Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation

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Kazakhstani TV personality Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the "greatest country in the world." With a documentary crew in tow, Borat becomes more interested in locating and marrying Pamela Anderson than on his assignment.
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By Jim EmersonEditor, RogerEbert.comVery nice. I like "Borat" very much. I think it is, as everybody has been saying, the funniest movie in years. And not because it is dumb (although it's very dumb), but because it is smart (and it is very smart). The full title is "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Every single word in that title (including "for" and both "of's") is, in its context, really funny. If you have to ask why, then you probably won't understand why "Borat" is funny, either. But that doesn't seem likely.



Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) is the leading television personality of the glorious but socially backward and underdeveloped nation of Kazakhstan. This is not the actual former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, unless Borat's sister really is the No. 4 prostitute in the country, and has a trophy to prove it. Borat travels to America, which turns out to be a nation almost exactly like Kazakhstan, only much larger, and with different accents, customs and even more inbred village idiots. In America, they are called "frat boys" or "creepy old rednecks in cowboy hats."



That is about all for the plot. Borat encounters many different people and situations -- some of them staged and some improvised, "Candid Camera"-style, with unaware participants, as on Cohen's HBO TV series, "Da Ali G Show."



Since I am determined not to spoil the movie for you by recounting any more of the gags, perhaps I can ruin it -- er, enhance your enjoyment of it by further explaining why it's so funny.

Map of Kazakhstan (Sun-Times)
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