Crazy for Kazakhstan

Sacha Baron Cohen has caused quite the controversy with his character Borat. He has been loved by movie goers and critics with his mock-umentary style movie which has grossed over $90 million in the United States. The movie follows Borat, a journalist from Kazakhstan on a cross country journey through the United States.

Despite this success he has been slapped with a series of lawsuits. One of the major suits its coming from frat students from the University of South Carolina. They claimed that the producers of the movie got them drunk in order to get them to sign release forms. In the film they appear drunk with Borat making both sexist and racist comments. The lawsuit claims that the film "made the plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community."

20th Century Fox is also being sued by a Romanian village for $30 millions dollars. "Even if there is only a very small chance of getting justice, I want to go to court, because a wrong has been done to me and our whole community," said one of the villagers.

Yet, even though there are people in the world that hated "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" there are a great deal more that have enjoyed Borat the character and the movie's satire of American culture. A prominent Kazakh writer enjoyed the film so much that he ha nominated Cohen for a national Kazakh award. Sapabek Asip-uly justifies his controversial nomination claiming that "[Borat] has managed to spark an immense interest of the whole world in Kazakhstan -- something our authorities could not do during the years of independence."

Officials in Kazakhstan are less than amused by Cohen's portrayal of their nation in the film.

It doesn't appear as though Borat will be making any apologies for his "movie film" and that his popularity will continue to grow.


My Opinion: A VERY FUNNY MOVIE! This movie is a superb satire of American culture or lack there of. These frat boys got what they deserved. Give me a break! They had no good reputation, or good standing in the community. Maybe after their humiliation on the big screen they'll think twice before drinking in excess or speaking to Kazakh journalists. Hopefully seeing and hearing themselves say such awful things has taught them a lesson.

I honestly believe that people are deciding to sue 20th Century Fox over this movie because they are seeing it becoming a success. If this movie had flopped, would it have caused such mental anguish on these poor "victims"? I doubt it. Even without trying Borat has shown another ugly side of the the American landscape, its greed.