived by the writers and editors of the ironic newsweekly the Onion. (Cohen's American team shares a suitably snarky-burlesque pedigree: Director Larry Charles worked with Larry David on "Seinfeld," and producer Jay Roach directed the "Austin Powers" and "Meet the Parents" franchises.)
As Borat cuts his wide and occasionally vicious swath, no petard goes unhoisted, a spectacle that delivers squeals, howls or at least low-level chuckles nearly all the way through. (It's never clear just who's in on the joke, raising the same squirmy feelings one sometimes gets watching the fake interviews on "The Daily Show.") Unlike some television shows-turned-features, "Cultural Learnings" works as a film, with its final payoff every bit as outrageous and funny as its setup.
In Virginia, Borat earns cheers from a rodeo audience when he announces that Kazakhstan supports America's "war of terror." The applause is just as loud when he adds, "May George Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq!"
The carnage continues: Borat brings an African American prostitute to a dinner party on Secession Road in Birmingham; breaks hundreds of dollars worth of antiques at a shop in Dallas; and sends kids screaming away from the ice cream truck he's driving when a live bear roars out from the service window (presumably the bear wasn't harmed in the filming of the production).
While Borat barnstorms his way through the American heartland -- and, more to the point, its most cherished myths and assumptions -- his satiric rapier slips only rarely (the woman who helps him operate a toilet in Birmingham seems genuinely sweet). But for the most part, we're not laughing with but at Borat. When he does let his subjects hang themselves, they more than deserve the noose, such as a group of racist frat boys he gets drunk with in a camper and, earlier, a rodeo manager who, when Borat tells him that in Kazakhstan gays are jailed and hanged, cries, "That's what we're trying to get done here!" (Proving that he's nothing if not ecumenical in his choice of targets, Borat eventually visits a Pentecostal church, where he pretends to be saved and begins to speak in tongues.)
Lest newcomers think that "Cultural Learnings" is all subtle political swipes, the most hilarious moments are the broadest: Borat's filthy malapropisms, his obsession with prostitutes and bodily functions, and the film's centerpiece, an agonizingly long naked fight scene between Borat and Azamat that makes a sumo wrestling match look like Anna Pavlova performing "Swan Lake." Filmed up close and personal to reveal every hairy inch of the two men, the scene pays coarse and finally rapturous homage to the courage of doing comedy without a net. When the two men -- still nude, and one of them now brandishing a sex toy -- invade what looks like a real-life mortgage brokers' conference, the sequence levitates from being a mere stunt to a vehicle of sheer catharsis.
Why two naked men cavorting in a ballroom full of people should be so transcendent is a mystery for the ages. Suffice it to say that Cohen -- who wrote his Cambridge dissertation on the historic relationship between blacks and Jews in America -- is one of the few artists smart, gifted and brave enough to continually raise the physical and political stakes and clear them. And, as an outsider looking in at the most perverse, hypocritical and weirdly lovable contradictions of the country he calls "the U, S and A," he seems uniquely qualified to remind us that, when they're not completely appalling, American foibles are really pretty funny.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (89 minutes, at area theaters) is rated R for pervasive, crude and sexual content, including graphic nudity, and profanity.
[分享]WashPost movie review: Borat
[分享]WashPost movie review: Borat
I saw Borat yesterday. Too much effort -- had to be there almost half an hour ahead of time and stood in line to get in.
I was actually slightly disappointed. It was outrageous, but were all the jokes good enough that I, as an audience, was willing to put up with the level of offensiveness? Kind of, I did not walk out did I... But was all the offensiveness necessary to pull off the smart jokes? I would not say so.
The naked hairy ugly men fight was probably most offensive scene in the movie, but it looked like fart joke to me. Maybe there was some kind of culture reference I did not get.
Some jokes are great! The Rodeo toast is among the best, of cause, because it started so innocent and took unexpected turns.
My favorite part was after the naked fight, (yes, right after the worst part came the best), Borat met the frat boys and they revealed to him that his dream lover "Pamera" was not as pure and innocent as he had thought. His dream shattered, he was broke and desperate, but then in a gospel meeting he regained hope and love... It was hilarious, but also, the audience really felt for him as a person. For that 10 minutes, I forgave all the stupid fart jokes in the rest of the movie.
I was actually slightly disappointed. It was outrageous, but were all the jokes good enough that I, as an audience, was willing to put up with the level of offensiveness? Kind of, I did not walk out did I... But was all the offensiveness necessary to pull off the smart jokes? I would not say so.
The naked hairy ugly men fight was probably most offensive scene in the movie, but it looked like fart joke to me. Maybe there was some kind of culture reference I did not get.
Some jokes are great! The Rodeo toast is among the best, of cause, because it started so innocent and took unexpected turns.
My favorite part was after the naked fight, (yes, right after the worst part came the best), Borat met the frat boys and they revealed to him that his dream lover "Pamera" was not as pure and innocent as he had thought. His dream shattered, he was broke and desperate, but then in a gospel meeting he regained hope and love... It was hilarious, but also, the audience really felt for him as a person. For that 10 minutes, I forgave all the stupid fart jokes in the rest of the movie.有事找我请发站内消息
I have never seen Da Ali G Show on HBO (also by Sacha Baron Cohen). I have to wonder if the movie would have sold so well if it were not so gross. He is British so I guess this is firmly planted in the Benny Hill trandition.
Check out the entry in wikipedia about Borat. A lot of the hilarity involved in the Borat hoopla is outside the movie itself, including the Antidefamation League's concerns and the protest of various people including the government of the real Khazakstan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat
The movie itself is rather subtle in terms of exposing the bigotry in average people and never played it up, never makes it too obvious that it is satirizing the rodeo people, the southern socialites, or the californian frat boys (I did not catch the name of their school -- USC?).
What makes the movie interesting is not so much what's in the movie but how the average audience members react to it. The biggest irony probably lies outside the confines of the movie itself. It's a truly interactive thing. I don't know if I have seen anything like it.
I love how the movie expose the attitude and beliefs of average American people (well, largely those not living in NYC) without being clearly judgmental and condescending, but rather naturalistic. It is easy to make fun of "the rednecks" while providing the safety for the audience to feel that "I'm not one of them stupids." It is not so easy to make the audience squirm in recognition of themselvs.
This is what the people think and how ignorant they are, but the filmmakers are not obviously talking down to and making fun of them (because they make plenty of fun of themselves). And through real life "controversies" the absurdity of the real world is further commented on. That's pretty ingenious.
I don't think as many people would have gone to see the movie if it were not marketed like all the other retarded raunchy teenage guy movies that appeal to the lowest common denomiator (which, mind you, works). If it were too obviously elitist and intellectual, it would never have had a fraction of the reach it does now.
Also check out Sacha Baron Cohen's biography on wikipedia (note the reference to Cambridge, ga-ga ball competitions, frisbee chapionships...):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Baron_Cohen
Check out the entry in wikipedia about Borat. A lot of the hilarity involved in the Borat hoopla is outside the movie itself, including the Antidefamation League's concerns and the protest of various people including the government of the real Khazakstan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat
The movie itself is rather subtle in terms of exposing the bigotry in average people and never played it up, never makes it too obvious that it is satirizing the rodeo people, the southern socialites, or the californian frat boys (I did not catch the name of their school -- USC?).
What makes the movie interesting is not so much what's in the movie but how the average audience members react to it. The biggest irony probably lies outside the confines of the movie itself. It's a truly interactive thing. I don't know if I have seen anything like it.
I love how the movie expose the attitude and beliefs of average American people (well, largely those not living in NYC) without being clearly judgmental and condescending, but rather naturalistic. It is easy to make fun of "the rednecks" while providing the safety for the audience to feel that "I'm not one of them stupids." It is not so easy to make the audience squirm in recognition of themselvs.
This is what the people think and how ignorant they are, but the filmmakers are not obviously talking down to and making fun of them (because they make plenty of fun of themselves). And through real life "controversies" the absurdity of the real world is further commented on. That's pretty ingenious.
I don't think as many people would have gone to see the movie if it were not marketed like all the other retarded raunchy teenage guy movies that appeal to the lowest common denomiator (which, mind you, works). If it were too obviously elitist and intellectual, it would never have had a fraction of the reach it does now.
Also check out Sacha Baron Cohen's biography on wikipedia (note the reference to Cambridge, ga-ga ball competitions, frisbee chapionships...):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacha_Baron_Cohen
