I just saw Bruno when it aired on one of the movie channels over the weekend. I didn't want to see it when it came out in theaters since I wasn't really a fan of any of his other characters other than Borat from the Ali-G show.
I will start by saying, I liked the movie much more than I thought I would, while at the same time after watching Bruno, I liked Borat less.
I think there were a number of things that worked that made Borat more like-able than Bruno. Borat was mainly a movie about the cultural differences between America, and his made up version of Khazikstan. The look and accent of Borat, combined with the catch phrases that were repeated endlessly were something that appealed to people and caught on very quickly.
Bruno on the other hand is a character that is deliberately made to make you feel uncomfortable, which is why I didn't like him on the Ali-G show. The dress, and behavior are things regardless of whether it's being done by someone who is gay or straight are not things most people will tolerate. The scene with Ron Paul for instance, that could easily have been a woman, and he most likely would have just been appalled by someone trying to force sex on him. Honestly, look at the reaction most women would give when a guy they have no interest in is trying to have sex with them.
Then the scene where they're tied in bondage getting on a bus. I wouldn't want to see a man and woman or woman and woman tied up in a similar fashion get on a bus either.
The Bruno character deliberately pushes buttons that will offend people, then when he gets the reaction he wants he uses "homophobia" as the reason he's hated.
For instance if you were to reverse the camping scene and had Bruno entering the tent of a woman naked most likely he'd have been maced and had the cops called on him. If anything I think the stigma of being labeled "homophobe" may have saved him from getting a worse reaction than if he'd had tried those things on a woman in a hetero situation.
I also found that the movie tried to go into too many directions, but in there were some moments of absolute genius. He tried to tackle people's desire for fame, homophobia. I think he was really onto something when he was casting babies for the photo shoot. Seeing just how far mothers would go to exploit their children to become famous, was something that really should have been focused on more. For me personally his "quest to be famous" story line was far more interesting than, his homophobia story line.
Now onto why I didn't like Borat as well after it. I think he does an amazing job of editing to tell the narrative he wants to tell. The more you read about the situations, and how they really happened from 3rd parties, the more I think he edits things to get the results he wants. He also narrates by omission. There could be 99 other scenes where he didn't get the reaction he intended, but doesn't include them. Granted it's a fictional movie just like Dark Knight, Transformers, or Alice in Wonderland. But at the same time it's designed to be a cultural commentary on society and when you include "real people" in your scenes I think there's a duty to also show not everyone is like that.
reply
share