Film Review: Borat (2006)

Culture, like comedy, can change very rapidly. What was once hailed as a groundbreaking masterpiece less than a generation ago may now leave younger generations scratching their heads at how something so vile could have been made or even allowed to exist in the first place. A prime example of this phenomenon is Borat, a 2006 comedy directed by Larry Charles and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. To say that it hasn't aged well would be an understatement.

The film, fully titled Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is based on the character who originated in Cohen's television show Da Ali G Show. Cohen plays Borat Sagdiyev, a journalist from a fictionalised version of post-Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, who embarks on a journey to the United States at the behest of his country's Ministry of Information. Accompanied by producer Azamat Bagatov (played by Ken Davitian), Borat travels across America, making a documentary about society and culture for the benefit of his homeland.

Borat was initially greeted well both by audiences and critics because it appeared to offer something fresh compared to most American comedies. This was largely due to its genre combination of mockumentary and road film, which allowed Charles and Cohen to build the movie around a series of short vignettes. Another crucial element was the decision to shoot some scenes Candid Camera-style, with Borat interviewing people who were unaware that he was a fictional character rather than a real reporter. This approach caused controversy and lawsuits.

Humour based on various bodily fluids and male nudity helped make Borat look "edgy" and transgressive, but this edginess served the film only in its early stages. Many of these jokes became repetitive and uninspired as the plot progressed, with one infamous scene featuring a nude wrestling fight between Borat and Azmat feeling more like a desperate attempt at shock value than actual comedy.

The most problematic aspect of Borat is the humor that runs on ethnic stereotypes, which many would find wholly unacceptable in today's more sensitive climate. The fictional Kazakhstan, "played" by an impoverished Romani village in Romania, is depicted as a post-Soviet hellhole, while Borat himself – whose "Kazakh language" is actually Hebrew with a strange accent – is an unrepentant racist, sexist, misogynistic, and anti-Semitic character. Real-life Kazakhs never liked the film, despite its inadvertent boost to tourism in their country, and it's unlikely that many East Europeans, Central Asians, or Third Worlders would appreciate it either.

On the other hand, Borat managed to win critics at the time by portraying its vile protagonist as a reflection of bigotry within America itself. The film came out during a period when the United States was struggling with its public image due to George W. Bush's presidency and the Iraq War. Cohen cleverly used Borat as a litmus test for the kind of prejudice that existed within America, particularly among gun-toting Republican-voting rednecks from "flyover country” deemed mostly responsible for that nightmae. The film's success can be attributed in part to an intense PR campaign featuring Cohen performing real-life stunts in character before the premiere.

However, only a few years later, with election of messianic Obvama and the end of Bush's nightmare, Borat’s shtick lost much of its relevance. As a result, most of Cohen's subsequent work failed to replicate the mostly undeserved success of this film. While Borat may have once been hailed as a groundbreaking comedy, it now stands as an uncomfortable relic of a bygone era – an era that was seemingly more tolerant of bigotry and ignorance under the guise of humour.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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