Nov 7
Very funny in parts, not so great in others
Yours truly and Significant Other went to see the movie Borat this evening. I guess if you have been living on a desert island or a terrformed planet in the L5 region of space, you may not have heard of this send-up of central Asian social and religious mores, America, but otherwise, I guess you know what to expect.
I laughed a heck of a lot at parts of the film, especially a wonderful send-up of some humourless radical feminists and a hilarious scene at which our wild-eyed “documentary maker” goes to a Pentacostal meeting. (One cannot take the piss out of such religiosity enough, in my view). I did – along with most of my fellow movie-goers, wince a bit at a scene involving a black prostitute, that was cruel and pretty unpleasant. Some of the incidents must have been staged, but I did get a bit worried that some of the people in this film were held up for mass ridicule without any idea of what might have been going on. We laugh at other people and flatter ourselves at our wonderful sophistication and cleverness, but how different is this really from those old Victorian freak shows, where people would pay a few coins to see a deformed human being? There was a scene involving an antique store in the South that was plain nasty and I hope the owner of the property was fully compensated for it. This sort of incident also raises the issue of property rights and movies: would an unwitting member of a lucrative movie be entitled to a slice of the profits? I don’t know the answer.
Some of the people in this romp across America were bigots, stupid and silly, but on the whole I get the impression, formed by my own experience and from seeing this film, that Americans are warm-hearted people who want to do well for themselves and their fellows; are friendly, helpful and dignified. A few people may make unpleasant remarks if they think no-one is watching, but are they so different to anyone else?
I can recommend this film, although I am really most looking forward to the latest Bond film. Against my earlier reservations about the casting of Daniel Craig, this looks to be a pretty hot production, taking us back a bit to the core of the Fleming character. Bring on 007.
