Taking
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Kazahk television reporter and creating a
feature length film about the character was never going to be an easy
task. The real hard work was always going to be in doing it justice.
As with Ali G, the interview format from the TV series is an integral
part of the success of his creation and honouring that, whilst preventing
fan-base disappointment required some great skill in its execution.
Mixing that important ingredient and introducing a plot structure was
a very bold move which has been pulled off with aplomb.
The Borat movie draws many fine lines. It’s very difficult to
judge where the script ends and the spontaneity begins in this film,
and that’s really part of its beauty. In fact practically the
entire movie was scripted, many times over. It just tended to depend
upon the respective victims as to how the script would unfold. The whole
operation is a bit like taking some crazy kind of ‘Choose Your
Own Adventure’ book on the road and making a film out of it.
Part of the fun is to try and work out who’s acting and whose
not, and if they are acting - whether they really know quite what’s
going on or if they’ve been led astray somewhere along the line.
Every single one of the intricate set-ups sparkles with joy, even if
some of them might make you avert your eyes temporarily. The biggest
disappointment while watching this however, is that even on your first
viewing - the sheer omniprescence of this film and its content in the
public eye means that true surprises are few and far between. Through
too many scenes I found myself waiting for what I knew was about to
happen. The antiques shop being a perfect example of this.
by Ian Phillips
Official
Site
borat.tv
Myspace
Borat
Borat
Interview
Read Borat's
statement to
the press
