After the first trailer for The Dictator, which made it look totally obnoxious and stupid, I really didn’t expect anything of the movie, but this second trailer reveals a pretty big plot point…actually, scratch that. This new trailer reveals the actual premise of the movie, wherein the titular Dictator gets his beard cut off and has to learn to live amid Western society. I’m sure it’s still going to be totally offensive, but now I think The Dictator actually has some potential to be entertaining, since it’s clear that we’re going to see a character that grows and develops – unlike Sacha Baron Cohen’s most famous characters Borat and Bruno. Don’t get me wrong, I love Borat and Bruno, but those were socially experimental docu-mocku-mentaries. A normal narrative film needs a character who is going to change over the course of the story, and surprisingly, it looks like The Dictator might actually feature that. What do you think?
I also find the marketing move to wait to reveal these plot details interesting. Cohen even turned up at the Oscars as The Dictator wearing the beard, but it seems like he may not even wear it for most of the movie!
The Dictator comes out May 11, 2012.