Susan Granger’s review of “Borat” (20th Century-Fox)
Seeing this outrageous, politically incorrect fish-out-of-water comedy made me wonder exactly what must be shown on-screen to warrant a NC-17 rating these days – because there’s something in this crude, R-rated cesspool to offend everyone: male nudity, vulgar language, nasty scatological references, excrement, etc.
“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” revolves around Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen), a TV journalist from a rural Khazak village traveling to the United States on a fact-finding mission. While New York City is his original destination, when he becomes besotted with TV’s “Baywatch” babe Pamela Anderson, he drives an ice cream truck to Hollywood to make her his bride. With his mangled English and racist/sexist prejudices, Borat informs feminists that the female brain is the size of a squirrel’s, takes hip-hop lessons from urban kids, parties with frat boys, invites a prostitute to dine with Southern conservatives, finds “Mr. Jesus” at a Pentecostal rally, wrestles nude with his grossly obese producer (Ken Davitian), and sings his own version of the “Star Spangled Banner” at a rodeo, after expressing his support of America’s “war of terror” and enthusing, “May George Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq!”
British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, creator and star of HBO’s “Da Ali G Show,” along with “Seinfeld” producer Larry Charles and editor Craig Alpert, propel this shocking mockumentary from the initial ritual Running of the Jew, an Anti-Semitic caricature, through various improvised vignettes that stretch on far too long, even though the impromptu reactions of the unsuspecting participants are hilarious. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Borat” is a sexually explicit, slyly slanderous 7, taking satiric aim at the simplistic absurdity of superstition and bigotry – in all forms.
