Sacha Baron Cohen is undoubtedly a comedic genius. The fact that is far more political savvy than his characters would have you believe only adds to the brilliance. Ashton Kutcher or Jaime Kennedy may be able to pull off a quick laugh with their pranks, but it is Cohen who can make himself over as a character, and keep a straight face, moving and shaking his way through political events and high society parties, asking the most absurd of questions, with nothing but a genuine face. The degree of believability he achieves is immeasurable, and no one in today's pop culture is able to find the worst in individuals - be they politicians, businessmen or simply ordinary people. Hidden prejudices and flawed arguments come to the table quickly when Cohen is conducting an interview - either as his British white journalist Ali G, a man obsessed with all things America and all things hip hop; or as Bruno, the flamboyantly gay Austrian television host; or most recently, as Borat - Kazakhstani television host, touring his way through America.Borat succeeds where Cohen's Ali G. in Da House could not - successfully weaving the documentary style of his television show with a fictional narrative. Cohen's Borat starts his American journey in New York, and ends up in California. In the end, he manages to offend several while ultimately finding the mostly ugly traits of Americans. In a fashion that is almost endearing, Borat is sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic and racist. Yet, when frequently expressing such ideals, his subjects breathe a great sigh of relief and - despite the presence of a camera - feel free to inject their own prejudices into jokes. A rodeo organizer tells Borat to shave off his mustache to not appear as a terrorist, while that same rodeo crowd cheers when Borat chants that President Bush should drink the blood of all Iraqis. Elsewhere, a group of white frat boys bitch about minority privilege, while stating that having slaves would make their lives earlier. Such encounters are not uncommon in a film where the release form can be considered questionably. The encounters are undeniably hilarious, bringing even the most liberal of us to a shame-faced self-awareness about our shortcomings.
Borat is undoubtedly the highest form of satire - and Cohen's skills of disruption are certainly in a situationist tradition. Yet what is the end result? Enough people went to see Borat this weekend to make it number one at the box office, but what message they took away (or what message they should take away) is still somewhat unclear. If the purpose is simply to mock the close-minded beliefs of middle America, then Cohen may simply be preaching to the converted. Furthermore, while Ali G's targets were always figures of power unaware they were being called out, Borat targets those of a different nature. Those appearing foolish in this film - be they racist, homophobic, close-minded, un-educated, anti-semitic or sexist - are also working class. Despite my great respect and appreciation for Cohen's work and confidence, what one can ultimately take away from such revelations is not necessarily made clear. Satire, however, is not a genre of heroes - or even answers - and continuing in that tradition, Cohen has thrived.
2 comments:
I agree that bigotry at any level is inexcusable, and I proudly admit to laughing at such an exposure. I did want to, however, address the fact that editing and questionable consent forms cannot be ignored when looking at the film. I still think it is a brilliant piece of cinema, and gets people talking, something I wish all films did.
Sadly, I lost the comments that were initially posted here, but they were as follows...
Barbara: "I agree that while the amazing mind-boggling admissions that Baron Cohen has in the past extracted from people in power are a valuable lesson in just what the upper echelon of power are truly capable of, I think it's also important to expose bigotry, misogyny, racism, wherever it exists. To me, it does not matter that the "victims" in the Borat moviefilm are working class, they also need to be called out."
Pixie: I really want to see this film the ad's look so funny, just my kind of dry humour. Although I could never really take to Ali G for some reason.
kees: think it's a very good point you make about preaching to the converted, but I find in some cases I'm still really shocked by what some people say when they think they can voice their true opinions. And in that way I totally agree with Barb. It's also interesting how relieved they often seem.
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