Author |
Message |
Spoton
Member
09-16-2005
| Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 12:01 pm
Messing with the minds of drunken frat boys is one thing...but deliberately deceiving a poor village to make fun of them is cruel (see the link to story in my Nov 13, 10:20 a.m. post).
|
Spoton
Member
09-16-2005
| Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 12:03 pm
And I DO think that he is a funny guy - I've seen him interviewed plus seen many of the clips, and they are clever and funny. But I can't condone the source of his humor for at least a part of this movie. I still say it is cruel.
|
Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 12:31 pm
Spoton, I don't know if you've seen the film, but Cohen doesn't make fun of the villagers--he makes fun of people's attitudes toward the villagers and the fact that Americans are so xenocentric that they believe there are places where "casual incest" (to borrow the terminology from the article) happens. The joke isn't on the villagers, but on western cultural ignorance. Or, as Cohen tells Rolling Stone... When Baron Cohen first heard that the Kazakh government was thinking of suing him and placing a full-page ad promoting the country in The New York Times, he was editing his movie in Los Angeles. His reaction: "I was surprised, because I always had faith in the audience that they would realize that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices. And the reason we chose Kazakhstan was because it was a country that no one had heard anything about, so we could essentially play on stereotypes they might have about this ex-Soviet backwater. The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist -- who believe that there's a country where homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old." In actuality, it turns out that Borat is a far more damning critique of America than it is of Kazakhstan. The jokes that Baron Cohen mentions above -- and all the rest about beating gypsies, throwing Jews down wells, exporting pubic hair and making monkey porn -- are clearly parody. But the America that Borat discovers on his cross-country trek here -- rife with homophobia, xenophobia, racism, classism and anti-Semitism -- is all too real. link
|
Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 1:08 pm
Tish is right, SBC has always "deceived" as a way to get the footage. He always goes in on false pretenses. I think most of what we see is staged in the movie, and those people knew they were acting. There are too many things in the "village" part, that have the villagers/ACTORS cooperating, and doing things that work with his storyline. Like the rival neighbor, and the yelling wife. If those people believed they were being "chronicled", then why was she yelling and threatening, and why was the neighbor acting the way he did. I personally think these people were presented with an opportunity to make some money, if they wanted to participate in the documentary. If it was a documentary ABOUT them, then how does one explain certain staged actions like the rival neighbor, the threatening wife, and the making out while holding a trophy?
|
Pamy
Member
01-02-2002
| Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 5:32 pm
anyone wonder if these people are all 'in on it' and the lawsuits are for publicity for the movie??
|
Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 6:11 pm
LOL Pamy - kind of like what Tish posted about the OJ book and Fox?
|
Spoton
Member
09-16-2005
| Friday, November 17, 2006 - 7:12 am
I don't get it. Nobody DOES believe that silly portrait that he has painted of Kazakhstan (ie, blue hats, etc.) So how can he portray this as a way to "bring out our own prejudices"? Just who does he say believes it? I think the movie is about making us laugh - at the silly, over-the-top humor this is his style. Nothing wrong with that - for him to portray it as some big social message is, I believe, a real stretch. That being said, I still say the villagers were duped. Or, maybe that article and the two interviews I've seen are lies. Could be. Who knows. After all, all Westerners are ignorant, prejudiced, and self-centered - Right, Borat?
|
Tishala
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, November 17, 2006 - 10:03 am
I think that if you saw the film, you would see how the film if both wildly funny and has something of a social message, just as the Marx brothers did with Fredonia in Duck Soup or Chaplin did in The Great Dictator. Silly films? Sure. But much more, too.
|
Spoton
Member
09-16-2005
| Friday, November 17, 2006 - 12:44 pm
Yeah, you're right, Tish. I usually get my hackles up when people criticize movies, etc, they haven't yet seen. My bad. I would actually like to see it. That article and interview just set me off, as I felt really bad for the people he used as his "family". Long weekend ahead - good time to take in a movie!
|
Eeyoreslament
Member
07-20-2003
| Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - 3:19 pm
CONTINUING THE BRILLIANCE THAT IS SACHA BARON COHEN I cannot wait. I love Bruno.
|
Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, November 27, 2006 - 6:39 am
My mom, Tim, my stepdad, and I went to see this on Saturday because my aunt and cousin said they laughed so hard their faces hurt. I laughed- I can't say I laughed non-stop or at every little thing....but I certainly enjoyed it. The ONLY thing I want to know is how PETA feels about the movie. This is what we were discussing afterward... Pamela Anderson was in on the whole thing. Pamela Anderson is Miss PETA (doing ads for them, anti-fur and all that....). So how does she justify being in a movie where they use a trained (circus??) bear, keep a chicken in a suitcase, smoosh a chicken into a bag, etc- we came up with more things that PETA would have a problem with. We've searched online I can't find anything on that. Oh- only two of the college guys are suing- the other one is proud. So what about what they sid- they were being honest and didn't carefully pick their words to be portrayed on TV- but they were shown how they really are and I'm sure everyone who knows them knows that. They don't like how they looked? They should look at their own behavior then. That's what made them look bad, not him.
|
Westtexan
Member
07-16-2004
| Sunday, December 03, 2006 - 9:42 pm
I saw Borat today. Afterwards, I came home and scheduled an appointment for a lobotomy. Seriously, there were some very, very funny moments and I did LOL numerous times. I also cringed and covered my eyes a LOT. There were still some images that I saw that I want to bleach from my mind. Crass, crude, offensive, and funny. I don't know whether to recommend it or not. It's not for everyone--that's for sure. I could have done without seeing it but I did have several good laughs.
|
Naja
Member
06-28-2003
| Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 1:00 pm
I just saw this last night and laughed all the way through it. I didn't even know there were any controversies about the film until I read this thread today. Thanks for mentioning the deleted scenes earlier in the thread...Those were hilarious. At youtube, they have his Howard Stern interview in 4 parts from last month, too. If you are offended by Howard or the movie, then I wouldn't watch this. You will be doubly offended. http://youtube.com/results?search_query=borat+at+howard+stern+on+demand
|
Bbfanatic
Member
08-14-2000
| Saturday, December 16, 2006 - 12:44 pm
This movie was frickn hilarious. we laughed so hard our chests hurt. glad i picked up some napkins when i got my popcorn. we laughed so hard there were tears.
|
Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Tuesday, January 02, 2007 - 12:21 am
LOL Westtexan! Well, this was not for me. I did laugh some and cringed a lot. I didn't like it, wish I hadn't seen it and I guess I just don't get it because it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I realize it is up for or won a golden globe and has rave reviews from critics and non critics. My opinion has nothing to do with the negative publicity, I saw it the weekend it opened before I knew about any deception.
|
|