Will Bruno help the gay rights movement or make things worse?

June 27, 2009 in Film by Antonio Cerna | 3 comments

"Sacha Baron Cohen in Bruno"© 2009 Universal

Today Variety gave Bruno the equivalent of two dildos up; however the writers sent a word of warning about the film’s “nasty streak.”

Undeniably funny, outrageous and boundary-pushing, this further documentation of Sacha Baron Cohen’s sheer nerve will draw an abundant share of “Borat” fans, gross-out seekers and the culturally curious, making for some potent B.O. figures, at least at first. But the content will turn off some (no doubt including some gays), as will the sourness and ill will triggered by the picture’s cumulative misanthropy.

And then, there’s that “tasteless” Michael Jackson scene which Universal Films cut before Thursday’s Hollywood premiere.

In the cut scene Bruno interviews LaToya Jackson in his chic LA apartment – after getting her to sit on his “chairs” – which are Mexican workers bending over – who then serve her sushi of the hairy body of a naked man.

Bruno proceeds to steal her cell phone so that he can copy Michael Jackson’s number down.

What the above quote doesn’t tell you is that Paul-I’m-not-a-drug-addict-Abdul is also in the “sit on the Mexicans” scene.  And something tells me that the Jackson scene will return in time for the DVD release.

QUESTION // Is Bruno’s message of making straight guys “visibly uncomfortable in the presence of a gay foreigner in a mesh t-shirt” a good cause? Will Bruno make straight people, less prejudiced against gay people — especially in an era where Gay Rights for Americans are in question? Or will audiences despise Bruno the way any intelligent person despises any other “self-loving,” fame-loving narcissist gay OR straight?

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  1. Tom’s avatar

    Tom on June 29, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    Borat elicited similar fears about antisemitism — was there any truth in his hyperbolic jew-hatred (despite the fact that it’s coming from a Cohen)? Would audiences get the irony, or would it add fuel to the fires of hatred?

    I accidentally wound up seeing Borat with a bunch of older Orthodox Jewish ladies from my office who couldn’t wait to see for themselves. They cried with laughter through the whole movie, and afterward they all seemed to think that Cohen’s send-up of antisemitism was incredibly smart and artful.

    From my own enjoyment of the bits of Bruno I’ve seen, I’d wager that I’ll feel the same way here. I think that straight people will be way more squeamish about knowing what it’s “safe” to laugh at than the gay people in the audience. I think that’s constructive, it forces individuals and even society at large to question everything and re-decide what’s funny and what isn’t. I think it’s far better that this comes to us in the form of comedy — it’s the sugar that makes the bitter pill slightly easier to take.

  2. Faggoting’s avatar

    Faggoting on July 6, 2009 at 5:11 pm

    I never saw Borat, but I’m familiar with the Bruno character from the Ali G show and I’ve seen the previews. My first reaction to the movie was that it was a bit trite, mainly that Cohen didn’t bother to update the character to fit in with the times, or that he bothered with it all in a time when laughing at flamboyant homosexuals is neither new nor interesting. An exaggeration of a shallow tacky gay man isn’t the most innovative conception. Bruno certainly represents an extreme, but it has nothing to do with being gay. He could very well be straight, he’s the personification of the shallow, baseless, and incredibly ridiculous values that have become legitimized in our culture through celebrity worship, gross consumption, and indoctrinated selfishness. Borat was redundant in making fun of immigrants and their foreignness but it hit the mark in excavating and exposing all the dysfunctional qualities of America that led to travesties like the Iraqi war and Bush’s two terms as president.

    Bruno is an “other”, far removed from our normal lives and references and therefore much easier for viewers to follow and accept his misadventures as Cohen yet again instigates and dives into the unpleasant realities that we all blindly trudge around in but never genuinely question. Gay or straight, Bruno is a vile vicious person and the laughs in the movie will come from those who Cohen exposes as being just as vile (gay or straight) as his cooked up character, passe or not. What will need to be seen is if Bruno can inspire the same energetic reactions from these real people as Borat did. My guess is that despite the increasing exposure of homosexuals in our pop culture, the reality is that faced with it in person (certainly one as conspicuous as Bruno) people will still behave in ways they would prefer not to be filmed. It’s one thing to see a gay man on TV but it’s a whole other to deal with it in your face as a threat. This is my experience as a gay man. If Cohen can bring to light that same hypocrisy as it represents the broader problem of our culture’s disconnect with reality then I think this will be a very successful film.

    I don’t take anyone seriously who can’t laugh at themselves.

  3. Major Joe Jock’s avatar

    Major Joe Jock on July 13, 2009 at 5:01 am

    Homosexuals and Jews, not the greatest mix, Hitler was right-on