Topic: Misc.
I've still not seen Borat and don't plan to either. However a friend in Beirut has seen it and has this to say:
I've just seen the complete pile of crap that is the film 'Borat'. I only went because my brother wanted to see it. It's shit. It's really annoying to see that prick running around taking advantage of honest, well meaning American folk. Actually, they come across very well. He comes across as a complete prick. The 'create-strawmen-in-order-to-ridicule-and-lampoon-anti-semitists' is wearng thin. I bet that cunt spent a lot of time trying to trick and induce innocent people into making any kind of anti-semitic remarks. It's just not funny.
The second point is that Kazakhstan has the second biggest Energy reserves of any of the former soviet block. The country is progressing. Unlike the UK. No doubt in 10 years time, the average Kazakhstani won't be handing over 1/3 of his salary to subsidise immigrants claiming benefit. Nor will he be paying 50% of his post-tax pay to a landlord, in order to rent some shitty 200 yr old hovel.
When I asked if I could post this on my site he said:
You can add that my sole wish is to see 'Borat II The Out-takes'. This film would be constructed of the film shot that contained the come-backs from the Americans. The comments made by people who cut short the interviews. Perhaps some 'talking-head' commentary from Pamela Anderson's lawyer relating to how his behaviour is going to induce some lunatic into trying to abduct her in future.
The thing that offends me is the deliberate and insiduous way that he attempts to cajole them into saying something which he can then craftily edit, in a way, to 'expose' and ridicule them. It is the lowest form of television. This is particularly cheap when he does it with a group of frat guys who are clearly pissed. It's a bit like the seedy guy who hangs around at a party waiting to hit on the drunk girl sitting in the corner without her friends. The scene of sending up the dirt-poor prostitute is particularly sickening.
The humour of Borat is blatantly racist. We are supposed to laugh along with our atavistic prejudices against the 'other' foreign culture that he represents, and how we (the west) are unable to culturally communicate with it. It is the one (tedious) joke in the film.
In fact, the result is the opposite. The people he meets are polite, and display no outward bound prejudices against him whatsoever. This is despite the USA being a relatively isolated country. For many in Middle America, the sole cognisance of 'people like Borat' is of September 11. Yet they are unfailingly positive and courteous with him.
I suggest viewing 'Team America:World Police' instead. It is much funnier, and infinitely more culturally incisive.
