Lord Taylor of Warwick

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It’s hard to know what to make of this comedy film, which seems to have genuinely hurt and offended so many people. This includes those who now claim in the media they were fooled into appearing in it and feel humiliated and exploited. Now it is a worldwide success. Kazakhstan’s diplomats were outraged at how their country has been portrayed. Yet at the same time the film has been a huge box office success with those who seem prepared to have a few laughs at the expense of others. The basic premise is that Kazakh reporter Borat (British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen) travels to the United States to learn about its culture, starting in New York and Washington DC. However, one night he changes his plans after watching a Baywatch episode on his hotel room TV. Seeing this programme full of bikini clad babes and buff life guards, gives Borat a new goal: driving cross country to find and marry actress Pamela Anderson. The film is expanded from Cohen's character on "Da Ali G Show" and features unscripted scenes involving everyday Americans who supposedly aren't in on the joke. It’s definitely a clever piece of film-making, full of memorable scenes which stick in your mind for days afterwards.

Also it’s difficult to ‘see the joins’. Some responses from Borat’s unwitting victims seem very true to life – for example when Borat accidentally lets a chicken in his suitcase loose in a crowded New York subway train or tries to greet hard nose New York macho guys with a kiss on both cheeks, and gets a foul mouthed response in return. Throughout the film, there are other scenes in which it is hard to tell whether Cohen is working with very good actors, genuine people who ARE in on the joke or those who really have been sucked into believing that Borat is the real thing. At times there are uncomfortable, embarrassing and revealing scenarios that actor Sacha Baron Cohen (who plays Borat) sets up with ‘real people’ in order to poke fun at prejudice. For example in his conversation with a rodeo manager in Texas, who advises him to shave off his moustache because he looks too much like a Muslim in a fearful post 9/11 America, or when he prompts a rousing cheer from the rodeo audience when he tells them that he supports their nation’s “war of terror”. At times I laughed out loud and at others squirmed with discomfort - it leaves you with mixed feelings and many questions - which perhaps is the aim of the movie. They want to make you think as well as to make money and allow Cohen and his crew to have a fun time in the US. Much of the strong language, sexual references, including a naked fighting scene between Borat and his producer, seemed unnecessary at times – they could have poked fun at people in a gentle way without having to be so crude. The film does not mock the victims of prejudice but intolerance itself. Yet you wonder how many people watching the movie would get the joke and just be confirmed in their own prejudices views about others.

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