Archie Bunker meets Latka Gravis

Rating: 7/10 (19 November 2006)

I sit and watch this film laughing my ash off because it is so damn funny. It really is that. There are parts that are completely hilarious and qualify as some of the funniest moments I've ever had in a movie theater. But then as I head home, I stop and try and figure out why even that rarest of breeds, the entertaining new Hollywood film, leaves me wishing I hadn't enjoyed it so much. Borat, the absurd but hilarious tale of a bigoted chauvinist Kazakh immigrant's quest to marry Pamela Anderson while filming a discover-America documentary for his homeland, triumphs at the box office, and earns the raves of critics across the board. This in a society which has recently added diversity to the noble virtues of truth, justice, freedom, equality etc. But...this is now also a society where double standards of acceptability have become the norm when observing race relations. One group can at the expense of another make merry, where another group most certainly cannot. Herein lies Borat'a winning secret. For Borat perfectly demonstrates and even perfects this weird phenomenon of inequity and does it so well that at first glance, it's hypocrisy is virtually transparent. Borat's Archie Bunker like prejudices seem to be aimed at all creeds equally, and in fact, for Borat the character, it holds true. Yet, look closer and you see that this is not so for Borat the movie. The film is by no means innocent of prejudice any more than its main character is, as we see the same tired modern stereotypes lurking not particularly far beneath an 'everyone is fair game' veneer. The same groups we have become accustomed and even inured to see lampooned and actually insulted get their usual treatment in this film. While with equal predictability, other groups are elevated from misunderstood victims of prejudice straight up to goodness personified, which by this movie's standards is tantamount to beatification. Borat makes it quite clear that for whatever the reasons, racial and ethnic jokes can still be surefire laugh-getters even in todays politically airtight environment provided that said jokes are delivered by an ignoramus and also and more importantly provided that in the end, the 'right' people get the last laugh. Disagree? Why not ask Seinfeld instant has-been Mike 'Kramer' Richards, who's very own Borat impersonation and subsequent circus/apology/coup de grace public execution, was Hollywood's politically insane and all too expectedly difficult to digest contribution to the American Thanksgiving table this year. Yet the million dollar question remains; Just who exactly has the right of decision in this magnificent quandary we've built for ourselves? My guess is Kazakhstan for starters isn't afforded much chance for input.... Is Borat as funny as you are hearing? Yes and maybe more so. And that's what bothers me so much I suppose.