Borat: Cultural Learnings of America

It has been 240+ hours since the release of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" and the movie is sure to go down as one of the greatest cultural commentaries in the history of the United States. With a cumulative box office gross of $67,840,000 (in only 2 weeks) it is guaranteed to overtake Saw 3, which pulled in $69,879,000 in the 3 weeks it has been in theaters. However, Saw 3 is drawing less and less each week as Borat has jumped into 1729 more theaters than on its debut weekend where it was only showing in 837 movie theaters around the country. It is no surprise that Borat is the number 1 movie in, but the question is where in the country are the ticket sales coming from?

Judging by many of the pawns in Borat's game the movie goers cannot be coming from southern conservative areas because the kind of content and humor found in this movie are far from the kind they fancy. In fact, it would be a wise bet to guarantee that such strain of person would be repulsed by the movie leading to them storming out and immediately demanding a refund or else they would organize a protest that calls for the return of decency to films. Alas, we have stumbled onto the beginning of why Borat has managed to create one of the greatest cultural commentaries to hit the US since "Reefer Madness." Unlike Reefer Madness-a film that was meant to deter the use of marijuana-the intended purpose of Borat will not fail to be seen by its audience.

The most impressive thing about the overall message found in Borat was that he did not tell us, but showed us. And if one thing remains true in this day and age of various beliefs, theories and opinions it is the old saying, "seeing is believing." I knew that this country had its fair share of ignorant twats, but I also knew that not everyone fell into that category. Nevertheless, Borat had managed to have an underlying theme of idiocy, racism and perversity in America.

There were scenes in this movie that truly disturbed me, and ironically none of them were due to the actions of Borat. For instance the scene at the rodeo where Borat was talking to one of the organizers before he went out had me silenced as the man went on to tell Borat to shave his mustache because he looked like a terrorist. He then proceeded to wish death to all Muslims, state how he would like to drive the gays out of America, show a great deal of animosity towards foreigners in general and managed to silence not only myself but the entire audience. Such silence due to shock would be expected to come during Borat and Azamat's graphic nude wrestling scene where Azamat (a short and fat producer for Borat's documentary) sits with his balls and ass on Borat's face screaming, "Eat my asshole!" However, this scene provoked a plentiful amount of laughter that caused the chest to seize up until one could calm themselves long enough to regain control of their respiratory functions.

So why silence during a scene portraying an incredibly imbecilic racist and laughter at another scene that was horribly grotesque by most social conventions? Well the answer to that is actually pretty uplifting, which is the fact that a person who is a devout racist provokes a greater sense of disgust than two men (one being hairy and obese) wrestling nude in positions similar to the kind seen in pornos. This underlying theme of racism can be seen throughout the movie whether it is when Borat is turned away from a hotel, at a dinner party with old wealthy white ministers and theirs wives (who happen to live on Secession drive-a private road) or even in many of Borat's skits from Da Ali G show.

Coincidently, many of the settings where racism comes through on camera happen to be in Texas or other southern states. Does that mean all southerners are sincere racists? No, it simply means that racism is not dead and some people still believe people of different color are much lower on the totem poll, but that is to be assumed. Some southerners are still bitter about the civil war and weren't even alive when it took place. What appears to be the new trend in racism is what is called closet racism. It is the kind of hatred against people of different race that is held inside until confronted with a situation that encourages it to come out from behind the proverbial closet door. Considering that Borat does in fact, mention how he despises the Jews, refers to blacks as "chocolate faces" and puts women just above rat on his scale of importance just under God, man, horse, and dog, he in turns creates a comfort zone for any closet racist to come out into. The best part is that they often jump right out and feel relieved as they can banter on with their warped perspectives.

Despite the heavy dose of anti-Semitism found in this movie it pales in comparison to the sheer ignorance displayed by many of the people who were used in the making of this film. In actuality Borat is played by Sacha Baron Cohen who is a Jew himself. He is also an extremely talented actor as he never breaks character even when the government threatened legal action against Cohen to which Borat replied, "I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew." What Borat has managed to do so brilliantly is show Americans that there is still scum hanging on to the taint of this country. Borat is a great film as it provides an enormous amount of entertainment while supplying us with numerous cultural learnings that are at times a sour shot to the stomach.