It offended whoever needed to be offended, although I don't believe it made them think

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2007)

I remember a conversation I had 17 years ago with an American young man of about 25 who told me, much to my surprise, that he had outgrown "Mahnee Python". He left me wondering how in all its complexity and multi-layeredness can Monty Python be fully grasped by the age of 25, let alone outgrown. Since then I realised that few people tend to look beyond the surface and the slapstick (the Pythons had to modify their sketches for their performance in the Hollywood Bowl so that the audience would be able to appreciate them).
Borat, although it could have been better, strikes at the heart of the problem of perceived democracy, equality and freedom of speech. By playing the primitive, biased rustic, he unmasks. People patronise him, they reveal their hidden beliefs, which they would never have otherwise made public. So much for the effectiveness of political correctness. It is true that not all the pranks are equally effective (e.g. the feminist HQ) but that only goes to show that his seemingly slapstick humour scathes but also spares those that deserve to be spared.
What I believe is the most important aspect of this film is the fact that it reveals plainly the condescending, deeply disrespectful attitude of the world's most powerful nation towards their less McDonald's-ish fellow humans.
For the record, though, I preferred the Borat bits in the Alli-G show, hence the nine.