Film Review Reel Bad Arabs Media Essay

Film Re count Reel Bad Arabs Media EssayIn his documentary, Shaheen represents the un equal stigma of Arabs as being either h bems whose sole purpose in life is pleasing men, as being nomads, or as leave dwellers full of violence. This stigma goes as far as purposeing the Arab buck as having magical carpets and Genies in bottles. sensation famous pictorial matter that portrays this discoloration is the Disney Animation, Aladdin. Through Dr. Shaheens eyes, Aladdin is a film that recycled e genuinely old degrading separate from Hollywoods silent black-and-white past. I agree with Dr. Shaheen on this specific run because rase the opening song of the image goes, Oh, I come from a land, from a fara itinerary place, where the caravan camels grow, where they cope off your ear if they dont alike(p) your face. Its barbaric, but, hey, its home. Moreover, there is some other conniption in the movie where a charwomilitary personnel in the grocery market is threatened by a sales b it to cut of her hands if she doesnt pay for the items she took off of the counter. In my opinion, this scene shows a very extreme view of Arab traditions, and, seeing as non all Arab countries carry out to such(prenominal) harsh penalties for stealing it is an unfair portrayal of the Arab society.A nonher faultfinding point that Shaheen reveals is how Hollywood portrays Arab men, especially Sheikhs as erotic men who be obsessed with American women. A scene that elaborates on this belief is from the movie Cannonball Run 2, where an Arab tells a couple of American women, I involve a weakness for blondes. He fills those women to a hotel and orders his butler to book xii suits which emphasizes that Arabs be too rich and stupid to know the value of currency according to Dr. Shaheen. While most movies project Arab men as oversexed, they forever portray American women as victims that try to defend themselves from those erotic Arab men. An moral of such a sort out is seen in the movie Taken in which Liam Neeson is a retired CIA agent who, passim the whole movie, tries to track his daughter, Kim, who was kidnapped by slave traders while she was travelling in France. At the end of the movie he goes to a place where he finds his daughter being sold in a sex slave auction to a young man who has offered the highest price. This man takes Kim to a fancy boat surrounded by guards, and goes in to a huge room and tells his master, who is an Arab, that he got himself the girl he wanted. Moreover, Hollywood also reveals Arab men with the very(prenominal) external image of wearing a ample dress or galabeya, a beard, dark sunglasses, and limousine in the priming coat. Again, Hollywood has taken an over dramatized notion of Arabs and generalized it in to a widely conceived idea of the Arab culture and history.Dr. fathead Shaheen believes that Hollywood everlastingly portrays Arabs as brutal, heartless, uncivilized religious fanatics and bullion -mad people wh o ar bent on terrorizing civilized westerners, especially Christians and Jews. I agree with Dr. Shaheens view because Hollywood movies always project Arabs as villains with guns and knives who view violence as a design act. I also noticed while watching the short clips from divers(prenominal) movies that they mainly focus on the facial expressions of the Arabs and trying to reveal them as angry, vicious people full of hatred. I believe that such techniques are especially designed to psychologically brainwash the audience into believing the counterfeit portrayal that Hollywood has make of the Arabs. Such techniques dupe also had an contact on other forms of media, such as music. Many pop Artists and Rappers control criticized Arabs in their songs. In Busta Rhymes song Arab Money, he uses lines from the Quran and mocks the Middle eastern culture for its wealth by including lines such as Screw the recession, Im salve investing , about to buy Dubai and swim the shark section. For a long while, Hollywood has mainly focused on stigmatizing the image of Arabs and it has never revealed the accomplishments they pick up made throughout history. In addition, they never mentioned that Arabs begin inspired Europeans with their s fling offs and techniques throughout history. Arabs have introduced agriculture concepts such as oranges, cotton, and periods to Europeans. They have also made great advances in technology such as in the pissing clock. Also, Al Khwarizmi, the founder of Algebra, has made a great contribution to math that is used worldwide today. All of these guinea pigs are positive aspects of Arabs that could be depicted in American movies however, Hollywood chooses to present Arabs in the fake electronegative portrayal that it has created of them. Later on in the Documentary, Dr. Shaheen states that the image of Arabs began to neuter later World War II. Hollywood focused more on Palestinians payable to the conflict between Israel and Palesti ne, in which the United States supported Israel. Palestinians are communicate as evil civilians who are always harming Jews and Israelis in general. They are also shown as violent in nature and suicide bombers who cause the deaths of inexperienced person people. One movie that elaborates on this theory is Delta force. In this film, a classify of Palestinians terrorize people on the plane and one Palestinian tells another to pick out the passengers with Jewish names so they can kill them. In addition, many Arab women are projected as villains such as in the movie Black Sunday where the character is a chilliness blooded woman who tried to kill 80,000 impoverished Americans at a super bowl. Dr. Shaheen believes that two Israeli producers emphasized these stereotypes in Hollywood movies for a twenty-year period. He also states that there are some movies that are particularly shown on television at least once a week. In my opinion, this is a form of propaganda to make the audience hate Arabs, and especially Palestinians. Hollywood and American television has never sympathized with Palestinians by showing them as clean-handed people living in refugee camps or who are brutally pushover by Israeli soldiers in their homeland. Hollywood has shown in recent movies how flabby it is for Americans kill Arabs in brutal ways trying to emphasizing that Arabs merit to die. The movie Rules of Engagement, starring Samuel L. Jackson, is an example that stresses this idea. A specific scene that reveals this idea is a scene where Arab men, women, and even small children are all memory guns and trying to kill the American soldiers. This scene underlines the incident that Arabs are never innocent and violent in nature, even young children. For over a century words like Muslims and Arabs are threatening in the west. In addition, the situation grew worse since the September 11th attack where 19 Arab Muslims were trusty for the deaths of 3000 people. Jack Shaheen explains th at the actions of a small group of people should not be reflected upon 1.9 million people. I agree with Shaheens point of view as an Arab, I was one of the many Muslims who were against the 9/11 attacks as it is excruciating and unforgivable to kill innocent people for any reason. Also, the Quran forbids the killing of innocent people and the terrorists responsible for this attack, who call themselves Muslims, have disrespected their religion on so many levels. On the other hand, I can understand wherefore in the United States, the actions of one Arab reflect on the rest. Therefore, documentaries aired on television Brainwash people by using Bold and superior letters to emphasize things like Islam, a religion of 2 cardinal members growing by 50 million people annually. Nearly every(prenominal) terrorist network is led by an Islamic fundamentalist. Dr. Shaheen also states that since 9/11 attack, passengers with Muslim names are immediately suspects in US airports even the ones wh o hold American passports. Shaheen points out that Hollywood has been portraying Arabs as terrorists and villains for a very long time that its ok to include them in movies that have nothing to with them such as Back to the Future and Gladiator. Moreover, when Arabs are not terrorizing Americans or harassing their women, they are buying up their country and being the seeded player of their economic troubles as seen in the movie Father of the Bride. Also, a scene from a movie included in the documentary shows a man in a talk show urging the need for American citizens to let their president know that they do not like the fact that the Arabs are buying them. A different important point that Dr. Shaheen makes in his documentary is that Arab women are always victimized in Hollywood movies as poor and weak. They are always seen in the shadows or in the background and do not have a purpose. Arab women are never portrayed as doctors, engineers, or even successful drawing cards. Women such as El Sheikha Mozah who have made great difference in defining Qatars economic statues have never been mentioned in American Movies. Another example is Queen Rania of Jordan who has greatly improved educational systems throughout all Arab countries. In the movie Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, the great Egyptian leader was only portrayed as a beautiful woman who fell in live with Mark Anthony, but not as a strong, wise leader who ruled Egypt. Another Arab culture that has been stigmatized by Hollywood is the Egyptian culture. close movies about Egyptian culture are based on pharaohs, mummies, pyramids, and repudiate Bedouins. American movies never portray the modern Egyptian culture, which results in a large portion of Americans believing that Egyptians ride camels instead of cars and live in tents and pyramids instead of normal houses. Throughout the whole documentary, my favorite part was where Dr. Jack Shaheen presents the Real Arabs and what they are really like. He s tated the fact that not all Arabs are Muslims and many of them are Christians. Moreover, not all Arab women are veiled instead, many of them are extremely modern and up to date with clothes. In fact, there are many great Arab fashion designers such as Zuhair Murad and Eli Saab who have inspired different styles of clothes worldwide. In addition, teenagers and children in Arab regions engage in sports and activities just like normal children who do the same things in any other part of the world. Even if Arabs wish to substantiate by their culture and traditional appearance it doesnt mean that the other or the different is labeled under the name of the enemy. Dr. Shaheen states that even though Arabs have been stereotyped for a long time in Hollywood, there are some filmmakers who have portrayed Arabs in a positive way. One movie that humanizes Arabs and projects them with respect in Dr. Shaheens opinion is Three Kings. Another movie that is a good example is Kingdom of Heaven where it reveals that even though Saladin conquered Jerusalem, there was peace and respect between Christians and Muslims. Although Dr. Shaheen has shown a couple of films that project Arabs in a positive way, I think he left field out a couple of important films that are good examples such as Lawrence of Arabia starring Omar El Sherif and the movie Babel starring Brad Pitt. In my opinion, Babel is a very important movie that represents the Arabs in a respectful, polite way. While Brad Pitt and his married woman were on vacation in Morocco, his wife gets shot while they were in the Bus. As they couldnt contact the Embassy at that time, a Moroccan tour guide, Anwar, offers his help to Brad Pitt and takes them to his house and takes care of them for some(prenominal) days. When he finally contacted the Embassy, before he leaves, he offers Anwar all the money he has as a way of thanking him but Anwar absolutely refuses to take any of it. In my opinion, I think Dr. Jack Shaheens point of vie w of how Arabs have been stereotyped in Hollywood movies is very convincing. I like the fact that he states his opinion and emphasizes it with different shots from different movies throughout the documentary. Also, not only does he reveal how Hollywood stereotypes Arabs, but also shows that in some movies they are portrayed in a positive way which proves that he is not biased. I agree with the Dr. Shaheen when he says, I am an optimist and I believe particularly in young film makers. The stereotype volition change because many young men and women who are entree this profession will see that there is an engrave injustice committed and they will make attempts to correct it. Its only a matter of time to when this will happen. I also agree with the fact that the stereotypes against Arabs will change just like it did with Black African Americans by time. Stereotypes may not be eternal and perhaps the time will come where ignorance will fade away from minds and tolerance of different b eliefs and cultures will proceed.