Elton John is friends with Eminem so he gets “playing characters” in art and statement-driven satire, right? [photos in this piece from GQ]
Hmm…. When we saw footage of Sacha Baron Cohen’s paralytically funny, “Brüno” at SXSW (or at least the 20-something minutes of footage we saw was that funny, we can’t speak to the whole thing yet), there was one scene that was set in an Ultimate Fighting Championship face-off match.
We wrote, “At this point in the film, Cohen’s once ostentatiously homosexual reporter has turned militaristically heterosexual and has created a UFC-like show called “Dave’s MAX Out,” giving us our first peek at Straight Dave, the newly invented Brüno. Mustachioed, hirsute and decked out in camouflage gear and an outback hat, Straight Dave parades around the ring to AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” while male spectators cheer him on.”
Suffice to say the scene goes poorly for the audience and awesome for all of us. “Then the footage takes a spectacular turn for the worse (better). Think of the scene in “Borat” in which Cohen sings the National Anthem at a Virginia rodeo to an audience that is with him initially and calling for his blood by the end. Brüno is suddenly called out during his show as a “faggot,” and an appalled Straight Dave challenges the person who yelled that to step into the ring and fight him. We’re not really meant to know who his challenger is, but clearly, it’s his ex-boyfriend. They violently fight, pummeling each other bloody, but eventually the former couple, as you can probably guess, patches things up, passionately making out and groping each other to the sounds of Elton John’s ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight.’ ”
Ca va, right? A pivotal funny as shit scene that is one for the ages. However, according to the New York Times, the use of that song — made famous for its use in Disney’s “The Lion King ” — was denied. “Mr. John, along with the Walt Disney Company, which owns the copyright to the song but seeks his approval in such matters, learned of the scene’s particulars and blanched, according to one of Mr. John’s advisers,” wrote the Times.
John apparently had some kind of sense of humor as he sort of reversed his decision. “He didn’t want to be associated with the provocative scene, but he ultimately agreed to perform part of another song that functions as a coda to the film,” the paper said.
Hmm, that sucks. And guaranteed not as funny, but this is what happens when you push buttons this hard or in Baron Cohen’s case, hitting all the elevator buttons once and laughing mercilessly; someone’s going to recoil.
But not the entire gay community is against, or semi-against “Brüno” dubious or well-intentioned satire gone possibly wrong. “The multiplex crowd wouldn’t normally sit down for a two-hour lecture on homophobia, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I’m excited about that,” relished Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out magazine, to the NYT. Others are wisely waiting to comment when they actually see the film. “Sadly, I haven’t seen the film yet!.” “Milk” screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black said.
BTW, in the current issue of GQ, when answering reader questions like, “who are the other best-dressed world leaders of all time?” “Brüno answers “JFK. Obama. Castro. Timberlake.” Yeah, it’s a guffaw and not that funny, which honestly worries us a little bit about the film. Maybe the comedy just doesn’t translate in a Q&A.
