Borat

[GreenPea]

Ugh, it is a joke. I have the feeling the reason for these lawsuits is '$$$' rather than hurt feelings.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by GreenPea

Ugh, it is a joke. I have the feeling the reason for these lawsuits is '$$$' rather than hurt feelings.

You don't feel like this is taking advantage of people in a desperate situation? I'm hoping to hear a good argument against feeling this way about it, because I'd like to see the movie, but don't feel comfortable about it when it's for laughs at the expense of people in such a difficult situation. From a new article about the same subject:


Residents and local officials in the hardscrabble hamlet 85 miles northwest of Bucharest said Tuesday they were horrified and humiliated to learn their abject poverty and simple ways were ridiculed for a movie now raking in millions at box offices worldwide.

"We thought they came here to help us _ not mock us," said Dana Luca, 40, sweeping a manure-stained street lined with shabby homes of crumbling brick and corrugated iron sheeting.

"We haven't got anything here. We haven't got running water. We can't even bathe," she said. "We are poor people, but we are still people."

[adam]

You guys are referring to different things, I think. The lawsuit is from a couple of frat boys who convey themselves like total assholes. You will feel no sympathy for them.

As for the other angle...I'm not really up for entering into that debat. Personally, I think by not seeing the movie, you're not missing much, Sean. The best skits are better, in my opinion.

[GforGroove]

Originally Posted by Sean

You don't feel like this is taking advantage of people in a desperate situation? I'm hoping to hear a good argument against feeling this way about it, because I'd like to see the movie, but don't feel comfortable about it when it's for laughs at the expense of people in such a difficult situation. From a new article about the same subject:


Residents and local officials in the hardscrabble hamlet 85 miles northwest of Bucharest said Tuesday they were horrified and humiliated to learn their abject poverty and simple ways were ridiculed for a movie now raking in millions at box offices worldwide.

"We thought they came here to help us _ not mock us," said Dana Luca, 40, sweeping a manure-stained street lined with shabby homes of crumbling brick and corrugated iron sheeting.

"We haven't got anything here. We haven't got running water. We can't even bathe," she said. "We are poor people, but we are still people."

I think greenpea were taking about the guys of the movie, not the people from Bucharest. And regarding those assholes that are asking for money, he don't take advantage, they are completely retarded already, he just exhibit them...

About the people of the town... sometimes is pretty acted.. I mean did you saw the movie? A lot of people of that shanty town im sure are acting...
i dont think because they are poor thay have to be stupid and not ask for something back. (money or whatever)... Really, put a camera in any shanty town in the world and people will come running to be in TV or such.
Don't know if he is taking advantage of "desperate" people.

[Deckard]

Baron Cohen has dropped his alter ego for the first time since the Borat film was released, for an interview with Rolling Stone magazine...

"The joke is not on Kazakhstan," he said. "I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist."

But Cohen - a practising Jew - said the film ridiculed what people were prepared to believed about other cultures. "Borat works essentially as a tool," the former Ali G star said. "By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism."

He added: "I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews."

[GreenPea]

Originally Posted by Sean

You don't feel like this is taking advantage of people in a desperate situation? I'm hoping to hear a good argument against feeling this way about it, because I'd like to see the movie, but don't feel comfortable about it when it's for laughs at the expense of people in such a difficult situation. From a new article about the same subject:

First of all I have not seen the movie because every time I've gone all the tickets are sold out, so I have not seen the scenes in question. My only point is this: every time people can get money out of something they will try to, if I have any problem is that maybe he did not pay them enough to show up on the film, but I dont have any problem on making fun of people even if it is in bad taste. I think the whole thing about being horrified and humilliated is over the top, and I think they probably want more money out this...and I don't blame them mind you.

And yes, I don't have a problem of making fun of them because I find it that it is so obviously fake and retarded that there is no way that any human being would take it seriously, kind of like the Khazak government complaining about the portrayal of the country, it is so obviously a fucking joke. And yeah I agree with what he said, the joke is on those that take it seriously.

[big screen satellite]

with reference to the first article Sean referred to, and i have yet to see the film myself, but its from the Daily Mail (which kinda says it all to me)

Now, if you like me, despise the Daily Mail and all it stands for then you will realise that it is quite possible that the Mail has set out to 'Do A Hatchet Job' on Cohen, because you see, the people that Cohen tends to take the piss out of and others like him (the Jackass crowd for example) tend to be not to disimilar to typical Daily Mail Readers...

now that is kind of a generalisation, but the Daily Mail / Mail On Sunday and its readers have no sense of humour at all and if there is any way that they can take something that people are enjoying and having fun with and turn upon it and campaign against it, they will...

I would not believe a word of any article printed by the Mail, and if they did indeed go to Kahzastan and interview this man, they had a reason themselves, to sell their newspaper with a sorded story, and in doing so have also humiliated this man, imho. (bet they paid him for it too...!)

anyway, from what i've heard its a very funny movie and anyone who seriously thinks anyone has been harmed in making it is seriously missing the point...

lets also not forget Cohen has left in all the bits that are funny and the bits where he was NOT discovered as an impersonator, but all of the parts where he was exposed - well they are not in the film, because they are not funny.... how many people actually turned round and said to him you can't do this and you can't say that - its probably been very heavily editted to show the buffoons and idiots - because that is the funny part

and i'm not sure but i thought that before you publically showed someone's image from secret filming you had to get their permission... and as such anyone who performed either with prior permission or agreed to the filming after the event unfortunately will not have a leg to stand on in court (correct me if i'm wrong on this)

still i can't wait to catch this movie...

[adam]

Originally Posted by big screen satellite

if you like me

ha ha ha ha ha

[Malt Refund]

I love that he paid poor people to put livestock in their own houses. I think it's hilarious and a breakthrough in cinema as we know it.