I re-watched the Borat movie again tonight and I really wonder how Sacha Baron Cohen got away with the pranks he pulled. He risked his life on several occasions, especially the scene at the rodeo. After reading some websites about how Borat got away with duping these people, I found some interesting quotes from the “dupees”.
My favourite “after-the-fact” quote is from the rodeo General Manager Bobby Rowe where he says (After Borat had made fun of the Iraq war and President Bush), “and I say, ‘Get the hell outta this dadgum building! Half the sumbucks in here are probably packin’ heat, and they’ll put you in front of the firin’ squad.’ Boy, they got in their trucks and hauled boogie.”
The most disturbing part of the movie (Besides the scene from the Pentecostal church), was also from Bobby Rowe:
“Of course every picture that we get back, from the terrorists or anything else, the Muslims, they look like you. Black hair and a black moustache. Shave that dadgum moustache off so you’re not so conspicuous; so you look like maybe an Italian or something”. “I see a lot of people and I think, ‘There’s a dadgum Muslim. I wonder what kind of bomb he’s got strapped to him”. “This thing gets over with (War in Iraq), and when we win it… and kick the butts over there… and all of them son of a bucks hanging from the gallows… By that time you will have proven yourself, and you’ll be accepted (In America).” Then Borat says that in his country, gay people go to jail and are “taken care of”. Rowe responds “and you hang them? That’s what we’re trying to get done here”.
When Rowe found out later that he was tricked and will appear in the movie, he responded “I don’t have any excuse, I just walked right into it.”
I’m not going to get into why I’m so bothered by these words. I think it’s obvious if you’ve ever read my site. I think it simply comes down to a simple formula of a lot of ignorance, and a little bit of systematic indoctrination.
Check out this site for the interesting “Real” stories behind Borat.