The Dictator (2012)

Directed by: Larry Charles | 83 minutes | comedy | Actors: Sacha Baron Cohen, Megan Fox, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, John C. Reillly, BJ Novak, Olivia Dudley, JB Smoove, Kevin Corrigan, Jim Piddock, Aasif Mandvi, Erick Avari, Danielle Burgio, Bobby Lee, Jason Mantzoukas, Joanna Moskwa, Fred Melamed, Anthony Mangano, Natasha Ononogbo, Adeel Akhtar, Jenny L. Saldaña, Tracey Ruggiero, Rock Kohli

Few films will hit theaters in the western hemisphere that begin with the words “dedicated to the great leader Kim Jong Il”. ‘The Dictator’ is one such movie. When the film starts with the photo of this North Korean dictator combined with this announcement, the tone is set and the first bursts of laughter are in. This is followed by a nice introductory compilation in the style of ‘Borat’, which gives a bird’s-eye view of what kind of subject we are dealing with, with the person of General Aladeen. From the start, Aladeen is another infectious person who, despite his unsympathetic actions and thoughts, we still want to see succeed. To a certain extent, Aladeen, like Borat, is also ignorant, but he’s certainly a lot less innocent and touching than Borat, who was almost accidentally rude and insensitive, which made it all the more funny. ‘The Dictator’ as a whole is a lot less effective and efficient, both in terms of humor and satire, than the aforementioned hit by Sacha Baron Cohen. ‘Borat’ barely had a moment of weakness, leading the viewer from fit of laughter to fit of laughter, while also beautifully showing the nature of the American people through his reactions to the behavior of this weirdo. ‘The Dictator’ is certainly a film with many fun moments and a successful new comic character, but also often gets bogged down in blandness and easy jokes. Fortunately, it is mainly the fun moments that stay with me and since there are also some unforgettable thigh-talkers among them, ‘The Dictator’ is ultimately a film that you should not miss.

‘The Dictator’ gets off to a flying start through a sequence of scenes showing Aladeen in his natural environment. This shows how extravagant his palace gardens look, with hedges and gardens in his image; how he can’t stop laughing when he addresses his people from his balcony and says he will use nuclear energy for peaceful and sustainable causes; and how he wins his Olympics time and again by simply shooting his opponents on the running track. Also very nice is the fact that the admiral general has changed three hundred words to his own name, which sometimes causes a lot of confusion, such as with the words “positive” and “negative”, both of which have now been changed to “Aladeen”. Because how should you react when you hear that you are HIV Aladeen? Later in the film, Aladeen’s decision is shown to produce a kind of Smurf language, as one word can mean almost anything. After all, if a restaurant wants to put up a sign about possible entrance to the establishment, it could say: “Come in, we’re Aladeen.” and “Sorry, we’re Aladeen.” It also shows, for example, how many famous American bed partners he has had (Megan Fox at the time), what his favorite, anti-Semitic Wii game is, and what it takes for Aladeen to have someone executed.

Aladeen (and ‘The Dictator’ as a whole) regularly laughs, but he is also often monotonous, bland, overly rude and deliberately hurtful. Clous of jokes are often weak, and certain recurring comedic themes are sometimes milked out too long, such as Aladeen’s desire to make a pointy rocket instead of a bulbous one. In addition, there is no added value that we can observe the behavior of real, non-acting Americans live because, unlike ‘Borat’ and ‘Brüno’, all situations and characters here are fictional. So when a xenophobic American hotel owner says that to Americans all foreigners are Arab and calls them sand niggers and camel fuckers, it has a very different meaning than in ‘Borat’, because the screenwriters wanted such a racist American to be presented.

But even though ‘The Dictator’ should have gotten more good jokes out of its more than 80 minutes, the jokes that work well often do it so well that you can’t stop laughing and always have a smile on your face. magic when thinking back to the movie. Some situations you will never forget, especially a very special birth scene. At the end, the film actually manages to deliver a bitingly satirical moment against the US government that almost makes you stand up to applaud. A special mention is also made for the music. The way in which well-known hits such as “The Next Episode”, “Everybody Hurts”, “Let’s Get it On” are edited in a Wadyian way is downright hilarious. Finally, it’s great that The Dictator also manages to create some “loving” moments, such as when Aladeen falls in love instantly when his idealistic American “girlfriend” suddenly rages very fiercely at a cop and her raised finger and tight look – like a female Hitler – buckle his knees. For all its rudeness and political incorrectness, ‘The Dictator’ communicates one message loud and clear: after all, everyone wants to be hugged.