On its opening weekend, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, broke the box-office record for movies opening in fewer than 1,000 locations, grossing a whopping $26.4 million in its first weekend.
Already a part of the Boston University vernacular, students not only find the movie comical, but also telling of American culture.
In the film, Sacha Baron Cohen, the mastermind comedian behind Borat, applied his trademark satire to an exploration of racism, sexism and secessionism in the United States. While billed as comedy, Cohen’s film offers legitimate social commentary, juxtaposing the made-up customs of Borat’s native Kazakhstan with prevalent anti-gay and racist American beliefs, particularly in the South.
And with this dark comedy came a flurry of lawsuits.
Two South Carolina fraternity members featured in the film filed suit against the film studio, arguing they were duped into appearing in the movie.
According to the lawsuit, the Borat production crew took the students to a bar to “loosen up” and told them the footage would not air in the United States, before they began spitting misogynistic comments.
The movie “made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community,” according to the lawsuit.
“Our contention is that they were set up and made to say things they don’t believe,” the students’ attorney, Olivier Taillieu told ABC News. “They want to be cut from the movie and they want financial compensation.”
But the two college students had signed a release form and understood they were being filmed.
Although the students were intoxicated, no one forced them to drink or told them to make embarrassing comments. Borat was not filmed as an undercover exposé with hidden cameras. The fraternity brothers entered into a situation where they were knowingly filmed and learned a hard lesson in what happens when you sign away your privacy.
In an age when a home videos become YouTube sensations over night, Americans must take responsibility for protecting their own privacy. We cannot count on privacy laws to protect us from ourselves.
And while the two men might not have known the scope of the audience that would view Borat, they still should have tempered their behavior if they thought it would would cause them “ridicule, humiliation [and] mental anguish.”