Glorious in many different ways

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2006)

With a film such as this, almost every definition of what the movie is about has been posted by someone or other. Some see it as sharp political satire, others stupid toilet humour, a few not even any humour before. Truth is, what you laugh at in this film, why you find it funny, will vary from person to person. The reason is that Cohen and Co have fitted a large variety of humour types into the 90 odd minutes of film. There is satire, and there's toilet humour, and also slapstick, spoof, cringe humour, everything really.
The one thing you can say universally about it is that it's outrageous. This outrageousness present in almost all the scenes elevates what ever humour is present at the time to new heights. The satire is bold and without a hint of caution, the toilet humour is as clear and graphic as you can imagine, the slapstick genuinely hilarious and shocking at the same time, the cringe humour takes us to places never seen on a big screen before, everything goes that one step further. To describe it in terms of any one form of comedy is missing much of the point of the film, it's funny for a large number of reasons. This certainly goes some way to explaining the near universal acceptance of the film, as everyone sees a slightly different reason to laugh till your cheeks hurt.
Personally, the part of the film that got me the most was the sheer balls of Cohen. He does things I would never imagine someone having the nerve to do, especially someone who does have something to lose. I won't go into what exactly, but the film makers show such dedication to the cause, even at the expense of their physical wellbeing, to get that one shot, you find yourself applauding simply for the lengths they went to.
On a more serious note, many people are finding this film deeply offensive. But, really, that's the point. It is offensive, but it's so silly, so ridiculous, so over the top that you can't take it seriously. You KNOW Cohen isn't really anti-Jewish, you KNOW he doesn't really hate women or think 'retards' should be locked up, you KNOW (or you should know) he's only joking, so getting wound up at the horror of it all is completely useless, as most of the none PC stuff is made up. True it's placed in the real world, and there are some real world opinions that will make your toes crawl, but most of the offensive content is from Borat himself, and you can forgive him anything, as he's made up. For those finding the film too offensive to watch, I can understand why, but for the vast majority of people, the bad taste certainly won't stick in your mouth.