BORДT; the best character that was created by Sacha Baron Cohen, an oblivious journalist from Kazakhstan exploring America to document our ways to better his home country Kazakhstan. His humor comes from his crazy social views compared to those of Americans, and his use of inappropriate behavior and vulgar language in social settings. This character is in two movies “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” and the sequel “Borat subsequent movie film” featuring his feral teenage daughter Tutar, whom he locks up in a cage.
Even in the opening scene of the original film, he is pretty blunt and you dive head-first into the character, as he makes out with his sister. Every moment of the character is grotesque and shocking but also the funniest thing you will ever see. With many quotable lines and memorable scenes. As much of a joke as he is, he is really a great journalist for showing all kinds of crazy, while also being crazy.
Borat interacts with many people from all around America. Borat is innocently oblivious to American culture, which makes people say crazy things to him. The genius of Borat movies comes from the actors; who aren’t even actors, they are just random people moving the plot forward kind of like the series jackass, but with a plot. Few people in the movie are in on it. It’s all improv but with unsuspecting strangers. The point of the work is satire, but it magnifies the horrible in the world around us. Bubbly cartoonish Borat coaxes people who admit and say the most prejudiced things people wouldn’t just admit or do.
He makes frat boys admit that they wish slaves were still around. A cowboy tells him to shave his mustache, so he looks like a nice Italian instead of a “goddamn Muslim with a bomb strapped to him.” He asks an old baker lady to write “The Jews will not replace us!” on a cake (which she does). One of the biggest scenes in the second movie is when his daughter Tutar is posing as a journalist, and interviews Rudy Julliani; Donald Trump’s attorney and former mayor of New York. After the interview, he is seen touching himself in his pants with some whiskey, in the presence of a Tutar in her hotel suite following her fake interview. They are interrupted by Borat running out yelling “She’s 15! She’s too old for you!” repeatedly. Even though the actress is 24, and it seemed to be consensual, it’s a work of art. Rudy Julliani gets intruded on right before he’s about to get lucky as he describes “This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit”
But it’s not all bad people he meets. In the second movie, he hires this woman to babysit his teenage daughter so he can raise money for plastic surgery so he can marry her to Trump. The babysitter makes her question if she wants to marry this old man and tells her that there are options. She reminds her that she has an opinion and it matters. This is unexpected for her and the cast. Another person who shocked everyone was Judith. Staunch Anti-Semite Borat goes into a synagog, dressed as his idea of a Jewish person, with a big nose, devil wings, and a money bag. He meets this older Jewish woman named Judith Dim Evans, who doesn’t hesitate to hug him and tell him about how silly the things he was saying about Jewish people were. She eats food with him and opens up about her experience as a holocaust survivor. It was a scene that nobody predicted, and that was the only time Borat broke character. Sacha Baron Cohen was raised Jewish himself and is very close with his grandmother; also a holocaust survivor. There are plenty of people who will do and say the most vile things, but in the mix, you also get those who are truly good at heart. After watching Borat and dissecting it, you realize it’s just a very well-thought-out social commentary, showing the deeper truth around us through Borat’s foreign innocence.
