Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1212 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-05
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Colour, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Amazon.com
It takes a certain kind of comic genius to create a character who is, to quote the classic Sondheim lyric, appealing and appalling. But be forewarned: Borat is not "something for everyone." It arrives as advertised as one of the most outrageous, most offensive, and funniest films in years. Kazakhstan journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen reprising the popular character from his Da Ali G Show, leaves his humble village to come to "U.S. of A" to film a documentary. After catching an episode of Baywatch in his New York hotel room, he impulsively scuttles his plans and, accompanied by his fat, hirsute producer (Hardy to his Laurel), proceeds to California to pursue the object of his obsession, Pamela Anderson. Borat is not about how he finds America; it's about how America finds him in a series of increasingly cringe-worthy scenes. Borat, with his '70s mustache, well-worn grey suit, and outrageously backwards attitudes (especially where Jews are concerned) interacts with a cross-section of the populace, catching them, a la Alan Funt on Candid Camera, in the act of being themselves.

Early on, an unwitting humour coach advises Borat about various types of jokes. Borat asks if his brother's retardation is a ripe subject for comedy. The coach patiently replies, "That would not be funny in America." NOT! Borat is subversively, bracingly funny. When it comes to exploring uncharted territory of what is and is not appropriate or politically correct, Borat knows no boundaries, as when he brings a fancy dinner with the southern gentry to a halt after returning from the bathroom with a bag of his feces ("The cultural differences are vast," his hostess graciously/patronisingly offers), or turns cheers to boos at a rodeo when he calls for bloodlust against the Iraqis and mangles "The Star Spangled Banner."

Success, John F. Kennedy once said, has a thousand fathers. A paternity test on Borat might reveal traces of Bill Dana’s Jose Jimenez, Andy Kaufman, Michael Moore, The Jamie Kennedy Xperiment, and Jackass. Some scenes seem to have been staged (a game Anderson, whom Borat confronts at a book signing, was reportedly in on the setup), but others, as the growing litany of lawsuits attests, were not. All too real is Borat's encounter with loutish Southern frat boys who reveal their sexism and racism, and the disturbing moment when he asks a gun store owner what gun he would recommend to "kill a Jew" (a Glock automatic is the matter-of-fact reply). Comedy is not pretty, and in Borat it can get downright ugly, as when Borat and his producer get jiggly with it during a nude fight that spills out from their hotel room into the hallway, elevator, lobby and finally, a mortgage brokers association banquet. High-five! --Donald Liebenson

Synopsis
Sacha Baron Cohen brings his Borat character to the big screen with this feature length adaptation of his American exploits. Fans of DA ALI G SHOW will already be familiar with the devilishly simple Borat formula, in which the heavily moustachioed TV host from Kazakhstan dupes a number of unwitting citizens into revealing their deepest prejudices, and this movie takes that premise, stirs in a little narrative structure, and serves a side-splitting mirth-fest. The action begins with Borat travelling to America alongside his producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian). After a hotel room viewing of BAYWATCH, Borat decides he must travel to California to woo Pamela Anderson, so he and the long-suffering Azamat take a cross-country road trip in an ice cream van, encountering some funny, disturbing, and deeply strange individuals along the way. SEINFELD producer Larry Charles lends his directing talents to BORAT, and he gets the balance between the loosely threaded plot and Borat’s encounters with real Americans exactly right. At times the movie threatens to topple over into glorious anarchy, with each situation escalating to ridiculously funny extremes, but Charles knows exactly when to put the brakes on and progress to Borat’s next encounter--although the police are called at the tail-end of one memorable sequence. Keen-eyed viewers will notice some repetition from the TV show, with Borat once again going to a rodeo and again taking etiquette lessons, but it’s almost as if Cohen treats each of these set-pieces as a comedic ‘bit’ he is working on, gradually adding further delirium every time he goes back for another shot. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell who, if any, of BORAT’s participants are actors, but it matters little when the material is this gut-wrenchingly funny, and it’s testament to Cohen’s talents that he’s managed to take a marginal supporting character from his TV show and turned him into a genuine cultural phenomenon.

Customer Reviews

How did Kazakhstan benefit exactly?
Sacha Borat aka Borat, the charmingly offensive, Kazakhstan reporter has written and appeared in a hilarious anti-PC film that tramples over every cringing, PC attitude, where previously, 'decent' folk once feared to tread. His exploits in seeking to introduce America for the benefit of Kazakhstan TV have deeply upset Kazakhstani politicians and tourism officials alike. (Did Kazakhstan have a tourist industry before this film?)
But the joke is really on America and Americans and the way that they respond to Borat provides the humour of the film. Their endemic racism, homophobic and their tendency to take things literally and their inability to send themselves up produce some very funny episodes.

Aided by the memorably named Azamat Bogatov, 'Borat' does pander to the lowest common denominator, but somehow he gets away with each outrageous scene and stunt. How he managed to avoid arrest is open to speculation. From watching the film again, it is conceivable that more of the stunts were staged than initally seemed possible. The extras to promote the movie, which are included in the DVD package are worth viewing, as are the deleted scenes. Sacha Baron Cohen's appearances to promote the movie, (chat shows in the US and openings in cities around the world) were conducted in character. Indeed, such is his total immersion in the character that he reminds me of the late, great, Peter Sellers, who was similarly transformed by the characters he inhabited, often to the point that he couldn't step back out of character.

How Cohen plans to follow up this triumph will be eagerly awaited. Nothing else he has tried has worked as well as Borat. The Bruno character is more the stuff of short sketch than full-length feature film. In the meantime, savour the outrageousness of this DVD. Highly recommended.
All stand for the Kazakhstan National Anthem!

Happy Times
As an ex-pat living in Germany, I can say that I was somewhat apprehensive of the Germans reaction to the so-called anti-semitic parts of Borat. They are, quite obviously, very sensitive to the dark finger of racism. However, a series of well-constructed t.v and newspaper reports prepared the public here for its content. For example, Cohens Judaism and the, in my mind, masterstroke of Borat actually speaking Hebrew (with a very heavy accent) when he should be speaking Kazakhstani, illuminated satirical aspects of the film that attracted the Germans. The Germans have a great love of satire. In fact, combined with slapstick, it IS their national form of comedy. They have embraced Borat. As we all should. But of course with clothes on. Don`t use the film as an attempt to put down the US of A, because this film would have worked in Britain just as well. Ignorance has no borders. Quite simply the funniest and cleverest satirical film ever produced.

Very funny - but not a masterpiece

I enjoyed Borat. In fact, I enjoyed it even before I put the DVD in the machine...

The actual disk itself is made to look like a pirated copy of the film (complete with DVD-R printed on the disk and felt tip pen scribbling of the film title!).

My over all impression of the film was that it was really a series of sketches held together with a thin plot. But some of the moments of brilliance were enough reason themselves to buy the DVD.

The central idea is quite genius, take a character who is supposedly socially backwards and from a socially inferior community, plonk him in the richest nation in the world, and show how intolerent and socially retarded that country is too!

The truth is, you could make any country look as bad as the US looked - with a bit of biased editing. I'm sure that's what happened here to an extent, but the truth is that there happens to be a lot of racial intolerance in the "US and A". Nations outside of the US often view the US as very inward looking and right-wing, and this film showed some great examples of that.

Borat's inital landing in the US was fab. As he tries to greet Americans and kiss them on the cheek he encounters some pretty strong homophobic threats.

He also comes across some lovely people (the Jewish couple who put them up for the night) and the 'Street homeys' who teach him to look cool.
I thought it interesting that the latter of the aforementioned groups were the ones who seemed the most threatening, the 'underclass' - but they turned out to be more accepting than the middle-class group at the dinner party.

Borat did what Borat does best, shows the scary side of the world. The side which is fuelled by the flag waving, God-loving, gay hating, racist, middle class who exercise so much power and influence. He does this via a blend of staged and fly-on-the wall stunts.

As I said before, this isn't a masterpiece, it isn't a classic, but some of the scenes in this mockumentary stand out as a warning that those who claim to be moral guardians and virtuous are often the ones who harbour the most destructive and narrow minded of prejudices and hatred.

Plus - you get to see the funniest swimsuit ever!