WTF Happened To This Movie? – The JoBlo series that looks at troubled productions, curious creative decisions, box-office failures, surprising successes, and cult favorites! This week, we look at Borat (2006)!
The documentary/comedy hybrid Borat (2006) featured Sacha Baron Cohen’s mustachioed Kazakh reporter travelling to U. S. and A, awkwardly interacting with various unsuspecting Americans on his quest to meet Pamela Anderson. The raunchy R-rated shenanigans proved to be an unexpected box office smash and pop culture phenomenon… while the movie also infuriated the actual Kazakhstan government and became one of the most lawsuit-prone releases in history.
But what’s the story behind the film? It turns out, Borat’s history as a character goes back years and years, to back when Cohen was already a cultural icon in his native England, albeit, for an entirely different character, Ali G. In fact, Borat had turned up in a cameo in Cohen’s largely forgotten Da Ali G Show spin-off movie, Ali G Indahouse. Initially, Borat was a B-character at best, or at least that’s what he was in England. Yet, when Da Ali G Show made its way to the U.S for a run on HBO, Borat turned out to be uniquely suited to taking on America, much more so than Ali G, it turns out, and the character became a breakout hit, leading to this wildly popular feature film spin-off (2006’s Borat), which in turn spawned an acclaimed sequel last year, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
We get into the making of the film, including the controversial way many of the signature sequences were filmed. Directed by Seinfeld’s Larry Charles, we also examine how the cult of Borat sprang up even before the film was released theatrically, following raucous festival screenings and more.
So put on your best (and only) suit and find out “WTF Happened to BORAT!”