Borat: Cultural Learnings of America to Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

I love Borat. I love sex. Yak-she-mash! (I don't know spelling...but note, it's not Kazakhi, it's Polish!)

So I live in Glorious Nation of England now, where Sasha Baron Cohen, aka Borat is also from, so I had to go see this movie. Everyone keeps talking about it. My prof even wrote a paper about Cohen's other character Ali G, so we've discussed Borat in class. People keep asking me if I was offended by the film, so another reason I had to see for myself.

So having seen the film, I think it's great. I didn't find it too offensive. Of course the picture of America was exaggerated, but all the exaggerations had some elements of the truth. He did take the stereotypes out there, but I know from personal experience that there are people like that in America. Of course, they're not a majority. That'd be like saying America is full of Pamela Andersons as well (another major American character in the film). Overall though, I thought it was funny and well scripted. They managed to create a strong storyline that really explains how the funny sequences fit together.

A lot of people are saying the film is in bad taste and I hear a lot of Americans are really pissed about it, which is understandable. I mean, it's a funny ass film, but I can see the danger in a film like this as well. In the hands of someone who knows nothing about America or Kazakhstan, it paints a very unfavorable, exagerated version of the countries that is not all that true and may be taken literally.

It paints Kazakhstan to be this ridiculously poor nation where people have sex with their sisters and chase Jews for fun. Yeah, it's all really funny, but how true is that? I don't really know, but I guess you can always ask Isis. She's been to Kazakhstan en route to Afghanistan. And of America. There's a scene where he's at a rodeo and shouts "We support your war of terror!" and everyone cheers. Yes, it's all very funny, but I'm pretty sure that the people thought he was saying war on terror. Also at the rodeo, there's this racist guy who tells Borat to shave his mustache so he can blend in and not be mistaken for a Muslim and we should shoot all gays. Yes, there are people in America who probably share this view, but that's not representative of the majority. Borat also meets frat guys who are just drunk idiots, and yeah, while this is the popular image of frat guys...and can be true a lot of the time...that's not a completely accurate picture of fraternity life. There's also a scene in a Pentacostal church where they convert Borat and people are speaking in tongues and falling down and all of that. Yes, I grew up in a church like that, but I've been to several that aren't as evangelical and don't believe in manifestations of the Spirit. It's not the majority. YET...I'm sure some idiots out there in the world look at a film and take the image too seriously. Hell, before I came to London, I really thought London would be full of people like Hugh Grant.

So I recommend people to watch it as a comedy, but not to take it seriously. It's not real, but Sasha Baron Cohen is freaking talented and the movie is well-made for what it is. ENJOY!