This film is actually very offensive to me. I cannot imagine what it was like for other people who were mentioned in this documentary. Borat is a very unrealistic documentary because the differences in culture are stretched and overemphasize. One example is the reference to Jews throughout the whole movie. The people from Borat’s country believe that they are evil, shape shifters and that they are born with horns. I feel like this is very unbelievable to anyone and it is just there to make the movie a little funnier and to make the cultural difference seem even greater. Talking with my roommate who is from a country in the Middle East, a lot of the old “traditions” like prearranged marriages and men getting wed to very young girls is out of date. “Nobody does that anymore,” he says. The one thing about the movie that I find legidament is the demeaning of women. Just witnessing his actions towards women in general is pretty normal, but it all changes when he starts dating them. He becomes controlling and acts superior. He actually talks down about women when he’s around me or other guys. Doing some digging, I asked him how his parent’s relationship was doing. He said that they were doing good, but also that they don’t talk much and actually sleep in different beds.
The only part that could be taken seriously in Borat is the fact that the civilians were completely unaware that they were in a documentary. The people’s reactions were very convincing so I don’t think they were staged. If the documentary was made to test people’s reactions towards a foreigner of this degree, then I can see the purpose behind it. Surprisingly, a lot of the people who were targeted in the documentary acted a little scared. They ran away from him, cussed him out, and they were just really rude to him. I guess it depends on where he was, but I was a little surprised with the results. Their reactions were surprising also because most of the footage was from a large city where the percentage of foreigners is higher and the chances of meeting one are greater.
The movie, or documentary, starts out with scenes from Borat’s hometown. He introduces and gives a detailed description of his wife, mother, neighbor, etc. His culture is portrayed as out of date. So, throughout the documentary there are many instances where the viewer could have different impressions on other cultures previous to watching it. Borat could cause the viewers to be permanently scarred when it comes to different races and cultures. Someone could argue that this movie is damaging the world because different races are always mixing and we need to understand and respect one another. This film is demeaning to different races, sexes, and different cultures. Borat is played by a real Jewish man who thinks all of the Jewish jokes are funny. Basically, I think this film should be exploited and we need to fix the negative outlooks that the views now have on different races.