Blog #8 Censorhsip

One of the most obscene movies, Borat, has been censored by many countries in the arab world. When I watched it, I thought it was funny, but had too much gross and nasty visuals of Borat doing crazy things. In the movie theater it has a rated R rating, but when it came out on DVD, it was unrated showing more Adult content. In Media and Culture, it says, "the NC-17 rating has not proved commercially viable, and distributors avoid releasing films with the rating, preferring to label such films 'unrated' or to cut the film to earn an R rating..." (Pg. 514). With many controversies, many people wanted to ban the film. With Freedom of Speech, this movie has the right to put content on whatever they want to do, but with the rating system, the movie has to cut down from a lot of antics. I feel that Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are thinking about the people and do not want to show stupid things that people might want to copy. Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat and travels to the United States to get people's reaction about him being foreign and not knowing any better. To no degree, Borat makes fun of the United States. Since the film is a mocking of a documentary, there are unscripted interviews by Borat with these Americans making it seem a more realistic view. With Borat's antics, many countries from the world did not like at all. I think it's because he's foreign and loves the United States of America, which implies to other ethnicities to come and live in the USA. Since the character lives in Kazakhstan, people might assume that people who live in Kazakhstan live like how they are portrayed in the movie. The movie talks about religious ideals that would have people questioning themselves. One of the main reasons Arabs do not want to watch the movie is because Borat hates Jews. In one of the scenes, he has to live in a bed and breakfast ran by this old Jew couple. He is so afraid that he throws money so that he won't be killed. I thought it was funny, but I felt that if I were a Jew watching it, I would be mad, because that is racist. He goes through great lengths by trying to purchase a gun, but since he is foreign, he buys a bear to protect from the Jews. In class, we talked about movies that are banned and this being one of them. I felt that it should be banned in other countries, because those countries do not like American's type of humor. Thus some countries would try to watch this movie. For Americans, even though critics gave it poor reviews, many people would still watch it, because people like those types of movies. I feel that people assume it is a stupid movie, but they haven't watched it. Also, I believe in word of mouth contributes to people either watching or not watching it.

Media and Culture

Borat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat:_Cultural_Learnings_of_America_for_Make_Benefit_Glorious_Nation_of_Kazakhstan