Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Director: Larry Charles

Borat, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is pure comic gold. Sacha Baron Cohen, plays the loveable yet offensive Kazak reporter as he travels America searching for love and that cultural piece of apple pie to take back to Kazakhstan. About the time the movie premiered in London I actually got to see the Kazakhstan amabassador to Great Britain speak. With all the uproar coming out of Kazakhstan about the movie at the time, he was of course questioned about it. He replied that he’d gone to see it and found it quite funny. His view was that it made fun of Americans not Kazaks, and he’s right. Of course, I’ve found that alot of people over here think thats whats so great about it, and granted it had great political timing, but it ought to be remembered the same movie could have been made in the UK (complete with the racists).

Law to make benefit:

1. Borat while recieving a driving lesson is admonished that it is against the law to drink and drive and also to yell and cuss at other drivers.

2. Borat interviews numerous law makers in Washington, D.C. including Bob Barr (former representative from Georgia and also a lawyer) and also Alan Keyes a prospective republican presidential candidate and political scholar.

3. Later in this same vein he sees Charles Pickering (House – MS) preaching to a Penecostal revival meeting. In his sermon, Pickering targets, the teaching of evolution in schools.

4. Borat is at one point given advice on how not to look like a Muslim Terrorist. This might be handy in case of some racial profiling.

5. This movie has spawned a lot of litigation. Khazakhstan reserved the right to take legal action against Borat, and numerous people have filed suit claiming damages to their reputation, job etc. Most notably the two fraternity boys (suit dismissed) and the etiquette coach in Alabama. He has even been sued by the Romanian village he used as his home town at the beginning of the film. Poor Borat, he just can’t get a fair break can he.

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Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Director: John Madden

I’ll give it flick this: it is clever. That said it is still a chick flick with all of those miserable moments associated. I think, though, that it should hold something of interest for Shakespeare people (and maybe even a few David Webster fans as well). The story follows Billy (Joseph Fiennes) as he works on his production of Romeo and Juliet. During this production Viola de Lesseps (a young noble woman, played by Gwyneth Paltrow) auditions for the part of Juliet while pretending to be a boy. In the mean time Shakespeare falls in love with the Viola the lady and all the mayhem that one could expect ensues.

This movie is riddled with references to Shakespeares entire canon and it can be rather enjoyable trying to pick all the references out. Unfortunately, the plot is fairly hackneyed and cliched when you get down to its bare bones. But look out for Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth; oh, she is monstrous.

Law in love:

1. It is illegal for women to be in theatrical productions, thus leading Viola to declare, “Stage love will never be true love as long as the law of the land has” boys playing girls.

2. Theaters are closed and reopened by the Master of the Revels. If ever there was a great political position, this is it. If the office comes open, I’m running.

3. The Queen’s consent is required for Lord Wessex to take a wife. This displays the nonseparation of church and state during this time period (a legacy which still hangs on today in the realm of family law). Later, the Queen states that those joined together by God “even I can’t render assunder.”

4. When it is discovered that there is a girl in the play, the theater is closed. The Master of the Revels cites Sedition, Indecency, and Lewdness.

5. A license to have a company of actors must be obtained from the Queen.

6. When the Queen takes the stage she states that they’ll “all be put in the clink.” Interestingly enough the rebuilt Globe in London is just around the corner from Clink Street Prison.

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The King (2005)

Director: James Marsh

The last of my in flight films from those harrowing Delta flights, and what a way to go out. I think that the director of this film said to himself “Let me see if I can fill this movie full of stereotypes. Yes, yes, I can make it the stereotype menagerie. Muhahahaha.”

No really, this movie sucks, I thought I was going to get some good Elvis references, but instead I got an ex-navy sailor named Elvis. He hunts down his father (who has never seen him and has become an evangelical preacher) to say hello or something. Once he is faced with his father’s rejection he seduces his teenage half-sister, kills his half-brother, and makes the viewer miserable for close to an hour.

The law:

1. The preacher’s son (the legitimate one) is giving a speech and he holds up a dollar bill and says “this is the legal tender of the United States.” He also points out that it says “In God We Trust.”

2. The point of the boy’s speech is that he is trying to convince the school board to sanction the teaching of intellingent design instead of or along with evolution. He get’s denied by the school board.

3. There is an absolutely piss poor police investigation.

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