OK, I finally see the motion picture "Bruno" this weekend. Some parts of it are quite funny, other parts a little dull. My favorite part is when the Christian counsellor advises Bruno to join the Amerikan military in order to become straight, although they could have done a lot more with that part of the story. I wish they had shown Bruno in the showers with some of those military hunks!
Anyway, it is a slightly funny movie, and for gay men, we know it has a lot of exaggerations, and is not a real depiction of what life is really like for us. It shows too much a stereotype. But for straight people watching the film, many of them will think what they are seeing is typical, and it really creates a negative image of the gay community. Especially for Austrian gay men.
So I believe very much in freedom of speech, and Sascha Baron Cohen has every right to make this film, but I think now I understand a little better why the Kazakh people were so upset with the movie "Borat." It's one thing to say it's fiction, it's obviously an exaggeration, etc., etc., but there are many viewers who really will not understand this, and their negative stereotypes of the gay community will be reinforced. At least this is my thinking. Does anybody else agree or disagree with me?