Yeah, so I went to go see Borat this weekend. I knew almost nothing about it beforehand, so when my friend suggested it, and my brain was too dead to argue for anything else, I said, sure, why not. I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes to check it out, just in case it might suck terribly, and found this. Check that out, how often do you see a movie get 100% from the Cream of the Crop (I don't know how long it'll be 100%, but it is now)? So I had hope going into the movie, you know. Confidence, shall we say. But after about five minutes I got bored with laughing at things I didn't find funny.
Anyway, my point here is not to talk about my own reaction to the film. I just want to point out how it is carrying on the knight-errant tradition. Think Sir Percival. Borat, despite his intensely active sexuality, is an innocent on a quest. Everything he sees surprises and fascinates him. Very early on he sees a woman on a screen (And can I just take the liberty of comparing this not only to Percival meeting Lady Yvette, but also to Britomart seeing Artegall in Merlin's mirror and falling in love with him (The Faerie Queene, book III, canto ii). And stop laughing, really, I think this all pertains.) and falls in love with her. He then undertakes a quest across the country, encountering many people and problems along the way. In the heroic tradition they all seem to symbolize something--the rodeo, the aristocratic Southerners, the prostitute, the bear, the gypsies, the shape-shifting Jews. What really captures the spirit of the old knight-errant stories for me is Borat's utter dejection when he finds out that his lady is not a virgin. Reminds me a lot of that part in Book I of The Faerie Queene where the Redcross Knight is deceived into thinking that Una is having sex with someone in the next room and he just ups and leaves, right then. Of course, the end of Borat doesn't fit so well, Hollywood tradition sets in and he has to deal with disillusionment and realize that he missed true happiness along the way. But really, even though I personally did not like the movie, I'm glad this knight-errant tradition is being carried on. Universal stories just make me happy.
Posted by linnea at November 11, 2006 8:06 PM