Imagine a naked Austrian man trying to bust into your tent with condoms. Imagine expecting a cage match and getting men making out with each other. Picture yourself, working at a hotel and finding two men chained together in bondage gear. How would you react?I believe that some people would respond in some of ways that are featured in the film, including shock, anger, extreme discomfort, but that doesn't necessarily make them anti-gay. These are people being presented with the extreme end of gay spectrum, and responding in ways even "tolerant people" could respond. For example when a naked Bruno tries to sneak into a hunter's tent, I can understand why the Hunter tells Bruno to "get the fuck out of here." I'm not going to lie, if Bruno himself was trying to bust into my tent, I would respond the same.
Yet in watching the film, let's realize the people who are respectful to Bruno. After all, the hunters in the film also are tolerant enough to spend the entire day with Bruno and all his antics. Perhaps the America that Bruno found while making this movie was different than the American he found in 2005 while making "Borat." An indicator of this is the fact that the film had more actors than the previous film and felt more staged than ever before. Maybe we're becoming more tolerant as a country, and that's problematic for Sacha Baron Cohen, and good news for us.
I wouldn't suggest that the hunters spending a day with Bruno of their own accord has anything to do with a more tolerant America so much as the production paying them to do so...
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget Bruno is a feature film, bankrolled by a large studio who's goal is to make money. In this respect, I tend to think most of the "commentary" Cohen presents doesn't justify the actions.
I think the reaction of Ron Paul in the movie summarized the whole thing: after about 2 mins of Bruno acting like an idiot, he walks out. What a gripping piece of cinema that was. If he can't make the point effectively, I don't think he should be trying to make it at all, especially not for money's sake.