06/12/2009
Should Bruno Come with a Warning Label?
The NYT wonders if Sacha Baron Cohen's upcoming film Bruno will amuse or outrage:
"Mr. Baron Cohen declined to be interviewed for this article, as did
Larry Charles, who directed the film (as well as 'Borat'). Universal
also declined to make a production executive available for an
interview, providing the following statement instead:
'‘Brüno’ uses provocative comedy to powerfully shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia. By placing himself in radical and risky situations, Sacha Baron Cohen forces both the people Brüno meets and the audience itself to challenge their own stereotypes, preconceptions and discomforts. While any work that dares to address relevant cultural sensitivities might be misinterpreted by some or offend others, we believe the overwhelming majority of the audience will understand and appreciate the film’s inarguably positive intentions.
"The studio has twice shown unfinished versions of 'Brüno' to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and said that test audiences have come away with a clear understanding of the film’s positive social message. Universal also said that it screened 20 minutes of unedited footage at a Texas film festival this year, and that blog coverage was overwhelmingly upbeat."
The Human Rights Campaign feels a disclaimer should run before the film: "We strongly feel that Sacha Baron Cohen and Universal Pictures have a responsibility to remind the viewing public right there in the theater that this is intended to expose homophobia."
Of course, that would be a little like telling people before Friday the 13th that they're supposed to be scared.
Trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted 7:45 AM EST by Andy Towle in Film, News, Sacha Baron-Cohen | Permalink
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It's really sad that the HRC would call for such a disclaimer. Really, really sad.
Posted by: Paul R | Jun 12, 2009 7:49:59 AM
Warning!
Contents may contain homophobia masquerading as "provocative comedy claiming to shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia"
Side effects may include: lowering of IQ, inability to see Bruno as the cultural embarrassment he actually is, and blindness to the fact he is laughing at you, not with you.
Not recommended for children under 18, or anyone with a brain.
Posted by: protogenes | Jun 12, 2009 8:26:01 AM
So, Protogenes, do you know a lot of gay men who are like Bruno? And do you think that most of the people who see Bruno will know zero gay men and so assume that they're all exactly like his stereotype? And you believe that he's laughing at you because he makes antigay responders look foolish in response to his utterly unreal character?
I just don't understand how you think this is hurting you. NOTE: he makes antigay people look stupid.
Posted by: Paul R | Jun 12, 2009 8:45:13 AM
I love Sascha Baron Cohen's comedy for this very fact -- idiots and curmudgeons react to it with anger. It's like magical, fool-proof, asshole litmus paper!
Posted by: TikiHead | Jun 12, 2009 9:22:11 AM
I've always felt Shakespeare should come with a warning label.
WARNING: Contains frequent use of sexual innuendo and puns that may not be relevant to modern audiences. Not appropriate for readers who aren't fully versed in Early Modern English and the use of iambic pentameter. Or those too stupid to get context.
Posted by: crispy | Jun 12, 2009 9:22:33 AM
Paul, he's also perpetuating a stereotype that goes far beyond the norm. I would suggest that many of the idiots that pay good money to see this crap won't even realize he's making fun of them. Frankly, after seeing half of his first movie before walking out of the theater, I fail to see how his new movie is in the best interest of the gay community. The simple fact is that this is all about laughs and money and it's all done at our expense. Yeah, I'm sure he'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Posted by: Keith | Jun 12, 2009 9:24:15 AM
This is embarrassing. Really, HRC?
Posted by: antstomp | Jun 12, 2009 9:26:41 AM
Just as gay rights becomes the critical civil rights issue of our day, HRC is wasting its time on... this? And on shopping tips (http://www.hrc.org/buyersguide2009/)? Really?
HRC's own website admits "HRC staff helped lead No on Prop 8 efforts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, and San Diego." Imagine the difference had that truly been its sole focus last October.
The cocktail parties and bumper stickers and street teams are all well and good, to an extent. But to me it seems that HRC has devolved from a potent advocacy to a bland, corporate organization that has lost any true focus.
This past Monday, blogger Joe.My.God asked HRC president Joe Solmonese whether he supported the proposed October March on Washington. The answer was a a mind-bogglingly vague non-answer. When Joe pressed for a simple yes/no, Solmonese's reply was ""You might as well ask me what I think of medicine...."
Sigh.
Posted by: NYerinMpls | Jun 12, 2009 9:40:17 AM
I will forgive Sacha Cohen the day he portrays an extremely stereotypical Jew, being he a Jew himself. Why there is no such a character in his repertoire? Mmmmm...
I'm not that annoyed with this movie even if I know I won't watch it to spare me the pain of seeing the undesirable and homophobic reactions. Don't need a movie for that.
Posted by: Lexxvs | Jun 12, 2009 9:53:31 AM
I get it. Really, I do. He doesn't make me angry or offended. It's just boring. Plain and simple.
Yawn.
Posted by: The Milkman | Jun 12, 2009 9:55:50 AM
The HRC should find something useful to do.
Posted by: JimF | Jun 12, 2009 9:59:29 AM
Sasha B. Cohen's material is anti-gay and promotes a climate in which adults tolerate homophobic remarks and sneers. Cohen's character "Bruno" will contribute to more cases such as the murder of the young California student, Michael King, by a fellow gay-hating classmate. It will also increase instances of taunting and anti-gay bullying such as that which led to the recent suicides of kids in Massachusetts and Georgia. Long ago. African-Americans saw that images like "Steppin' Fetch It" and minstral style black-face on movie characters were negative stereotypes that damaged their community as a whole. "Bruno" and Cohen do the same type of damage to gays. However, many gays have adopted various degrees of self-loathing that society has directed that we should feel toward ourselves, and accordingly act as Uncle Toms of the gay community, and support Cohen. This type of toleration of such vile material that is damaging to gays will slow down our fight for true equality. The man who went on the murder rampage here in Washington at the Holocaust Museum was originally influenced in his hatreds by small, socially acceptable forms of bigotry and hatred also. In his case, he nourished and developed his hatreds. Cohen encourages the same against gays. Who knows who and how gays will suffer from this Brit ex-pat Hollywood money whore, under the guise of comedy and free expression. The over-promotion of "Bruno" on YouTube and every possible media outlet has exposed millions to anti-gay material, who have not intention of seeing the film. Next time some teenagers yell "faggot" at you outside their car window, or spit on you when you try to get into a bar, you may have Mr. Cohen to thank.
Posted by: Drake | Jun 12, 2009 10:07:02 AM
I remember the character from the show and I actually thought it was designed to make fun of all absurd aspects of our lives. To me Bruno was used as a vessel to poke fun at society's cultural absurdities. I actually thought this character was the funniest of them all.
Like Borat, Bruno was obnoxious, naive and single-minded in focus. And yes Bruno was definitely a jab at some gays (via stereotypes), but I don't think that would qualify entirely as being homophobic. It seemed more like Baron Cohen was targeting personality types as it relates to our priorities, ideals. It might not be terribly original to make fun of the fashion industry but Baron Cohen can still make it damn funny.
Posted by: ED2 | Jun 12, 2009 10:10:21 AM
Drake is absolutely correct. Weeks after Cohen's Borat premiered, murders of foreigners with funny accents skyrocketed. Nearly two-thirds of the taxi cabs in New York were left without drivers.
Posted by: crispy | Jun 12, 2009 10:18:19 AM
this is for middle-class audiences to look at the duped people on the screen and feel relieved that they are not THAT ignorant, homophobic, racist, sexist and NOT that ill-mannered that they would let their prejudices be so uncloseted like this in public. this is making fun of those without class, that is, without middle-class, without the cultural capital and literacy to know there are more pernicious and legal ways to oppress people than outright violence/verbal abuse.
Posted by: maxx | Jun 12, 2009 10:19:16 AM
I really can't decide which bunch of idiots is more utterly clueless about Cohen's method, the American mass audience or humorless "professionally gay" activist types like the posters above.
Posted by: Bill W | Jun 12, 2009 10:22:55 AM
In actual life as himself Sacha is quite hot.
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | Jun 12, 2009 10:24:09 AM
In an ideal world, everyone seeing this movie would know that Cohen is making fun gay AND straight people with this farce. Unfortunately, part of the audience for this movie will probably include clueless homophobes who only see it as making fun of the silly gay. I don't think the movie should be censored in anyway, although i do see where the HRC's concern comes from. However, a warning before the movie is no more effective than the warnings before Jackass, or the warnings on computer duster cans not to huff them. Dumb people do dumb things. If anything, we can just hope the movie can start a "dialogue." Maybe, dumb person #1 mentions to smarter person #1 that he/she saw the movie and "wow, how silly are those gays. they deserve to be shot" and SP #1 says "wait, that's a farce. cohen was making fun of your ignorance as much as those silly gays." I don't know, just a dream, I guess.
Posted by: Aron | Jun 12, 2009 10:37:26 AM
Drake, you would do more for your position if you did not refer to your opponents as self-loathing, or state (explicitly or otherwise) that 'Bruno' will lead to gay teenagers being murdered. I don't agree with much of the criticism that's being directed towards 'Bruno', but there's a way to be respectful, and a way to sound like a caricature. Try more of the former, less of the latter.
Posted by: Zach | Jun 12, 2009 10:42:26 AM
Milkman
I agree. If only he wasn't boring. What he does could be funny if it wasn't so simplistic.
David Ehrenstein
I also agree with you. Sacha looking like himself is attractive.
Posted by: jimmyboyo | Jun 12, 2009 11:15:41 AM
Zach- Just where do young kids learn to hate gays, if not from the mass media (movies, TV, blogs, "Bruno") and their parents and friends who absorbed these same anti-gay sentiments before them? "Bruno" contributes to the PROBLEM, not to the solution. Zach, look at gay history. It is in the recent past that people could be fired from government jobs JUST for being gay . People get "gay-bashed" JUST FOR BEING GAY every weekend by young thugs who see the toleration that gay ridicule has in society from movies like "Bruno". There are degrees of self-loathing. I think that cheering on "Bruno" while it influences SOME people throughout the WORLD (remember, this film is for international distribution) to ridicule gays, to harbor those anti-gay sentiments that you get from other intolerent persons is in fact self-loathing. Yes, Zach, young kids who see "Bruno" or even just all the promo material all over the internet will not be better disposed toward that suspected gay kid in their class, won't stick-up for him when he gets punched around a little. Where do you think that Michael King's killer learned to hate if not from others?????
Posted by: Drake | Jun 12, 2009 11:19:45 AM
When will party leaders start censoring movies to protect us? We gays are thin skinned as it is and I am worried that this movie will cause gay people to spontaneously combust, which will end up killing random straight people sitting next to those flamers.
Please, won't somebody think of the gay children!?!?!
Please, party leaders, start censoring movies and pasting warnings on them like the ones on lighters that make us aware that fire can burn you.
Failing that, could some scientist engineer a virus that will boost people's IQ's so they can understand that not all humor is designed to appeal to everybody.
Posted by: brentbent | Jun 12, 2009 11:25:09 AM
I hate to admit, but Bruno is funny. But I agree with Drake, that I think that it is only funny for a gay audience to see. I so not want straights seeing Bruno, and turning all that stereotyping on me. I see this like in the black community, you may hear a black person use the n-word toward another black, and the same is not acceptable for non-blacks to use the term, Likewise, Bruno is not acceptable for a general audience full of straights, some of whom will take this prejudices into the voting booth in California or Florida or Texas, New York, or anywhere else. I think that we are all influenced way too much by TV and movies, and it ain't all pretty.
Posted by: Vittorio | Jun 12, 2009 11:25:57 AM
Queerface podcast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x29DBjcg5h0
Bruno/Prop 8 rally podcast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avP-qhVGZRo
I posted the above podcasts regarding a November 2, 2008 incident when I was filming a heated confrontation between Yes & No on 8 factions at an intersection in Los Angeles. I work for the queer news media, Reel Gay and hold LAPD press credentials.
Most disturbing was discovering, and filming, "Bruno" crew members who were showing support of Yes On 8, while they waited to get picked up by their van. One of the crew attacked me with the sign. The moment smacked of gay panic. And a crew who corporate would have set down for sensitivity talks.
The "Bruno" production was COMPLETELY DENSE to the civil rights significance of the moment. It was their blockbuster movie agenda or nothing else.
Before that, Sasha Cohen made butt-sex jokes, his crew beat me up for shooting his shtick on a public street during a civil rights moment, and Cohen never had the courage to step out from behind his cameras and show that he sypmathized with those Gays and Lesbians who stood across the street. Lenny Bruce would have.
Cohen has NO track records on gay rights. Bruno was the weakest of his characters. It's all butt-sex, gay-panic, and stereotypes.
Bruno = QUEERFACE
Posted by: Skiff | Jun 12, 2009 11:42:15 AM
I think that Bruno is funny, but funny for an all gay audience. In a straight audience, this film (that will have world-wide distribution of negative stereotypes) is going to do immense damage to gays. Who knows how many persons will add this to their negative gay images, and be influenced ( even if subconsciously) when the vote against gay rights in California, New York, Texas, or anywhere else these same audiences won't give us equality ???? Of course it will hurt us. Bruno is funny to gays, in the same manner that blacks occasionally use the n-word on each other, but non-blacks can't and really shouldn't . The movie really is influencing millions who will not even see the thing by all the promotion, including this piece on a gay blog.
Cohen needs to be challenged again and again by the gay community. He is appealing to the little vulgar bigot in people, and giving everyone permission to laugh about their prejudices, and hold on to them. He is not telling the audience that they are wrong or bigoted to join in the ridiclue.
Posted by: Vittorio | Jun 12, 2009 11:43:58 AM