Borat the Movie

[Jorum]

I'm not sure about that. Isn't the President of Kazakhstan an autocratic nutcase who's banned opera and ballet, and made his own poetry compulsory in schools?

You may be thinking of Turkmenistan. He banned lots of things including beards (on the anti-islam bandwagon). He also tried to get a month of the year named after him and his mum iirc.

Kazakhstan president is into corruption, nepotism, and a well known journalist who started making him look bad dissappeared.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Yep, the kazakhstani president sounds more comparable to my glorious leaders in my current country of residence! More similarities to china there then...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Some links about the film I mentioned:

http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu/2002/ga3/killer-program-notes.html
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.528051/qx/details.htm

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

It's a fucking good film actually and ought to be considered in the same breath as things like Hana Bi and La Haine...

 

[Poi E]

Turkmenbashi has banned video games, urged young people not to get gold teeth and makes physicians swear an oath to him.

Well, at least he doesn't go round starting wars.

 

[Hollis]

Looking forward to this.. laughing at the Johnny Foreigner.. great fun.

 

[Ms T]

Not confusing him with the colourful Niyazov, "Turkmenbashi", father of the Turkmens?

Ah yes, I think you're right.

 

[London_Calling]

I think the majority Kazakstani view is that is not so much offensive becasue it is so massively far removed from anything resembling Kazakstan.

Which you'd think was maybe the idea - it isn't quite so far removed from many people's perceptions of Kazakstan.

It's about perceptions, isn't it - that and the modern inclination to shout 'racist' every few minutes at seemingly random moments of the day.


Actually, it's about perceptions and making lots of money; controversy helps, of course.

 

[Poi E]

Ah yes, I think you're right.

Oh you know, they all look the same. Mustaches, anti-semitism, that sort of thing.

 

[Ms T]

Oh you know, they all look the same. Mustaches, anti-semitism, that sort of thing.

He has changed the country's capital to his home town, and constructed a grandiose palace there, built by Norman Foster, with an opera house in the basement.

 

[E.J.]

Looks like Sacha Baron Cohen has agreed to do a film of Bruno, the gay and camp Austrian fashionista!!
Link

Personally and imo it's probably SBC's best character, then Borat who's at times is absurdly funny. I wasn't impressed with the Ali G character in terms of hype and persona, yet alone the movie (after watching it just over a year ago)!!

 

[Kid_Eternity]

It's his worst imo. Barely funny and really who cares about taking the piss out of the fashion industry when they do it so well themselves?

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Yeah I found the Bruno character really quite shit.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Plus it doesn't have the moral complexity of Ali G/Borat, the different levels that you can look at with. Bruno is just a straight ahead pisstake, where Borat makes you question who he is taking the piss out of.

 

[Loki]

Hmm what looks like the movie has appeared as a torrent.. I'm downloading half as am sceptical here.

PS. Bruno isn't deep I agree, but he's very good at yanking the chains of homophobes

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

how can you download half?

 

[Loki]

it's in 2 zipped files - for a 700MB download which in itself is grounds for extreme scepticism. The list of peers is exploding as I type though.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

Hmm what looks like the movie has appeared as a torrent.. I'm downloading half as am sceptical here.

PS. Bruno isn't deep I agree, but he's very good at yanking the chains of homophobes

I wouldn't bother - it's a recording of what somebody took with a cam in the cinema - and... Date now: November 03 2006 01:46:34.Last scraped: November 03 2006 01:41:52.Seeders: 1 Leechers: 1643

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Yeah I never bother with cam recordings.

Although weirdly I got a DVD of King Kong earlier in the year which was very good quality, yet near the end someone walked in front of the screen. SO it must have been cam, yet it looked like a real DVD! I dunno how they did that!

 

[STFC]

Hmm what looks like the movie has appeared as a torrent.. I'm downloading half as am sceptical here.

PS. Bruno isn't deep I agree, but he's very good at yanking the chains of homophobes

The interview with the college boys on spring break was quality - "Say hello to Austrian Gay TV" - "Hi Australian Gay...WHAT??!!".

 

[Red Faction]

im not a fan of bruno
and i was skeptical of this film tbh if it was just a continuous version of the tv clip of borat then it would get boring quickly

it was AWESOME
very funny
althought some of it MUST have been a setup
otherwise pamela anderson would have launched legal proceedings against him and he would have had the shit kicked out of him really badly

 

[spoone]

The interview with the college boys on spring break was quality - "Say hello to Austrian Gay TV" - "Hi Australian Gay...WHAT??!!".

haha that was classic. He spends 10 minutes getting them to shout PARTY louder and louder and then drops that bomb.

 

[STFC]

haha that was classic. He spends 10 minutes getting them to shout PARTY louder and louder and then drops that bomb.

"More energy!"

They loved him up until he mentioned the G-word. Fools.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

saw this last night, it was hard to believe how 'real' half of it was by the end but it's cripplingly funny. It almost becomes unbearable about 2/3rds of the way through, you think it can't get any more deprave and then it does!

It works so much better as a documentary rather than trying to be a film which is why his Ali G movie wasn't that great. Anyhow I thought NewYorkers were real stars defending themselves against the rabid onslaught of Borat.

 

[billy_bob]

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned the history of animosity towards Cosacks that is widespread in Jewish communities* (might have missed it though, I've raced through the thread). Obviously I don't know SBC so it's only conjecture but I wonder whether this comes into play. Whilst as a character Borat does a cracking job of exposing the prejudices of his targets I'm always uncomfortable laughing at it because of that feeling that those backward primitive central asians are at least as much the butt of the joke as the bigots he's talking to. (I wouldn't go as far as the Kazakh government who seem to think he's an agent of the worldwide Zionist conspiracy though).

*not without historical justification

 

[Spymaster]

saw this last night, it was hard to believe how 'real' half of it was by the end but it's cripplingly funny. It almost becomes unbearable about 2/3rds of the way through, you think it can't get any more deprave and then it does!

Superb. We're seeing it tonight.

Been looking forward to it all week.

 

[JoePolitix]

Saw it yesterday - funniest film ever. End of.

 

[Gramsci]

Watching the credits i saw that Borats village was filmed in Rumania.Our latest new friends in Europe next january .A Polish friend of mine thinks Borat is hilarious.I did point out part of the joke is assumptions about the naivety of those ex Communist countries love of "the free market" and the US.And the sterotypes of them being backward or "hot".This is also to be seen in "Severance" and "Hostel".

 

[Gramsci]

A quaint little local exhibition

Have nice sexy time in Kazakhstan

 

[Gramsci]

Well i thought it was patchy but i was in stitches in some bits.The rodeo scene,which must have been done for real,was brilliant.I also liked the director(an American actor).I think the funniest scenes were the Bear and the wrestling match in the hotel room.The film was criticised for using to much slapstick.That didnt bother me.I thought it was playing a compliment to Us humour like the Marx brothers.

I dont think the film was as anti american as is made out.Its anti a Bush America not all americans.The beginning in Borats village and the "Jew running" festival made his country seem really bizarre and backward.About half way through the film as he went through the US i thought actually America what a bizarre place.They speak the same language as us but are so different.Well maybe thats part of what the film was saying.

Still i can see why some argue the US is an easy target.What about a Borat goes to Uk film?After all immigration has become an issue here with fears of us being overrun by Rumanian gangs of pickpockets etc.

Also Borats love of all things american does remind me of the ways east Europeans go on sometimes.The cold war divided Europe and there is a different mindset.