You think you've seen some of Bruno's most outrageous scenes in the trailer, and maybe your friends who have seen advance screenings have started spoiling the bigger ones. But trust me, the most shocking and horrifying moment of Bruno is one that got cut out after an advance screening-- a violent gay-bashing scene that ends with one character in a wheelchair.
Seriously. Movieline got the scoop from a guy who attended an industry test screening in February, where he says he and another actor were the only gay people in an audience full of straight people who laughed riotously at the violence. "They were annoyed with us for ruining the party," Richard Day said about the audience's response when he complained about the ending. And yet, it was cut from the final print-- and Day doesn't know why.
Ready to know exactly what happened? SPOILERS AHEAD, obviously. The movie seems to end much in the manner Borat did, with Bruno reunited with his assistant at an Arkansas cage match, where the two begin making out in front of an angry homophobic audience. In the current version, Bruno and Lutz get out just fine and go on to adopt a baby and live happily together. It's basically the same scenario in the original cut... with a key difference. "The cage-match kiss resulted in a violent attack on the couple. They then cut to a press event where they are announcing their marriage or plans to, I forget which. But the boyfriend is now drooling, seemingly brain-damaged, and in a wheelchair, played for laughs.”
When it comes to Sacha Baron Cohen, no one ever really knows how to draw the line. Most of the best jokes in Borat-- white college kids advocating slavery, attempted kidnapping of Pamela Anderson, bringing your own poop to the table-- are horrifying at best and deeply offensive at worst. The notion of playing a violent, homophobic attack for laughs sounds unthinkable on paper, but so does a nude wrestling match in the middle of a mortgage broker's convention.
Then again, we've seen that Baron Cohen and his director, Larry Charles, are willing to cut back when necessary, like cutting the Michael Jackson subplot out of advance screenings of the film after the singer's death. And, seriously, we still live in a country where it is all too common for people to be beaten and attacked for their sexuality. If the Jackson joke is too soon, then that scene definitely is. Again, it's hard to have a firm opinion on a scene you haven't seen, but it most certainly seems that Baron Cohen and company made the right call here.
