I watched Borat today for the first time in years. I have to say its a completely different movie than the one I remember seeing years ago. I never realized that this movie is much much more than a comedy, it is funny and you’re supposed to laugh but like...people have been saying this movie is racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic all these things, its the non PC humor that isn’t allowed anymore. In my opinion, Borat says and does these things to make a point how wrong and real it is, not really poking fun at the group. I just wanna talk about three scenes that really stand out to me and I found very powerful.
The first is when Borat is at the Rodeo. He sings the national anthem and changes the words singing about how Kazakhstan is number one. Borat gets booed by everyone. He’s then talking to a cowboy and goes to do his kiss kiss on the cheeks and the cowboy makes a point how he shouldn’t do that because that’s what homosexuals do and Borat should watch out and avoid them. Borat responds with how in his country they lock them up in jail and kill them, the cowboy laughs and says they got the right idea thats what “we’re” trying to do here. This stuck out because I felt Sacha Baron Cohen was showing how obviously these southern all-american terrorist hating rednecks actually have a LOT in common with these other countries they claim to hate.
The next scene was the one where Borat finally burns the baywatch magazine and falls asleep outside a church. In the morning you see all these Christian’s stepping over him to get into church. Not one person checks on this guy sleeping on the ground out front. They film the church service which is all about love and all the shit that if you really lived by you wouldnt step over some poor sleeping man. I felt it really accurately showed how certain religious people who claim to love everyone and want to better the world really don’t care about anyone but themselves.
The last one I would like to mention is in my opinion, the most important scene and take away of the entire movie and I was absolutely shocked watching it. Borat attends the magnolia mansion dinner party. During the party Borat goes to the bathroom and returns to the table with his shit in a plastic bag. Everyones kinda bugging and this woman calmly takes him into the bathroom and explains how he needs to clean himself and flush. Let me say it again one more time, Borat brought human shit in a bag to the dinner table. After this incident Borat invites a black female prostitute over. This same woman who was okay with him bringing shit to the table decides a black prostitute is where she draws the line and they call the police and throw them both out. They threw him out for inviting a black prostitute over ONLY TO EAT but didn’t kick him out for bringing poop around their food. Now they film this movie using real people and Borat is the only character really, this was peoples real response. Borat ends up taking this black woman out for a little and at the end of the movie he actually stops back at her house to see her again. I feel like there were emotions happening off camera between Sacha and this woman because there was a different vibe about this moment then any other part of the movie. I felt so badly for this woman and I think he was really trying to cheer her up after that horrible incident. I can’t even describe it that well. I highly recommend rewatching to anyone who hasn’t seen it in a long time.
I’m definitely sure there are other people who have seen this in his movies and seen that they are much more than filthy humor to make you laugh and to make fun of other groups. To anyone thinking this movie is whats wrong with the world (seen a lot of tweets like that) I recommend watching it again and trying to see it from the perspective that Sacha Baron Cohen is trying to prove a point and actually help.
EDIT: Luenell Campbell is the actress who played the prostitute in the movie. I had no idea she was an actress and I’m really happy to learn this information because I (like many others) mistaken her for being an actual prostitute. I’m really happy she was able to be in on what was going on but nonetheless sad those people still treated her that way who were not in on what was happening with Borat
Submitted October 23, 2020 at 04:40AM by AppleBeesMcFriday- https://ift.tt/35rGeoO
