You must not have understood the concept of having your mind and eye singularly focused.

Can you honestly glorify God while watching this vomit? (I watched it before becoming a Christian, and I’d hardly subject myself to this again because it has no place in a true Christian’s life)

Vain entertainment is not becoming of a Christian.

I remember my first impression of the Pastor in that scene and thinking to myself, “There’s a Pastor with some moral fortitude, fleeing anything that might ensnare him morally, or vocationally, as a pastor.” I considered him virtuous, although I can’t know his real reasons for leaving, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he did not want to be associated with Lynelle because of her seductive attire.

The various readings of the film are no-doubt rich and laden with many things to make us reflect on culture. But let’s remember that the subjects of Cohen’s experiment were simply acting in accordance with their culture, of which we are all a part.

It’s good to hear from you. I have to confess being a little surprised that you agreed with my assessment of the movie. Not that I chalked you up to someone that would be highly offended but I did not anticipate your approval.

In my enthusiasm over the movie I neglected to point out that there are those parts of the movie that don’t seem to have any other function than shock value and attempting to disgust the audience (I’m sure you remember the hotel room scene). Values aside, there is reason enough for people to be sufficiently put off by these scenes since they simply turn the stomach. These scenes, in my judgment detracted from the film.

Your anecdotes on the inconsistency and (though you don’t use the word) hypocrisy of people on matters of film (and by extention, other forms of media) are similar to my experience. I think you are right that sometimes our greatest offense is to our tastes than it is to our conscience. If we personally find something funny or emotionally moving, or enticing, we are much more willing to set aside offense to our consciences. This tendency is present in all of us, I suppose, and I think this can be a positive thing in some cases. A person’s conscience isn’t always in the right and sometimes entertainment can open us to truth which we might not give a hearing otherwise.

I find it interesting that your anecdotes point out the very thing that the movie points out: people apply there values randomly and they can be bought. When we claim to have our morals offended, it is often our taste or our desire for convience that is really offended.

I must admit that my appreciation for Borat is not unrelated to the fact that I find it hilarious. Yet its humor is not the only reason I appreciate it. It is the fact that it is able to make a profound point in such a clever and humorous way that I appreciate it. Many people can be funny, and many can be clever and profound but it is a rare acheivement to find these together in the same medium (I enjoy the Seinfeld sitcom and some of George Carlin’s stand up for similar reasons).

In the first draft of the post I started to harp on the attitude of many people (not just Christians) toward film. The post was originally titled, “Why Borat and Knocked Up Are Better Movies than Princess Bride and Finding Neverland” The whole post would’ve been way too long. The point I was out to make was that we have these standards (some that are both personal and social) for what is acceptable to watch on screen (and granted, we’ll apply them arbitrarily) but the standards are often flawed from the beginning. Our objections are usually to profanity, nudity, and violence, but we are oblivious to movies that convey an unrealistic picture of love and romance or promote a relativistic ethic. I suspect that idealized romance in media has done as much to contribute to the break-up of marriages and families as pornography has (and certainly more so than onscreen nudity, profanity and violence). Yet doesn’t make it onto the radar of most Christian media consumers. Anyway, your comment has me wanting to write a post on this issue). Maybe it will be forthcoming in a few weeks.

It’s great to see someone else thinking through these issues too.

But what is ironic is that some of the people who were offended by my opinion of the film admitted that they have sat through many other crude comedic films without feeling the same disgust, movies which, when measuring the redeeming value, have very little value at all. I have suspected that their willingness to sit through these other crude comedic films was based not on less offensiveness but on personal comedic taste, since one comment I repeatedly heard was that Borat was just not that funny.

Anyway, I’m glad someone else found value in the film.