Concerning "Borat"
Posted by Ross
Raznor's and my mom didn't really like "Borat" because she felt it was too mean-spirited. And I understand what she means. There are times you really feel bad for the people he's lampooning, and reading interviews later I couldn't help but feel sympathy for some of the subjects.
I think it's alright to feel sympathy for some of the subjects in the film, while simultaneously thinking it's funny as hell when Bortat expresses, in front of a crowd of cheering rednecks, his hopes for Premiere Bush to drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq.
I love how Borat can draw out such incredibly ignorant, hateful, sexist, racist, anti-semitic remarks from otherwise patient, kind, hospitable people. And I think that's incredibly important to notice.
I'm a huge fan of the Morgan Spurlock show "30 Days." I've showed a couple episodes -- the one where a Christian man has to live as a Muslim and the one where a Christian man who believes homosexuality is a sin has to live with a gay roommate in the Castro district -- in my Sunday school class and it's just so amazing to see these people transcend small-mindedness and bigotry simply by living in close proximity with that "unpleasant other."
It's not that we should point and ridicule these folks because they say things that have been deemed "wrong" by the slow and strange evolution of thought, but rather that we recognize our own horrible selves in them, as well as the extraordinary capacity for a person to learn, grow and change...while all the while laughing our asses off.
Raznor's and my mom didn't really like "Borat" because she felt it was too mean-spirited. And I understand what she means. There are times you really feel bad for the people he's lampooning, and reading interviews later I couldn't help but feel sympathy for some of the subjects.
I think it's alright to feel sympathy for some of the subjects in the film, while simultaneously thinking it's funny as hell when Bortat expresses, in front of a crowd of cheering rednecks, his hopes for Premiere Bush to drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq.
I love how Borat can draw out such incredibly ignorant, hateful, sexist, racist, anti-semitic remarks from otherwise patient, kind, hospitable people. And I think that's incredibly important to notice.
I'm a huge fan of the Morgan Spurlock show "30 Days." I've showed a couple episodes -- the one where a Christian man has to live as a Muslim and the one where a Christian man who believes homosexuality is a sin has to live with a gay roommate in the Castro district -- in my Sunday school class and it's just so amazing to see these people transcend small-mindedness and bigotry simply by living in close proximity with that "unpleasant other."
It's not that we should point and ridicule these folks because they say things that have been deemed "wrong" by the slow and strange evolution of thought, but rather that we recognize our own horrible selves in them, as well as the extraordinary capacity for a person to learn, grow and change...while all the while laughing our asses off.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home