The Dictator is a 2012 American comedy film co-written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen as his fourth feature film in a leading role. The film is directed by Larry Charles, who previously directed Baron Cohen's mockumentaries Borat and Brüno. Cohen, in the role of Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya visiting the United States, stars alongside Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Jason Mantzoukas, and an uncredited appearance by John C. Reilly.
Plot
For years, the North African Republic of Wadiya has been ruled by Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen, a childish, tyrannical, lecherous, misogynous, anti-western and antisemitic despot who surrounds himself with female bodyguards, sponsors al-Qaeda and is working on developing nuclear weapons to attack Israel. After the United Nations Security Council resolves to intervene militarily, Aladeen travels to the UN Headquarters in New York City to address the council.
Shortly after arriving, he is kidnapped by Clayton, a hitman hired by his treacherous uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley), who wishes to become a new dictator. Tamir then replaces Aladeen with a mentally challenged political decoy named Efawadh, whom he intends to manipulate into signing a document nominally democratizing Wadiya while opening the country's oil fields to Chinese and other foreign vested interests. Aladeen escapes after Clayton accidentally burns himself to death, but his huge beard has been shaved off by Clayton, making him practically unrecognizable.
Wandering through New York, Aladeen encounters Zoey (Anna Faris), a boyish activist who offers him a job at her alternative lifestyle co-op. Aladeen refuses the offer and encounters "Nuclear" Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), the former chief of Wadiya's nuclear weapons program and head procurer of women, whom Aladeen thought he had previously executed. After Aladeen follows him to New York's "Little Wadiya" which is populated by refugees from his country and includes the Death to Aladeen Restaurant, Nadal explains that Wadiyan resistance was sending into exile all the people he had ordered to be executed. Wanting his old job back, Nadal promises to help Aladeen thwart Tamir's plot and regain his position as 'rightful' dictator, on condition that Aladeen makes him head of Wadiya's WMD program again. Aladeen agrees and accepts Zoey's job offer, as she is catering at the hotel where the signing is to occur. Aladeen grows closer to Zoey after she refuses his sexual advances and teaches him how to masturbate, and eventually falls in love with her after seeing her angry. Turning around Zoey's struggling business, Aladeen begins imposing strict schedules on everyone, forming a personality cult around Zoey and intimidating an inspector into giving the store a good review.
However, Aladeen's relationship with Zoey becomes strained after he reveals his true identity. After acquiring a new beard taken from a corpse, Aladeen infiltrates the hotel and tells Efawadh to leave. At the signing ceremony, he tears up Tamir's document in front of the UN delegation, and holds an impassioned speech praising the virtues of dictatorship, drawing unintended parallels to current issues within the United States. However, upon seeing Zoey in the room, he declares his love for her and, knowing Zoey's strongly held views, vows to democratize his country and open up Wadiya's oil fields for business, but in a way where the general populace will benefit. Angry with Aladeen staying in power, Tamir attempts to assassinate him but Efawadh jumps in front of the bullet and survives, as it is his job "to be shot in the head".
A year later, Wadiya holds its first democratic elections, although they are rigged in favor of Aladeen (having now added the titles President Prime Minister to his previous Admiral General). Afterwards, he marries Zoey, but is shocked when she crushes a glass and reveals herself to be Jewish. Scenes during the credits show Aladeen's convoy, now consisting of eco-friendly cars, visiting a reinstated Nadal, and later Zoey revealing in a television interview that she is pregnant with the couple's first child. Aladeen responds to the news by asking if Zoey is having "a boy or an abortion".
Unrated version
The unrated cut of The Dictator runs an additional 15 minutes from its original 83-minute theatrical version. Much of the added material is additional sexual content and dialogue. There is a scene following Aladeen falling asleep in the back of the store where one of his bodyguards, Etra, tries to kill him by beating him with her enlarged breasts. Another added scene is Chris Elliott as Mr. Ogden, the manager of the Lancaster Hotel, talking to Zoey at The Collective and canceling the catering contract because of Aladeen.
Cast
Sacha Baron Cohen as President Prime Minister Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen/Alison Burgers[4] and his double Efawadh
Anna Faris as Zoey[5]
Ben Kingsley as Tamir,[5][6] Aladeen's uncle
Jason Mantzoukas as Nadal[5]
John C. Reilly (uncredited) as Clayton[5]
Bobby Lee as Mr. Lao
Sayed Badreya as Omar
Adeel Akhtar as Maroush
Fred Armisen as the Death to Aladeen Restaurant waiter
Mark Campbell as the BBC reporter
Edward Norton (uncredited) as himself
Megan Fox as herself
Gad Elmaleh as protester
Susan Sykes as Etra
Jon Glaser as shopper
Chris Elliott (unrated cut) as Mr. Ogden
Garry Shandling (uncredited) as health inspector
Chris Parnell as news anchor
Production [edit]
The Plaza de España served as Admiral General Aladeen's palace in the movie
The distributor Paramount Pictures described the film as "the heroic story of a North African dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed."[7] Paramount said the film was inspired by the novel Zabibah and the King by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein,[8] though The New York Times later reported it is not an adaptation.[4] Kristen Wiig and Gillian Jacobs had been considered for the role that Anna Faris eventually played and which Variety said "calls for strong improvisational skills".[6] Baron Cohen, who also plays Efawadh in the film, based his performance primarily on Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, though his name is a reference to former longtime Syrian leader Hafez Al-Assad.[9][10] The film is "dedicated to the memory of Kim Jong-il".[11]
Morocco had been considered as a filming location.[6] Location shooting took place at the Plaza de España in Seville and on the island of Fuerteventura, Spain,[12] and in New York City from June to August 2011.[4] Baron Cohen said the United Nations refused to let him film scenes inside the UN Headquarters and claimed they explained this by saying, "we represent a lot of dictators, and they are going to be very angry by this portrayal of them, so you can't shoot in there." When asked about it, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman commented by saying only, "Sacha Baron Cohen has a wonderful sense of humor."
Marketing and publicity
A version of the trailer was made for a Super Bowl XLVI commercial in February 2012.[14] Archival news footage of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and David Cameron in the beginning of the trailer are excerpts of their 2011 speeches condemning Colonel Gaddafi.[15]
Internet rumors claimed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had banned Baron Cohen from attending the 84th Academy Awards in his role as Admiral General Aladeen, but the Academy said the rumors were unfounded, saying, "We haven't banned him. We're just waiting to hear what he's going to do," and specifying of the publicity stunt: "We don't think it's appropriate. But his tickets haven't been pulled. We're waiting to hear back."[16] Baron Cohen eventually appeared at the awards' red carpet with a pair of uniformed female bodyguards (resembling Gaddafi's Amazonian Guard) and wielding an urn purportedly containing the ashes of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, which the actor spilled onto E! host Ryan Seacrest. The ashes were later reported to be pancake mix.[17]
Baron Cohen appeared in character on the May 5, 2012, episode of Saturday Night Live during the "Weekend Update" segment, in which he appeared to torture film critics A. O. Scott and Roger Ebert to give the film positive reviews, as well as seemingly holding director Martin Scorsese hostage.[18] Baron Cohen released a video in the wake of the 2012 French Presidential Election, congratulating François Hollande on his victory,[19] and appeared in character with the pair of uniformed female bodyguards on the May 7, 2012 episode of The Daily Show.[20]
A publicity prank involved fake invitations that have been arriving in mailboxes in Washington, according to which "President Robert Mugabe and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Art, and Culture invite you to the Premiere of The Dictator." Screening of the film would purportedly take place at Mugabe's palace in Zimbabwe on May 12.[21]
Music
The film score was composed by Erran Baron Cohen. The Dictator - Music from the Motion Picture was released on May 8, 2012 by Aladeen Records.
No. Title Performed by Length
1. "The Next Episode" Aiwa, Mr Tibbz & Admiral General Aladeen 2:43
2. "Ila Nzour Nebra" Jalal Hamdaoui & Driver 3:22
3. "Habibi" Ali Hassan Kuban 4:21
4. "Everybody Hurts" MC Rai 5:28
5. "Wahrane Wahrane" Khaled 4:43
6. "9 to 5" Michelle J. Nasser 2:41
7. "Goulou L'Mama" Jalal Hamdaoui & Cheb Rayan 4:01
8. "The Song of Admiral General Sargeant Aladeen" Erran Baron Cohen feat. Omar Fadel 2:56
9. "Let's Get It On" Mohamed Amer 1:57
10. "Raoui" Souad Massi 3:47
11. "Money's on the Dresser" Erran Baron Cohen feat. Jules Brookes 2:45
12. "Our Beloved Leader" The Aladeenies 2:01
13. "Wala Ala Balo" Amr Diab 5:09
Total length:
40:45
"Mundian To Bach Ke" by Panjabi MC and Jay-Z was featured in the trailers.[22] "Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor)" by Pitbull was featured in the second trailer.
Reception
The film has received mixed reviews from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 58%, based on 200 reviews,[23] about the same as Ali G Indahouse (56%), lower than Brüno (67%), and much lower than Borat (91%).[24] The critical consensus was: "Wildly uneven but consistently provocative, The Dictator is a decent entry in the poli-slapstick comedy genre."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of a possible four, saying, "The Dictator is funny, in addition to being obscene, disgusting, scatological, vulgar, crude and so on. Having seen Sacha Baron Cohen promoting it on countless talk shows, I feared the movie would feel like déjà vu. But no. He establishes a claim to be the best comic filmmaker now working. And in a speech about dictatorships, he practices merciless political satire."[25] Slant Magazine conversely concluded, "bound to be one of the year's biggest comedy letdowns, The Dictator doesn't so much stir hot-button issues as showcase a great satirist off his game."[26] Keith Uhlich of Time Out approved, giving it four stars out of five, and calling the opening scenes in the film "a brisk, hilarious jeremiad" and its ending monologue "a rousing, uproarious climatic speech worthy of both Chaplin and Team America."[27]
Several reviews noted that the Marx Brothers' 1933 film, Duck Soup, inspired parts of Baron Cohen's 2012 film.[28] Scott Tobias of AV Club noted that "Admiral General Aladeen and Rufus T. Firefly share the same bloodline, representing a more generalized contempt for world leaders of any stripe, whether they don a 'supreme beard' or a greasepaint moustache."[29] Scott Wilson of the Nashville Scene detected "an echo here of that funniest of xenophobe-baiting funnies, Duck Soup."[30] Peter Travers of the Rolling Stone claimed that Baron Cohen's film "dodges soothing convention and ultimately merits comparisons to the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup and Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator."[31]
Censorship
The film has been officially banned in Tajikistan,[32] described as "unlikely" to be shown in Turkmenistan,[33] shortened to 71 minutes by the censorship in Uzbekistan,[34] and banned from screens two weeks after its premiere in Kazakhstan.[35] Rumors were circulating that the film has been also informally banned from showing in Belarus,[36] but state officials denied this referring to trivial deficiency of properly equipped movie theaters suitable for showing the film distributed exclusively in digital format.[37] The same was an issue in Azerbaijan, the film was informally banned from showing in Baku next day after premiere.
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