Review of Bruno (From One of the Sites in the Film)

Sometime in June of last year, there was an ad in the local paper, the Southwest Times Record, craigslist and other media outlets for "Blue Collar Brawlin'". "Cold beer and hot chicks" would be on display with a small $5 cover charge and $1 beer available.

I got a good laugh out of the over-the-top ad, wondering what kind of crowd would show up for such a you-definitely-are-a-redneck event. I never really heard anything more about it until a month or so later when the local paper had a front page story about a near riot scene complete with thrown chairs, hurled beer and perpetrators whisked away by a legion of off duty Fort Smith police acting as security.

The story was kept quiet for that long and included speculation that the notorious Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat fame was somehow involved. Locals couldn't determine if Sacha Baron Cohen was actually there. Now everyone knows that the "Straight Dave" that night was indeed Sacha Baron Cohen and the film was Cohen's new release Bruno.

As you might suspect, people in this part of Arkansas, the western part of the state a very conservative Republican stronghold, were not impressed by Cohen's antics. Rednecks throwing chairs and wearing profane T shirts are not the image any city wants to project to the rest of the world.

The announcer for the event was comedian Vic Henley, who appeared in the area a couple of years ago and who I talked with briefly after the show. "Straight Dave" warmed up the crowd by starting a chant of "straight pride" and a few other such comments including the comment that he was "so straight that the first thing I did when I bought my house was take out the back door".

More on the Fort Smith part of Bruno later as we now take a look at the film. At the window, there was a fairly large sign above the cashier about "strong sexual content, graphic nudity" and the like. The girl also issued a verbal warning before handing over the ticket, something about shocking or offensive material in Bruno.

I can certainly allow as how many viewers would be offended by Bruno. Gays, straights, christians, muslims, jews, southerners, hispanics, blacks, whites, men and women are all among groups which will have many offended. Bruno is an equal opportunity offender.

Early in Bruno is a scene with 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who drops the "Q" word after rejecting Bruno's crude advances. And I don't mean "queen".

Paula Abdul of American Idol fame apparently has no sense of irony as she rambles on about her humanitarian causes...while sitting on the back of a man on all fours who Bruno said was a mexican acting as furniture.

There are a few really graphic scenes early in Bruno that most reviewers wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole, which closely describes one of Bruno's sex toys attached to an exercise bike. "How did this movie avoid an NC-17 rating", I wondered to myself. I'm not easily shocked, but some of the images on the screen...well, if you're brave enough, you'll just have to see the film for yourself.

For all the talk about the shocking sexual content, to me the most disturbing aspect of the film was the lengths to which some parents of would-be child stars would go to get their brood "discovered".

You see, Bruno posed as a producer looking for a child actor to appear in a video. Whatever outrageous act he asked the parents about their child performing, the parents were all too willing to agree to. But the sexual stuff in the film gets all the headlines...

There is a loose story line in Bruno, sort of like Borat. This time, Bruno loses his gig as host of some show and sets out for Los Angeles to make his mark in show business with assistant Lutz tagging along.

Bruno goes on the Richard Bey Show in front of a predominately black studio audience, poking fun at celebrities adopting African babies as he unveils his own adopted son, little "O.J.". Cohen gets roughed up pretty good by the show's burly security guards.

We see Bruno go to a preacher whose mission is to make Bruno straight, even as Bruno makes sexual comments to the man. One preacher even makes a comment about being Bruno letting himself be seduced by a woman.

Bruno goes on a hunting trip with some good ol' boys from Alabama. Donnie wasn't too impressed when Bruno tries to get into his tent nude in the middle of the night. It's very risky to offend a redneck with a loaded gun nearby...

Bruno even attends a "swingers party", gets roughed up by a dominatrix and runs away after another good ol' boy takes offense at Bruno's stroking his thighs as the man gets busy with one of the women.

Along the way, Bruno interviews an alleged terrorist, telling the man through an interpreter "your King Osama looks like a homeless Santa", runs through a Palestinian area dressed as a Rabbi, only with a twist and generally creates havoc everywhere he goes.

You can say a lot of things about Sacha Baron Cohen, but lacking cajones isn't one of them. And you can see for yourself if you don't believe it.

Which brings us back to the Fort Smith scene. According to reports, patrons of the Blue Collar Brawlin' event had to sign a waiver to attend, agree to be filmed and could not bring cell phones or cameras into the downtown arena.

There were a number of women in the audience, most covering their eyes when the "man-slammin'" started between "Straight Dave" and a plant in the audience. After some of Dave's comments, Lutz, posing as an audience member, calls Dave a "faggot", inducing Dave to invite the man up to the stage to fight.

The men appear to be grappling for a couple of moments before kissing and tearing each other's clothes off as Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On plays on the soundtrack. Beers and jeers rain down, at least one chair is thrown over the chain link fencing surrounding the stage, women are covering their eyes as most of the men boo.

I don't know how close to a riot the scene actually was, extra security had been requested by the people in charge of the "show" and I thought I saw a former co-worker and his wife in the audience along with a few familiar faces.

The show ends with a spoof of We Are The World type videos with Bono of U2, Sting, Slash of GNR, Snoop Dogg and none other than Elton John crooning "Doves Of Peace".