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

Director:

Larry Charles

Writers (WGA):

Sacha Baron Cohen (screenplay) &
Anthony Hines (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

3 November 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Come to Kazakhstan, It's Nice!

Plot:

Kazakh TV talking head Borat is dispatched to the United States to report on the greatest country in the world. With a documentary crew in tow, Borat becomes more interested in locating and marrying Pamela Anderson.

Plot Keywords:

Kazakhstan | New York City | Elevator | Road Trip | Cross Country

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 12 wins & 12 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sat. Nov. 14

2:00 AM

USA

Cast

Sacha Baron Cohen	...	Borat
Ken Davitian	...	Azamat
Luenell	...	Luenell
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pamela Anderson	...	Herself (uncredited)
Bob Barr	...	Himself (uncredited)
Mitchell Falk	...	Prime Minister of Kazakhstan (uncredited)
Alan Keyes	...	Himself (uncredited)
Jean-Pierre Parent	...	Kazakh Swimmer (uncredited)

Directed by
Larry Charles

Writing credits (WGA)
Sacha Baron Cohen		(screenplay) &
Anthony Hines		(screenplay) &
Peter Baynham		(screenplay) &
Dan Mazer		(screenplay)
Sacha Baron Cohen		(story) &
Peter Baynham		(story) &
Anthony Hines		(story) &
Todd Phillips		(story)

Produced by
Sacha Baron Cohen	....	producer
Peter Baynham	....	co-producer
Monica Levinson	....	executive producer
Dan Mazer	....	executive producer
Jay Roach	....	producer

Original Music by
Erran Baron Cohen

Cinematography by
Luke Geissbuhler		(director of photography)
Anthony Hardwick		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Craig Alpert
Peter Teschner
James Thomas

Casting by
Allison Jones

Costume Design by
Jason Alper

Makeup Department
Thomas Kolarek	....	hair stylist
Thomas Kolarek	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Jamie D. Boscardin	....	additional production supervisor (as Jamie Boscardin Martin)
Shirley Davis	....	production supervisor: additional photography
Susan Ehrhart	....	production supervisor: additional photography
Patrick Esposito	....	post-production supervisor
Brad Goodman	....	post-production supervisor (as Bradley M. Goodman)
Brad Goodman	....	post-production supervisor (as Bradley N. Goodman)
Ines Matei	....	unit production manager
David Siegel	....	unit production manager (as David A. Siegel)
Dale Stern	....	unit production manager
David M. Bernstein	....	unit production manager: pre-production (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Cristina Iliescu	....	first assistant director
John Isabeau	....	second assistant director
David Siegel	....	first assistant director (as David A. Siegel)
Dale Stern	....	first assistant director
David M. Bernstein	....	first assistant director: pre-production (uncredited)

Art Department
Jason Alper	....	designer: items from Kazakhstan
Scott M. Davids	....	anthem designer (as Scott Davids)
Scott Goldman	....	anthem designer
Kevin Hughes	....	props consultant
David Maturana	....	art director: additional photography (as David Saenz de Maturana)
Alexandria Andross	....	buyer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Mary Andrews	....	dialogue editor
Jeremy Brill	....	boom operator
Kerry Ann Carmean	....	sound effects editor (as Kerry Carmean-Williams)
Matt Colleran	....	sound re-recordist (as Matt Colloran)
Patrick Cusack	....	assistant sound editor
Andrew DeCristofaro	....	supervising sound editor
David Esparza	....	sound effects editor
Jeff Glueck	....	assistant sound editor
Scott Harber	....	production sound mixer
Bill Henderson	....	sound re-recording engineer
Michael Hertlein	....	dialogue editor
Lora Hirschberg	....	sound re-recording mixer
Jake Jackson	....	stage engineer
Alan Kerr	....	foley artist
Jon Klein	....	boom operator
Ryan Maguire	....	foley mixer
Chris Navarro	....	adr recordist
Nancy Nugent	....	supervising dialogue & adr editor (as Nancy Kyong Nugent)
Michael Payne	....	sound effects editor
Brandon Proctor	....	sound re-recording mixer
Chad Robertson	....	sound mixer
Sean Rowe	....	foley artist
Christopher Sidor	....	sound re-recordist (as Chris Sidor)
John C. Stuver	....	dialogue editor
Eric Thompson	....	adr mixer
James Wright	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby (as Jim Wright)

Visual Effects by
Julia Croon	....	visual effects coordinator
Scott M. Davids	....	visual effects supervisor
Jalal Jemison	....	digital effects artist
Kathy Thomson	....	digital intermediate colorist

Stunts
Michael Li	....	action team
Attila Nemes	....	stunt performer
Pee Wee Piemonte	....	safety (as Peewee Piemonte)
Nicole Randall	....	action team
Shaun Vickers	....	stunt safety
Harry Wowchuk	....	action team

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Alba	....	assistant camera
Sherman Johnson	....	camera operator
Bret Lanius	....	camera operator
Mark Schwartzbard	....	first assistant camera
Owen A. Smith	....	camera operator
Mark Walpole	....	first assistant camera
John Johns	....	video utility (uncredited)

Casting Department
Tracy Dixon	....	extras casting
Wendy Hoffman	....	voice casting (as Wendy Hoffmann)
Adam St. Clair	....	location casting (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Frederick W. Chandler Jr.	....	post-production assistant
Marisa Clayton	....	digital intermediate producer: Modern VideoFilm
Chad Cole	....	on-line editor
Scott M. Davids	....	first assistant editor
Andrew Dickler	....	additional editor
Jeff Mee	....	assistant editor
Harry Muller	....	color timer
Colin Patton	....	apprentice editor
Robb Porter	....	post-production coordinator: Modern VideoFilm
Adam Rosenblatt	....	editor: main title
Todd Schulman	....	editorial assistant: Mr Baron Cohen
Sarah Thiessen	....	assistant editor (as Sarah K. Thiessen)
Kathy Thomson	....	digital intermediate color timer

Music Department
Geoff Alexander	....	orchestrator
Jonathan Allen	....	score recordist
Jonathan Allen	....	scoring mixer
Shira Arad	....	music researcher
Thomas Bowes	....	orchestra leader
Isobel Griffiths	....	orchestra contractor
Richard Henderson	....	music editor
Richard Henderson	....	music supervisor
Sharon Smith	....	additional music editor
Desislava Stefanova	....	musician: singer

Transportation Department
Dale Combs	....	driver: maxi-van
Jeff Lira	....	driver
Monty Lira	....	driver
Jim Petti	....	driver
Jonathan A. Rosenfeld	....	transportation coordinator
Jeff Verdick	....	driver

Other crew
Jason Alper	....	Mr. Baron Cohen's feces provided by
Wayne Arnold	....	additional first assistant
Kieran Baker	....	researcher (as Kieran R.M. Baker)
Chelsea Barnard	....	field coordinator
Fred Baron	....	production executive
Christine Bergren	....	production counsel
Jack Blessing	....	adr loop group
Joe Borden	....	research assistant
Ranjani Brow	....	adr loop group
Unjoo Lee Byars	....	main title producer
Sophie Charles	....	researcher
Julie Chouinard	....	field coordinator
Scott Clackum	....	location scout: South Carolina
Sarah Connolly	....	production secretary
Conor Copeland	....	assistant: Mr Baron Cohen, New York
David Cowgill	....	adr loop group
Caitlin Cutt	....	adr loop group
Alex Daniels	....	fight coordinator: naked fight
Lisa Davidson	....	production coordinator: additional photography
Scott M. Davids	....	graphic supervisor (as Scott Davids)
Dana Dubé	....	head animal trainer
Graeme Dunlap	....	production assistant
Laurie Epstein	....	assistant: Larry Charles
Laurie Epstein	....	assistant: Mr. Charles
David Louis Feinberg	....	field coordinator: additional photography (as David Feinberg)
Ruben Fleischer	....	behind-the-scenes (as Ruben Fleisher)
Christopher Godfrey	....	assistant: Jay Roach
Scott Goldman	....	title designer
Marissa Goodman	....	adr loop group
Arturo Guzman	....	production assistant
Charles Heaphy	....	production financing
Bridget Hoffman	....	adr loop group
Wendy Hoffman	....	adr loop group (as Wendy Hoffmann)
Russ Honican	....	main title art
Jenny Hunter	....	field supervisor
Bryan Iler	....	key location manager
Mark Ivanir	....	adr loop group
Susannah Julien	....	production coordinator
Sherri Kecskes	....	assistant accountant
Noelle Kim	....	assistant: Jim Vickers
Ashley Kravitz	....	research consultant
Ruth LaBarge	....	animal trainer
Alexandra Lambrinidis	....	key set production assistant
Joanna Lara	....	production secretary: wrap
Matthew Ryan Lepore	....	production secretary
Andrew Lin	....	web consultant
Alexa Song Lindenthaler	....	first assistant accountant: additional photography (as Alexa Song-Lindenthaler)
Jacqueline Lofstrom	....	field coordinator: additional photography
Anna Mathias	....	adr loop group
Blair Miller	....	production assistant
Andrew Newman	....	consultant
Ari Novak	....	production consultant
Tanya Oskanian	....	assistant: Larry Charles
Belit Paulissian	....	researcher
Phil Proctor	....	adr loop group (as Philip Proctor)
Leslie E.A. Rider	....	assistant production coordinator
Adam Rosenblatt	....	title designer
Clint Rowe	....	animal trainer
Tim Schildberger	....	field supervisor
Todd Schulman	....	field supervisor
Julie Shapiro	....	travel
Andrew Simpson	....	animal trainer
Russell Smith	....	production counsel
Charline St. Charles	....	assistant production coordinator: additional photography
Robert W. Sterrett III	....	assistant location manager
Shane Sweet	....	adr loop group
Bernadette Tanchauco	....	production accountant (as Berni Tanchauco)
Hans Tester	....	adr loop group
Erik Tily	....	field coordinator
Omar Veytia	....	location manager: mexico
Jim Vickers	....	consultant: kidnapping (as James P. Vickers)
J. Christian Walsh	....	assistant: Mr Baron Cohen
Jeff Wickline	....	first assistant accountant: additional photography
Ines Wurth	....	adr loop group
Bruce Allen	....	credit sequence artist (uncredited)
Jason Kessler	....	assistant to writer (uncredited)
Eric Leiderman	....	field coordinator (uncredited)
Adam Paroo	....	location scout: South Carolina (uncredited)
Rodrigo Rojas	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Thanks
Jason Alper	....	acknowledgment: Borat's image created by
Alec Berg	....	special thanks
James L. Brooks	....	special thanks
Isla Fisher	....	special thanks
Tom Gammill	....	special thanks
David Mandel	....	special thanks (as Dave Mandell)
Trey Parker	....	special thanks
Jennifer Perini	....	special thanks
Max Pross	....	special thanks
Jeff Schaffer	....	special thanks
Matt Stone	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Four by Two
• Everyman Pictures
• Dune Entertainment (in association with)
• Major Studio Partners (in association with)
• One America

Distributors

• 20th Century Fox Netherlands (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (2006) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox (2006) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox de Argentina (2007) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Fox-Warner (2006) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Odeon (2006) (Greece) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Film Company (2006) (UK) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (2006) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2007) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Odeon (2007) (Greece) (DVD)
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF) (2007) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Germany (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• USA Network (2007) (USA) (TV)

Special Effects

• Yard VFX (visual effects) (as Yard FX)

Other Companies

• Abel Cine Tech  lenses and cameras (as Abel CineTech)
• Animal Insight  bears
• Atlantic Records  soundtrack
• Castel Film Studio  Romanian production services provided by (as Castel Film Studios)
• Channel 4 Television Corporation  special thanks
• Christine Bergren Music Consulting  production counsel
• Corbis  photographs courtesy of (as Corbis Images)
• DeLuxe Laboratories  prints (as DeLuxe)
• Downtown Records  soundtrack
• Filmtools  expendables
• Fremantle Media  film footage
• Getty Images  footage provided by
• Hanno Egipt  footage provided by
• Home Box Office (HBO)  footage provided courtesy of (as HBO)
• ITV Archive  film footage
• Image Bank Films by Getty Images  footage provided by (as Imagebank Film)
• Modern VideoFilm  digital intermediate
• Russian Stock Footage Library  footage provided by
• SDD Global Solutions  legal services
• Scarlet Letters  end titles
• SmithDehn  production counsel
• Sony Pictures Television  footage provided courtesy of
• Soundelux  sound editorial
• Star Waggons  cast trailers
• TVDATA.ru  film footage
• TalkBack Productions  special thanks
• Thought Equity  footage provided by
• Todd-AO Studios  post-production sound re-recording (as Todd-AO Hollywood)
• Travel Corps  travel (as Travelcorps)
• Twentieth Century Fox Television  footage provided courtesy of (as Twentieth Television)
• Widget Post Production  ADR recording facility
• Widget Post Production  sound post-production
• Wilshire Stages, The  adr stage
• Yard VFX  graphics (as Yard FX)
• Yard VFX  titles (as Yard FX)
• mOcean  anthem sequence (as Mocean)
• mOcean  main titles

Also Known As:

Borat (UK) (USA) (working title)
Borat! (USA) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong crude and sexual content including graphic nudity, and language.

Runtime:

84 min | Canada:82 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Romanian | Hebrew | Polish | Armenian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:16 | UK:15 | Singapore:R21 | New Zealand:R16 | Finland:K-15 | Norway:11 | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:Btl | Germany:12 | USA:R (certificate #42670) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Australia:MA | Philippines:R-18 (MTRCB) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Brazil:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Portugal:M/12 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Argentina:13 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | France:U | Italy:VM14 | Poland:15 | Malta:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Spain:18 | Japan:R-15 | Denmark:11 | Iceland:12 | Ireland:18 (DVD rating) | Ukraine:(Banned) | South Africa:18LNPS

Filming Locations:

Adolphus Hotel - 1321 Commerce Street, Dallas, Texas, USA

Company:

Four by Two

Trivia:

This film broke Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)'s record for the biggest box office opening weekend ever for any film that opened in fewer than a thousand theaters.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Borat gets out of the RV where he'd been drinking with the frat boys, it is a different RV than the one he originally got into.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Borat: Jak sie masz? My name-a Borat. I like you. I like sex. Is nice!
["How are you?" in Polish]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "GMTV: (2006-10-27)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Siki, Siki Baba

Borat was a terrible film ...NOT!

Borat proves to be the Python of our generation.

I say this as a die-hard Monty Python fan – not because the humour is on the same level or follows the same guidelines (in fact, the common ground is here is that it follows no guidelines) – but because both comedy teams mask their sketches in a feature film, passing them off as a story when it becomes glaringly clear that the latter is an elaborate pretext under which to have outrageous, absurdist and side-splittingly fun in a series of genius gags.

Yet for all of Borat's subsequent disorganisation and warped narrative, we are first served a gorgeously condensed introduction to our character in his village in Kazakhstan. This segment was possibly the biggest crowd-pleaser in my theatre and perhaps rightly so, for I would call it the film's goldmine in terms of sheer laugh-out-loud humour. Here we are introduced to Borat's sister ("She is number-four prostitute in whole of Kazakhstan."), whom he kisses on the mouth, his main interests (ping-pong, sunbathing and "watch ladies make toilet") as well as a wide variety of hilarious native Kazakhs. Undoubtedly the success of the introduction stems from a combination of novelty and a culture shock.

Once the sprawling surge of Kazakhstani culture subsides, Borat flies to New York City to make a movie-film about the glorious US and A. The booming Russian ethnic score melts into Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking' At Me" and the film gets ambitious: it spoofs Jon Voight's incongruous cowboy character walking down Manhattan in Midnight Cowboy (1969). This I found a pleasant surprise, but the referential spoofs end here and the rest is all Sascha Baron Cohen – and we couldn't be happier.

The second half of Borat is arguably less compelling. It is hard to tell why, for the humour remains consistently good and there is an almost exponential stupidity with our Borat character as the sets out to go to California to marry Pamela Anderson. I would not go as far as to say the novelty "wears off", but we are a little more settled now and Borat has found his safe footing. Next, however, the film totally floors whatever safeness you may have with one of the most unspeakably graphic hotel room scenes I have ever seen. I won't give anything away, but rest assured that some viewers (*males*) will watch in horrified silence while others will literally cramp up from laughing so violently. I belong more to the latter category.

As Borat travels through America, there is a wealth of juxtapositions to be found when he interacts with the people – members of the white house, television broadcasters, etiquette teachers, Christian fundamentalists and Jews – all offers layered hilarity and a consistent cloud of laughter kept hovering in the air. Sadly, it was not always directed toward Borat (but most of the time) but toward some truly idiotic hick Americans. When I was informed the film used many candid takes, I can only hope the unreasonably creepy Jesus convention was *not* one of them.

In conclusion, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)" is a towering comedy achievement. It is apparent that Sascha Baron Cohen has done something truly cool here and has created an anti-semitic, misogynist and bigoted character that aptly embodies all racy taboos. As an actor he is unmistakably brave and uninhibited, which makes it easy for the film to lose itself in a tornado of gags, spoofs, bizarre one-liners and graphic jokes. The most fun I've had in a theatre since...forever!!!

9 out of 10