Americans aren't so bad. *Gasp!*

Rating: 9/10 (17 August 2007)

I hadn't planned to write a review of this movie. But when I noticed all the very negative reviews from all the people who didn't seem to get the point, I had to chime in.
Cohen is parodying what the rest of the world believes to be America's bigotries and views of the rest of the world. He's letting the world know that America isn't the ugly, bigoted, bullying place they think it is. Cohen takes the stereotypes Americans are believed to have, throws them in American's faces and shows that Americans aren't really that way. He shows the great majority of Americans in the movie to be perfectly nice, decent people who don't buy in to the stereotypes he tries to stick on them.
Do Americans think third world eastern European countries are so outrageously backwards and Soviet? The outlandishness of his portrayal shows we don't. If for no other reason, we've seen too many travelogues to believe any of it. Do Americans fear and hate the Jews? He tosses it out as a given and never gives an iota of evidence. Look at Borat's fear of the old Jewish couple running the bed and breakfast. A wonderful juxtaposition of fear and reality. Who wouldn't love to stay with that couple? Are women inferior? Look at Borat's encounter with the feminists. Are Americans jingoistic world dominators? Look at the crowd at the rodeo, how they slowly cooled to his jingoism and turned against him.
Most of the movie's humor is gained from the fact the the people he dealt with were too dim to realize Borat was a faker. Can we laugh at ourselves for being that way? There's your test. I'll bet there were plenty of scenes where people did catch on, but those scenes didn't make it into the movie. That would have ruined everything.
If you were offended that he poked fun at nice, innocent people, then OK. If you were disgusted by the movie's toilet and sexual humor, well, I'll grant you that criticism. But get beyond that and realize the message he's sending to the rest of the world about America. You might appreciate Cohen a lot more after that.