High five! Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is the kind of comedy that movie audiences haven't seen since the high points in Peter Sellers' career. Yes, it's funny as hell; it's also subversive, and more than a little ingenious.For those that don't know, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat Sagdiyev is a journalist from Kazakhstan who travels to America to make a documentary film. The clash of his culture and ours is a riot, and it showcases American ignorance, perhaps best exemplified by the racist, sexist college kids that Borat travels with in the film. Or perhaps it's the man in charge of the rodeo, who tells Borat in no uncertain terms what he'd like to see happen to homosexuals if he were in charge. There's any number of examples, really. (Seeing any resemblance to Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb yet?)
Cohen's point doesn't seem to be a mean-spirited one, despite the many lawsuits that have popped up in the film's wake, alleging he duped people into acting stupid. Using satire, he's shining a light on the ugly parts of society and laughing at them at the same time he's pointing them out. Films like Borat usually provoke one of two reactions: either the audience loves it - for the laughs, for the cleverness, for the insight - or they hate it - for pointing out that theirs is not a perfect society. (How many lukewarm reactions can you think of in relation to Dr. Strangelove?) 
Americans can be notoriously intolerant of people pointing out their foibles, particularly when that someone is from another country (Cohen is British, although many viewers will no doubt confuse him with his character and assume he is from the former Soviet Union).
Americans can be notoriously intolerant of people pointing out their foibles, particularly when that someone is from another country (Cohen is British, although many viewers will no doubt confuse him with his character and assume he is from the former Soviet Union).That the film had an impact is undeniable. How many other movies force the President of the United States to take a meeting with a foreign president trying to manage his country's image? (See link below on Bush's meeting with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev.)
The DVD of the movie offers some worthwhile bonus material, although the limited extras here suggest that another, more expansive edition will be coming at some point. The disc contains 30 minutes of deleted scenes, some of which were cut for good reason (a sequence in a supermarket dairy section goes on too long) and others will make you glad there is a DVD format that contains this sort of thing (Borat's visit to a dog pound is one of those).
The disc's best bits are in the "Propaganda" section, which showcases the promotional tour Cohen took - in character - to promote the film in late 2006. 
His visit to the White House gate and his statement outside the Kazakhstan embassy are highlights, but it's a shame there isn't more of them. More material than is here was shown on TV (and is on the web) and it adds to the audacity of Cohen's concept and his execution of it.
His visit to the White House gate and his statement outside the Kazakhstan embassy are highlights, but it's a shame there isn't more of them. More material than is here was shown on TV (and is on the web) and it adds to the audacity of Cohen's concept and his execution of it. There's plenty of slapstick in the film, too, if that's your thing, and Cohen plays it as well as the best vaudevillians. The circumstances that Borat finds himself in are often improvised by Cohen, and you have to recognize what a fearless performer he is. He always stays in character and never backs down.
There will no doubt be imitators in the months and years to come, but Borat is the first of this generation's new brand of subversive comedy. It will be shame if those that follow in Cohen's footsteps only produce movies with more gross-out humor and none of his smarts. The lesson that should be learned by comedy writers, performers and studios is that it's the substance behind the film that is its success. Borat shows the mind at work while taking the pratfalls.
More info: Peter Sellers Appreciation Society
