http://www.timesofisrael.com/worth-submitting-to-this-dictator/
Worth submitting to this ‘Dictator’ Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film, now playing in the US, offers an extra layer of jokes for viewers with knowledge about the Middle East
One of the more disingenuous claims you’re likely to see this year arrives during the final credits of “The Dictator,” in which Paramount Pictures declares that any resemblance between the film and real life is purely coincidental.
The claim is preposterous, of course, as anyone who’s seen a trailer can attest. Sacha Baron Cohen’s title character, the ruler of a made-up country called Wadiya, is a transparent hybrid of despots from the Muslim world — a tyrant who dresses like Muammar Ghadafi, approaches sports like one of Saddam Hussein’s sons, and enjoys the same grotesquely extravagant lifestyle as a Saudi prince. The similarities are the entire point of the film.
That absurd disclaimer aside, “The Dictator” is a jauntily amusing ride. Although a backlash against Baron Cohen has started to emerge in some quarters, the film reconfirms its star’s comic bona fides, delivering a largely successful stream of satire in its concise 83 minutes. Some Arab-Americans have protested the film’s portrayal of their Middle Eastern counterparts, and Jewish viewers may squirm during a scene involving a video game based on the terrorist massacre of Israelis at the Olympics. Many of the jokes aren’t terribly ambitious – figures like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il (the film is dedicated to the latter) practically write the punchlines themselves.