July 26, 2009

Ponderings of a Pilgrim PASTOR

“Brüno”

            A few years ago when Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” was a big hit for some in the conservative Christian community, I publicly announced I had made a decision not to see it.  Why?  Because I had read enough about the film to know that it was historically inaccurate, anti-Sematic, and contributed to what I call “the pornography of violence” in our time.  If people wanted to see the movie and liked it, that was their business.

            Now we have the movie “Brüno,” by British comedian Sacha Baron, the man who brought us the movie “Borat.”  “Borat” was a crude and offensive but often funny way of attacking anti-Semitism and other prejudices.  The irony (and humor) in “Borat” is that Cohen, a Jew, plays “Borat,” an anti-Semite.  The real people whom “Borat” interviews on his journey across America (apparently) didn’t know it was all a put-on, thus creating the comedy by their stupid and offensive remarks.  Bigotry was revealed and demolished.

            Cohen may have intended to do the same thing in “Brüno” but the comedy and social criticism don’t work.  “Brüno” is a gay Austrian involved in the fashion industry.  I understand that the film contains about every gay stereotype imaginable.  But instead of laughing ruefully at ourselves and our prejudices as some of us did seeing “Borat,” in “Brüno” stereotypes are not demolished, but celebrated as “humor.”  At its best, comedy should make us laugh at our human foolishness, not encourage it.

            So despite its boxoffice success, I won’t be going to “Brüno.”  If you want to see it, go ahead, I would as soon see a blackface minstrel show.

Love, 

Pastor Dave