THE DICTATOR

US, 2012, 83 minutes, Colour.
Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley.
Directed by Larry Charles.

It would be an interesting project to study the body language of audiences watching The Dictator (or Ali G in da House, or Borat or Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen’s previous spoofs). This reviewer, watching The Dictator would have been seen to wince, laugh, smile, gasp, blush and look around (well, not for this one since there was only one other person at 2.00 on a Friday afternoon in a large cinema, which didn’t make for an atmosphere of loud guffaws).

How does one review The Dictator? It is easy to say that fastidious audiences need not go. On the other hand, those who are fastidious but enjoy some political and social satire can go and both wince and laugh. Those who enjoy the broadest of humour (and Sacha Baron Cohen, his writers and director, Larry Charles, do seem to be trying in each film to see what they can get away with) should have no difficulty with The Dictator. There are plenty of politically incorrect jokes and some of the most blatant of racist and sexist lines which make one gasp – but which, in fact, do make us confront where we really stand on some issues, and what bias might be lurking below the surface. And, as expected from the past, there are few bodily functions that do not make an appearance (including some farcical shenanigans during a childbirth sequence).

So, that deals with recommendations or not.

The Dictator is a blend of Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Ahmadinejad with some nods towards Syria. He rules over a North African nation, Waadeya, which is building nuclear weapons (he can hardly keep a straight face when he is denying this in a public speech). He is a despot. Anyone who disagrees with him is sent off to instant execution. He has a loyal second-in-charge, so he thinks, who is played straight by Ben Kingsley. However, when a coup fails, a double is sought out – a dill of a shepherd (also played by Baron Cohen) to be a puppet of the usurper.

But, most of the action takes place in New York where they all go to visit the UN to explain the nuclear situation. When the dictator is ousted from his hotel and has to find his way on the New York streets and, joining in a protest against his tyranny, he is mistaken for a rebel by an enthusiastically naïve young women who owns a green store and is to cater for the UN meeting (Anna Faris). John C. Reilley portrays an assassin.

Plenty of complications as he goes to work at the shop, meets some old associates, plans to infiltrate the UN meeting to stop his rival signing a democracy document which will lead to oil deals. Actually, this gives rise to quite some parody of American attitudes, especially when he makes a speech listing the dangers of democracy (controlled press, wire tapping and a whole range of things that already exist).

The other thing is the verbal humour. The jokes might almost be missed as they pass swiftly by. In Waadeya a favourite film is You’ve Got Mail Bomb. The dictator describes his spiritual journey like an Eat Pray Love experience. Plenty of cultural references for jokes, from George Clooney to those blue creatures in Avatar.

In Borat and Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen infiltrated groups and met individuals as his alter egos, setting them up for some outrageous falls. The Dictator is scripted. So, the safe review is ‘for Sacha Baron Cohen fans only’.

1. The films of Sacha Baron Cohen, his career, humour, wit, crass humour? His parodies, spoofs? Critique? His interviews with real people? This film as a fiction?

2. The visual humour, verbal? The references to culture, to movies, to personalities and celebrities? Irony, crass and bodily functions? Sexual emphasis? The political satire? Topical?

3. Creating a country of North Africa, the city, the palace, the crowds, the interiors, palatial, the nuclear laboratories?

4. The contrast with New York, the United Nations, New York streets, shops, protests? Television?

5. Waadeya, the drawing on Libya, Iraq, Syria, Iran? Dictators in the Arab world? The issue of nuclear power, nuclear weapons?

6. The infant with the beard, his look, his father, coming to power? The dictator, the athletics and the games, the gun, shooting people in the knees? Sexual relationships, the range of women? The photos on the wall, Arnold Schwarzenegger? His changing the language, no positive and negative – and the man told of the diagnosis of AIDS? His speeches, laughing about nuclear weapons and development? Issues of democracy? His tours of his palace, the nuclear laboratories, the arguments with the expert – and the gesture to slit people’s throats? His being called to the United Nations?

7. Tamir, the alternate ruler, second-in-charge, obeying Aladeen? Servile? Yet his plans? Seeking out the shepherd in the hills, the lookalike, Efawadh?

8. The issue of doubles, the background of Saddam Hussein, the assassination and the wrong person killed? Efawadh in the hills, ignorant, with his sheep? His personal respect for Aladeen? Going to New York, the cover, the revelation, his walking into the United Nations, falling, the TV commentators? His speech, his saving Aladeen’s life? Shot? John C. Reilley as the assassin?

9. Aladeen and his going to New York, the attack on him, his beard removed, his being ousted, the vagrant in the street, changing clothes? Going to the protest, meeting Zoey, her misinterpreting his enthusiasm, his place in the crowds?

10. Zoey, her ideals, feminist, her shop, her staff, politically correct issues, green? And the rivalry with the company who was not really green but called itself green? The parody of Little Waadeya in New York? The thief in the shop and his threats? Aladeen and his name, taking names from notices? His offensive remarks, Zoey’s response? Her naivety, nice? The birth sequence in the shop, their falling in love? His anti-feminist comments?

11. Little Waadeya, the crowds, his going into the cafe, pretending different names, taking them from signs, meeting the scientist again, the fact that nobody was actually executed, their refugee status in the US? The scientist and his wanting to go back to nuclear development? The plan?

12. Public relations, the TV commentators, Tamir, the foreign representatives, wanting the oil, Tamir coaching Efawadh?

13. Zoey, the shop, Aladeen organising it, running the shop like Waadeya? Yet his falling in love with Zoey?

14. The attempt to get into the building, the wire across the road? His being heavy, offloading things? Getting into the building? Meeting Efawadh?

15. The speech, his talk about democracy, the parody and critique in his long speech about the benefits of democracy and the Americans? His seeing Zoey, changing in the middle of his speech? Signing the document, the acclaim?

16. Tamir, frustration, the attack? Efawadh and his leaping in front of Aladeen to save him?

17. A year later, Zoey and the marriage, the birth – and the joke about slitting her throat?

18. The cumulative effect of the range of comedy by Sacha Baron Cohen? The points made? The throwaway jokes? The bad taste?