BORAT (Counterargument)
Tyler: lll.5
There are few occasions when Kat and I substantially disagree on a movie, and this is one of them, hence I will present my counterargument:
Suddenly Borat, a British comedian turned Kazak reporter, began appearing on tv screens everywhere, from Jon Stewart to CNN. When it finally arrived at the theaters it made an explossive amount of money. Shows were sold out throughout DC and the buzz was unstoppable. To begin with, my expectations before entering the movie were virtually none. I expected an insensitive and profoundly offensive attack on culture and intelligence. To be honest, my original expectations were not fully dissappointed. However, there is still much more to Borat than may meet the eye. To begin with, even Kat was cracking up for most of the movie, with an almost non-stop expression of WTF and "this can not be happening". A lot of the movie is simply hilarious. While those moments were scattered, they were able to remain inprinted and Borat's commited quest to his virgin in L.A., Pamela Anderson, gave the movie a clear direction and kept the audience hooked. While Borat may not necessarily be the classic of our generation that critics like Rolling Stone's Peter Travers make it out to be, there is a distinct degree of dedication and ingenuity that appears all too easy at first. The best metaphor I can give is that Borat incorporates the sense of offensive, self-destructive and relentless audacity of Jackass with the critical sociopolitical wit and ingenuity of the Colbert Report. His capacity to stay in charcter in face of the most shocking experiences, and to expose the sexist, racist, jew-hating, destructive and absurd core of America is devastatingly funny... and painfully revealing. In oppose to Kat, what I found most central about the movie were not its senseless fart jokes but the shoking realities revealed. To respond to the claim of Borat's insensitivity, sexism, discrimination, and every other profoundly politically incorrect thing he does, I can say the following: throughout the entire movie, Borat flirts with very limits of political incorrectedness, leaving the audience with an almost constant reaction of OMG and WTF. However, the most shocking comments do not come from Borat but from those around him. The list is mindblowingly absurd coments is endless and should not be ruined for you. At the end, what Borat exposes is not the irreconciliable gap between Americans and this alleged Kazak. Regretably, it is a somewhat distorted, yet nonetheless excruitiatingly enlightening reflection of an America all to often ignored. An America taken for granted on a daily basis until it is painted in a parody of another country, one perceived as an obscure, suspicious and probably terrorist backward-country lost on the map somewhere between oil and terrorism. P.S. I don't want to imagine how offensive this movie may seen to many patriotic (and righteously so) Kazaks. For them, I'm trully sorry. I'm sorry your country had to be used and abused for the sake of a critical comedy on the US and A. (Note: for those who may be interested, this former member of the USSR is one of the largest countries in the world {the size of the entire Western Europe} and is located just south of Russia. It has a relatively stable political environment and with its many natural resources its economy is growing at a rate of almost 10%. It may help to know a little more about the country befor watching the movie to better see the parody of the whole thing.)
- Tyler Paris
Tyler: lll.5
There are few occasions when Kat and I substantially disagree on a movie, and this is one of them, hence I will present my counterargument:
Suddenly Borat, a British comedian turned Kazak reporter, began appearing on tv screens everywhere, from Jon Stewart to CNN. When it finally arrived at the theaters it made an explossive amount of money. Shows were sold out throughout DC and the buzz was unstoppable. To begin with, my expectations before entering the movie were virtually none. I expected an insensitive and profoundly offensive attack on culture and intelligence. To be honest, my original expectations were not fully dissappointed. However, there is still much more to Borat than may meet the eye. To begin with, even Kat was cracking up for most of the movie, with an almost non-stop expression of WTF and "this can not be happening". A lot of the movie is simply hilarious. While those moments were scattered, they were able to remain inprinted and Borat's commited quest to his virgin in L.A., Pamela Anderson, gave the movie a clear direction and kept the audience hooked. While Borat may not necessarily be the classic of our generation that critics like Rolling Stone's Peter Travers make it out to be, there is a distinct degree of dedication and ingenuity that appears all too easy at first. The best metaphor I can give is that Borat incorporates the sense of offensive, self-destructive and relentless audacity of Jackass with the critical sociopolitical wit and ingenuity of the Colbert Report. His capacity to stay in charcter in face of the most shocking experiences, and to expose the sexist, racist, jew-hating, destructive and absurd core of America is devastatingly funny... and painfully revealing. In oppose to Kat, what I found most central about the movie were not its senseless fart jokes but the shoking realities revealed. To respond to the claim of Borat's insensitivity, sexism, discrimination, and every other profoundly politically incorrect thing he does, I can say the following: throughout the entire movie, Borat flirts with very limits of political incorrectedness, leaving the audience with an almost constant reaction of OMG and WTF. However, the most shocking comments do not come from Borat but from those around him. The list is mindblowingly absurd coments is endless and should not be ruined for you. At the end, what Borat exposes is not the irreconciliable gap between Americans and this alleged Kazak. Regretably, it is a somewhat distorted, yet nonetheless excruitiatingly enlightening reflection of an America all to often ignored. An America taken for granted on a daily basis until it is painted in a parody of another country, one perceived as an obscure, suspicious and probably terrorist backward-country lost on the map somewhere between oil and terrorism. P.S. I don't want to imagine how offensive this movie may seen to many patriotic (and righteously so) Kazaks. For them, I'm trully sorry. I'm sorry your country had to be used and abused for the sake of a critical comedy on the US and A. (Note: for those who may be interested, this former member of the USSR is one of the largest countries in the world {the size of the entire Western Europe} and is located just south of Russia. It has a relatively stable political environment and with its many natural resources its economy is growing at a rate of almost 10%. It may help to know a little more about the country befor watching the movie to better see the parody of the whole thing.)
- Tyler Paris
No comments:
Post a Comment