Borat, Cohen and Charles.

Who the hell is Larry Charles? That's a fair question, I guess. He's a fairly successful television director whose credits include Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Most people couldn't name more than a couple TV directors- they are unheralded compared to their cousins in the film industry. Usually the creator of a TV series is the one who gets the credit for being the artist on the production. When it comes to movies, however, directors are given ownership of the success of the product. That's not the case with Larry Charles. And while it's true that Charles has only directed two films (the first one being an art-house documentary about Bob Dylan)... it was a pretty big hit. It generated a lot of controversy, and garnered critical and commercial acclaim. But the main man associated with Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) is (appropriately, I would think) Sascha Baron Cohen. After all, it was Cohen who created and starred in The Ali G Show, with a trio of iconic characters that included "Borat".

For those few of you who don't know Borat, he is a fictional Kazakhstani television personality (played by Cohen) that traveled throughout the USA, meeting and interviewing real Americans. The genius of Borat, and indeed all of the Ali G Show, was the mix of character-based comedy with reality television. No one that was filmed on the show (besides Cohen) was in on the joke. The fun was in seeing how people reacted to a man from a foreign country that they knew nothing about. Through their interaction with Borat, these folks would often expose their naivete, jingoism, intolerance, bigotry, sincerity and/or innocence. Often times they would reveal shockingly crude or inensitive beliefs. The gullibility and lack of cultural sophistication apparent in their responses is at the same time hilarious and frightening. It's an expose of American attitudes, and for that very reason it is alternatively illuminating or offensive, depending upon your view of the United States.

The feature film starring Borat continues the joke. It's hard to believe that there were still so many dupes after the original television airings and the DVD releases of both seasons of the Ali G Show. I guess that's indicative of just how cloistered the mainsteam entertainment consumer is in this country. The original series (which aired on HBO) was not a huge hit, and thus went unnoticed across much of the nation. Evidently the average American was too busy watching FOXNews, American Idol, and the NASCAR circuit. For that reason Cohen could come back to the US, and travel mostly through the Southern states, and be unrecognized. This feat really does confirm many of the sterotypes of Southern ignorance. They are presented unadulterated in their conservative fundamentalist glory. Borat sits at society dinners, attends the rodeo, patronizes gun shops, and gets saved at a Pentacostal Church. All along the way, red-blooded American citizens are outed in their beliefs. Often while watching Borat, I puzzled over how Cohen was able to evoke such a pure reflection of the deepest essence of our neighbors and fellow countrymen. It's not a very flattering picture of the state of the nation.

Perhaps that's why Cohen is now being sued by some of his unsuspecting subjects. Two college students from the University of South Carolina didn't appreciate the way they came off in their time with Borat. But one might ask why they allowed themselves to be filmed making drunken and insulting comments about women and minorities. One also might wonder why they signed legal waivers and consent forms allowing the filmmakers to use the footage. If they are unable to recognize themselves in the movie... then they would be better off spending their time and money examining themselves with a good therapist. It's not like Cohen only picks on easy targets either- he goes after politicians, professionals, feminists and New Yorkers. He even puts himself through some serious discomfort when a naked wrestling match results in an obese man's ass and balls resting on his chin. So I have a hard time feeling sorry for anybody in this movie.

As far as Larry Charles is concerned, I can't even imagine what his job might have been like. I would assume that Cohen was only accompanied by a film crew while on his adventure. The supervising presence of a director would surely have given the game away. It's also difficult to figure out what is real and what is staged in the movie. Surely they didn't really try to forcibly abduct Pamela Anderson from a public signing without giving her advanced notice. Such blurring of lines has elicited some criticism, but for me it made the entire project more fascinating. These days we could all use some practice in discriminating reality from manipulation. In our postmodern world there are enough warped mirrors for all the funhouses on the midway.