A few weeks back our school had free tickets to a preview of the film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". I know several people from the class were able to go see it. So I'm sure this will inspire a couple of you to share your thoughts.
I thought the movie was a brilliant mixture of grotesque humor and social satire, but I can understand how some people might take offense to it. Throughout the movie he constantly jokes about cultural stereotypes, religious beliefs, and social actions. In many cases the real insult of the joke is not even directed at the culture, religion, or people that are at the surface of the joke. Rather, the joke is directed toward the people around him (several of them blatantly racist). For example, many of his jokes involve Jews, but you have to think about the joke with an open mind and realize that he is not making fun of the Jews (he is actually Jewish himself). The review below brings up the question of "Does being Jewish himself make his jokes acceptable?" I guess it is a matter of opinion as well as how you view the direction of the joke.
I'd like to hear some other thoughts about the movie.
Check out the NYTimes movie review for Borat.
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