Who would have thought that a comedy starring what seems to be an inconspicuous unkempt East European schmuck would be the most controversial feature film of 2006? Several ‘victims’ of Sacha Baron Cohen’s elaborate hoaxes failed to find the humor in their ordeals with the British comedian. Two of the three University of South Carolina frat boys who picked up a hitchhiking Sacha Baron Cohen who called himself Borat Sagdiyev and gave drunken sexist and racist statements in regards to opinions on American politics have sued the producers of the comedy for defamation of character. The case is still ongoing but so far an injunction to halt the DVD release of the film has since been thrown out. Also in South Carolina, a man who was accosted by Cohen commenting on his genitalia in a Columbia restaurant bathroom has also filed suit. Dharma Arthur, a producer of the ABC-affiliate station WAPT in Jackson, Mississippi, was fired as a result of the prank pulled by Sacha Baron Cohen and his troupe. Etiquette expert Cindy Streit from Alabama has filed suit against Sacha Baron Cohen alleging fraud in their encounter at a dinner party in which Cohen referred to one man as a retard and then produced a bag of excrament in a plastic bag after being excused to the bathroom. On the international scene a German-based group called the European Center for Antiziganism Research which works against antiziganism has filed a complaint against the film Borat for its negative depiction of the Romanian people, referring them as gypsies. Plans are afoot to ban Borat outright in Russia and United Arab Emirates. Hell, this even affected Pamela Anderson’s ill-fated four month marriage to punk rocker Kid Rock which came to an end as a result of her appearance in the Borat movie, or so the rumors suggest. Controversy it seems is just another Hollywood term for publicity.

Do not go into Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan expecting insanely high production values because they are nonexistent. Movie critics have praised Borat for its dry wit, unconventionality, and social satire but clearly they are watching something entirely different because what is shown on screen is nothing near what they have described. Sacha Baron Cohen and his three other screenwriters should not be granted writing credit as the little amount of material which wasn’t improvised on the spot is not all that funny. Simply it’s Jackass: The Movie with a storyline, not an exceptionally exciting or innovative one but it is evident. Also as with Jackass Borat is a one-trick pony, in this case ‘comedian’ (a loosely defined term) Sacha Baron Cohen dressed unkemptly and acting like a half-witted Eastern European yokel and bigot, specifically a game of one-upmanship with each new disgusting gag. To put it more bluntly, it is nothing short of an exhibition of prostitution. Sacha Baron Cohen to quote Jesus from South Park – Episode 63 entitled ‘Fat Camp’ “is only doing things that anybody could do … for money. He’s a prostitute”. There is no originality or creativeness to this. He is doing the exact same thing Johnny Knoxville and Tom Green have been doing for years now. But because it is a British export which automatically labels it as being more civilized and intelligent then anything Americans could produce (thank you Gwyneth Paltrow) and is done with an East European accent we have to lavish it with heaps of praise and awards for its cleverness, or lack thereof.

In reality Borat Sagdiyev is only one of three recurring characters on the hit British television export series ‘Da Ali G Show’, all of whom are played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat Sagdiyev is suppose to be a television journalist from the Eastern European nation of Kazakhstan where women are treated worse then animals and there lies an extreme prejudice against gypsies and Jews, or at least that is how Cohen portrays it as. Sacha Baron Cohen himself is Jewish and when his character Borat is supposely speaking Kazakh it is actually Hebrew disguised with a heavy fake East European accent. In light of Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic remarks and Michael Richard’s blowup in a Los Angles-based comedy club, it is astonishing not to see Cohen criticized for these remarks even if they are meant to be in jest. Is this a sign of society’s double-standard? Maybe, but it is rather extreme to label Sacha Baron Cohen as anti-Semitic or even to make the argument that he is a self-loathing Jew. More likely however Cohen is using the style of racial comedy made popular in recent years by comedian Dave Chapelle in which the comedian expresses racially insentitive remarks so that audiences may laugh at the utter absurdity of such statements. Sadly this style of comedy has the strong potential of backfiring and reenforcing rather then destroying the very racial stereotypes it is attempting to mock. Most of Borat’s anti-Semitic comments are not so bad but one statement in which he connected the Jews and the September 11th attacks is no laughing matter at all. At least one-fourth of Americans are retarded enough to believe this but ultimately it boils down to insensitivity on the part of the filmmakers. If anything an easier argument could be made for Cohen being homophobic or anti-American rather then anti-Semitic.

Overall, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is a bitter disappointment in every sense of the word. It fails miserably in its efforts to live up to the exceedingly high expectations placed upon it by both critics and Sacha Baron Cohen fans alike who have lavishly labeled the irrelevant comedy with the title of ‘funniest movie ever’. But praise all withstanding Borat at best is a considerably weak comedic offering; at worst a mean-spirited and morally bankrupt movie. The film shifts gears so many times over the course of only eighty-four minutes it does not feel like a feature-length film. Rather it is something more relegated to either the internet realm of YouTube or as a made-for-television special on Comedy Central. There is no real cohesive story to hold on to. The whole aspect of Borat pursuing Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson is uninspiring and cheap. Knowing full well it was entirely scripted leaves you feeling cheated. One can only imagine how those individuals who were the bulk of Sacha Baron Cohen’s joke feel. Then there’s the scene in which Borat discovers his manager Azamat Bagatov masturbating to his Baywatch book which he stole from a ‘gypsy’ garage sale and proceeds to first wrestle with him in the hotel room and then chases him through the halls and the ballroom of the hotel, naked all the while, is a page ripped straight out of the Jackass playbook. This is not humor; this is simply gross and immature. Putting it lightly it is a bit perturbing to see film critics bash Saturday Night Live! alumnus Adam Sandler and his comedic projects for being coarse and mean-spirited only to simply turn around and literally award Sacha Baron Cohen for nearly the exact same thing, if not worse. Cohen himself takes shameful advantage of the hospitality and the kindness of blue-collar American workers, something he surely would not find, or at least much less of, in his native country of England, and proceeds to make living jokes out of them. Say what you want about displaying the Confederate Navy-Jack, whether it be in an antique store or above a Southern state capitol, long after the Civil War has ended but it is hardly deserving, let alone fashionable or honorable, to trash a person’s place of business for the sake of laughs, especially if that person has shown the utmost respect despite your awkward behavior and appearance. Is this really the new wave of entertainment from the ‘intellectually savvy’ individuals from across the pond? Maybe it is best then that America remain in blissful ignorance rather then degrade itself like this. At least with Jackass no one is hurt besides those individuals who willingly participate in the dangerous stunts performed on the show. Borat is not for everyone. In fact you have to have a pretty high tolerance level – as in calling a man who puts small mammals up his rectum (‘Death Camp of Tolerance’ from South Park) ‘courageous’ – to find Sacha Baron Cohen’s brand of lowbrow ‘humor’ the least bit entertaining. If this is honestly the direction in which the comedic genre is headed then may God help us all.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age