The Italian Film Caro Diario directed by Nanni Morett in 1993 has a similar theme.
In the same vein as the Italian actor-director Nanni Moretti, Baron Cohen does a kind of Caro Diario using a sexual obsession as the motivating factor behind his quest. The pursuit in the case of Moretti is the actress Jennifer Beals; in Borat it is Pamela Anderson. But whereas Moretti embarks in his road trip through Italy in search of the essence of his country and by assumption, himself, Borat’s path leads nowhere. Even though it is presented as a road trip, the film seems more like an obstacle course, in which every scene raises the bar to higher insults. In a series of vignettes, Borat, the ‘Kazakh,’ reporter transgresses one by one the limits of social convention. He first starts breaking simple rules of etiquette, then goes on to the scatological, the sexual, until his quest escalates and reaches the ultimate repositories of certainties and righteousness: the feminism, patriotism and religiosity of America’s citizens. The problem is that once there are no more sensibilities to insult, the trip is over.
Two unsuspecting victims that do bring some of their own "truth" to the film
The film does, however have, some instances where the character really connects with his innocent interlocutors. Understandably, the real connection that is achieved in precious moments of the film is possible only with those characters that are not themselves a part of society’s mainstream. These characters live by their own rules and preserve a spontaneity that clicks with the candid Borat; the African-American teenagers that he meets in the street; the prostitute. Being on the margins of society themselves, they can comfortably co-exist with this man because they too improvise their rituals. They don’t live by those imposed by society; they create their own and play with them, as Borat does with his role.
Borat seems like a joke that goes on for too long, perhaps a victim of its own excesses. It is a compliment to the talent of Baron Cohen that in such a short time we have become used to calling things by their names to the extent that we do not seem shocked anymore by his antics. The sloppiness of the film goes beyond its style, leaving a vacuum of meaning, wasting the opportunity to adhere to any conviction behind this social experiment. As wonderful as it is, Borat misses the opportunity to reach out at the deeper implications that an iconoclastic exercise such as this, could have had.
