Ella I was always thoroughly entertained by the Bruno character on Ali G, so I couldn't wait to see what brilliance Sacha Baron Cohen came up with this time. I was sorely disappointed, not only did I leave the theater upset, but also very disappointed in Sacha Baron Cohen.

I understood that Baron Cohen was trying to expose homophobia in America, but, was he really? And if so, then I am absolutely outraged by his hypocrisy.

Being a fan of Baron Cohen I have been trying to find out as much info as possible about the real man. Ever since Borat and Ali G, he has always been somewhat of an interesting mystery to me. I found out a lot of interesting info about this person. In his own personal life, he is an observant Orthodox Jew, he is quiet, shy and highly intelligent. He has dual Israeli-British citizenship and he is of Ashkenazi and Mithrazi Jewish decent. His great grandmother was a famous German prima ballarina and he is fluent in Polish, Hebrew and Persian. I read in a recent article how he hasn't married Isla Fisher yet because she has not converted to Orthodox Judaism. I thought he sounded like a pretty cool person, before I saw his new film, that is.

I was genuinely confused if Baron Cohen really was trying to expose homophobia or if he was actually trying to mock the gay life style and community. If I wasn't aware of Baron Cohen's personal life, I would probably tend to think that he was trying to accomplish the former, but since he himself is a member of a particular branch of Judaism that condemns homosexuality, I truly started to wonder if he was just being an outright hypocrite or if the joke is actually not on homophobic, conservative America but rather progressive, liberal hollywood.

If Baron Cohen was trying to expose homophobia in a America, (which I have no doubt, exists), but if that is indeed the case, what outrages me is the blatant hypocrisy on the part of Baron Cohen. Now, I have no problem with what people believe is morally right or wrong in their own personal lives as long as you don't bother others who disagree with you, but if you are going to mock other people in other countries based on their religious beliefs when you yourself practice and preach the same line of morality in your own private life, then I think that is just disgustingly hypocritical. What bothers me is that he just targets Americans. He was trying to make all Americans look like douche bags from Jerry Springer. Unfortunately, and wrongly so, many Europeans have these stereotypes about Americans. I believe this movie would only enforce these horrible stereotypes. Growing up in Europe, I for one know for a fact that many Europeans think that all Americans are homophobic, evangelical Christians right out of the case of Deliverance. Its rather insulting and an insult to my intelligence as an American citizen who has lived all over the world, speaks 4 languages and grew up in a mixed Jewish/Christian household with gay family members. Is this what the rest of the world really thinks of me? Is this how my European friends really see me? All because I was born in the United States?

Now, I wouldn't have had the problem with the message Bruno was trying to convey if he bothered to expose the homophobia that exists all over the world. It exists rampantly among the poorer classes in Great Britain, neo-nazism has revived two-fold in some parts of Austria, and in his own home country of Israel, homophobia is as much alive there as it is in our own backyards. There was just one scene where he gets chased down by a pack of angry Orthodox Jews for walking around in a sexualized version of their traditional dress, and acting flamboyantly gay, but why didn't Baron Cohen go further with that part of the world and the subject of homosexuality? Was it because he was too scared that he would genuinely get killed? Or is it because he believes that it is okay for people who share his religion to condemn homosexuality but not people of other faiths. I just didn't get the point to this movie. Why is it just Americans and Christians that have become the butt of his joke? Homophobia is not just an American problem. Its a problem that exists in every part of the world.

I also couldn't blame the hunters for being scared out of their minds. They had no idea who this person was and he kept acting weird and making sexual comments. Heck, I'm a woman, but if I was sleeping in the woods in the middle of the night and some strange naked man just walked into my tent, looking for sex, and kept doing it, I would be so scared. It wasn't funny. That has nothing to do with homophobia, the possibility of rape exists in both genders and in any form of sexuality. Think about it. That was sexual harassment. There were other maneuevers that Baron Cohen could have used to expose homophobia instead of scaring 3 malnourished and very poor hunters. I didn't think that was fair at all. Anyone who thinks that that was hilarious has to be out of their minds.