The world of Amazon entertainment reached the at-home audience officially. Prime Video pushed limits, buttons, and the comedy of Borat in a timely, calculated way. “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” , staring Sacha Baron Cohen’s Kazakhstani journalist and government “public enemy number one,” Borat, took his comedic injections to a streaming device officially on October 23rd. For one American public official, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giullani, the Friday release may end up being his own Friday the 13th. The Borat lampooning was in full effect.
A Covid Theater Release:
Borat’s original 2006 film was released in the movie multiplexes now at risk because of both Covid-19 and consumer preferences for online entertainment. Unlike the first movie, this sequel taps into concerns of jokes being accepted as truths but without the acknowledgement of fellow theater goers and patrons sitting next to one another. Group logic is left for a one-on-one with Borat – unless viewed with a friend, loved one or amongst a watch party.
Baron Cohen’s focus continues on proving that the unaware American public, specifically in the American South, is easily accepting of hateful rhetoric and unverified claims. Whether it be a Debutant Ball, a Republican gathering of women, a Vice Presidential speech, a pro-Trump rally or a journalist’s satirical interview held in a private hotel room with Giullani, Borat demonstrates the worst sides of humanity, as found in America today. Borat also reveals that some people, a caring babysitter comes to mind, are highly questioning of the situations they find themselves and attempt to right the wrong unraveling before their own eyes. Each has one thing in common – a need to earn a living. Borat finds a way to show that a specific segment of society has been conditioned into looking the other way when money is at hand.
Visual Proof:
Millions of Prime members had the ability to see the absurdities as well. The film weaves the American response to Covid-19 at the citizen level. Borat chases the virus indoors when a “hospitable” man cautiously welcomes the journalist inside at the onset of the outbreak and voluntary quarantine in America. From the liquor store to a Trump rally, Borat extends the willing ignorance of the general public.
The unsuspecting former Mayor:
As for Giullani, his ignorance can only be excused perhaps by senility. Not! Just turn to the outcomes of Roger Ailes or Dominique Strauss-Kahn to know how society judges power and sexual harassment or misbehavior. The potential scandal that Borat and his journalist daughter have presented should leave men and women focused on realigning socially accepted protocols between one another. At the end of World War II, the liberating Allied forces uncovered the atrocities of man – specifically that of Nazi, Fascist Germany. American Generals, when liberating the Nazi death camps, were so appalled by the mounds of bodies dead and alive locked in the concentration camps, they enlisted neighboring town citizens to be witnesses to their own silence. The ashes that were passed off as “winter snow”, might have been brushed off if the great American and Allied forces had been defeated. The Allies won. Nuremberg Trials happened. “Never Forget” has been countlessly told. Yet Borat’s “Running of the Jews” in the original film and now again in the sequel, ushers in an urgency to stop the jokes.
Kazakhstan Interferes with Election:
On November 3rd, America votes. The effort of this movie, its production company and even the head of its company, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, have clear political objectives. The justified effort to expose the lack of concern of one another by the current political environment must prevail. And when it does, ideally Borat will cease to be needed as a comedic relief for the American and global film goer. @BoratSagdiyev @SachaBaronCohen #borat2