Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
I've been intending to read Jack Shaheen's book for some time, and just haven't gotten around to it. So I was somewhat pleased that it had been made into a documentary, which gives the gist of the argument--that Hollywood films have created a bloodthirsty stereotype we're now exporting to the rest of the world--but doesn't really replace what I assume is a much more in-depth book.
The helpful thing about a movie about movies, of course, is that it can show clips. And Shaheen does: clip after clip of violence, yelling, and justification for an attitude that all Arabs are terrorists. It's a convincing argument, as far as it goes, and Shaheen is careful to include a few of the positive portrayals. There is certainly enough negative to make one angry, as time after time you see the utter disrespect with which entire nations are treated. The film traces the stereotypes from the Sheik/harem days through the greedy and bumbling oil-rich days through today's fundamentalist-with-machine-gun image. Seeing the films stacked together is revealing, as it quickly becomes apparent that the same scenes are playing out over and over, whether it's the blond girl being menaced or the wild-eyed shouting about Allah. There wasn't any question in my mind before I watched the film that Hollywood has indeed done very badly by the Middle East, but the visual evidence was nonetheless shocking.
Another interesting section was about the way Hollywood follows Washington policy, especially as regards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the country's birth, Hollywood has made film after film highlighting the humanity of Israelis and demonizing Palestinians. For films involving the military, the Department of Defense is a necessary partner if you want access to realistic materials, and the list of films about American forces kicking nasty Arab ass on the DoD's dime is appalling.
There were some conspicuous absences, however. Shaheen cites Syriana as a film that did something right by portraying Arabs all over the place: as terrorists, as families, as Siddig el Fadil's progressive prince. But I wonder if some films and subjects were just too complicated for a film running 50 minutes. What does he have to say about Lawrence of Arabia, for instance, a quagmire of representation? What about the fact (never mentioned) that an astounding number of screen Arabs are played by Indians or Pakistanis, who aren't anything ethnically like?
My own theory is that we need to cast someone sufficiently "other" in those roles, and if our own ethnically Arab actors can "pass" as Monk or Salieri, we must import darker-skinned and unfamiliar races to demonize them. Certainly Naveen Andrews, Art Malik, and Ben Kingsley have all played wonderful roles as Indians (I know Malik is Pakistani, but that's another matter), but all have been pressed into service to terrorize Americans. (As a side note, I just read that Andrews' character on Lost is supposed to be Iraqi. Really? I mean... really? This boggles me. Can we really not tell the difference? Not to mention the fact that many Indian or Pakistani actors are actually also British but hardly ever get to use their real accents.) And let's take Lawrence again: any actual Arabs are in the background (or Omar Sharif, who we stole from Egypt because he's hot enough to play anywhere) while English and American (or American-Irish-Mexican in Quinn's case) actors put on false noses and brownface. Again, I assume, to make them unlike "us" enough (though frankly at the time there were many fewer casting options, so it's not a very good example).
I've gotten away from the point, which I think was a sort of review of this documentary, but not really. I actually don't have a problem with crossing ethnic lines a bit in casting, because it's all acting anyway and I like a lot of the performances that result. But as a pattern, it's more disturbing. And it's combined with another pattern of demonizing the inhabitants of a whole region of the world, which again isn't a problem on an individual basis (there are bad guys everywhere) but becomes one when its endemic.
So what are your observations? What have you "learned" about the Middle East from Hollywood, or have you seen a film that altered the pattern? Do you have a favorite non-Arab Arab performance? Has anyone read this book?
The helpful thing about a movie about movies, of course, is that it can show clips. And Shaheen does: clip after clip of violence, yelling, and justification for an attitude that all Arabs are terrorists. It's a convincing argument, as far as it goes, and Shaheen is careful to include a few of the positive portrayals. There is certainly enough negative to make one angry, as time after time you see the utter disrespect with which entire nations are treated. The film traces the stereotypes from the Sheik/harem days through the greedy and bumbling oil-rich days through today's fundamentalist-with-machine-gun image. Seeing the films stacked together is revealing, as it quickly becomes apparent that the same scenes are playing out over and over, whether it's the blond girl being menaced or the wild-eyed shouting about Allah. There wasn't any question in my mind before I watched the film that Hollywood has indeed done very badly by the Middle East, but the visual evidence was nonetheless shocking.
Another interesting section was about the way Hollywood follows Washington policy, especially as regards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the country's birth, Hollywood has made film after film highlighting the humanity of Israelis and demonizing Palestinians. For films involving the military, the Department of Defense is a necessary partner if you want access to realistic materials, and the list of films about American forces kicking nasty Arab ass on the DoD's dime is appalling.
There were some conspicuous absences, however. Shaheen cites Syriana as a film that did something right by portraying Arabs all over the place: as terrorists, as families, as Siddig el Fadil's progressive prince. But I wonder if some films and subjects were just too complicated for a film running 50 minutes. What does he have to say about Lawrence of Arabia, for instance, a quagmire of representation? What about the fact (never mentioned) that an astounding number of screen Arabs are played by Indians or Pakistanis, who aren't anything ethnically like?
My own theory is that we need to cast someone sufficiently "other" in those roles, and if our own ethnically Arab actors can "pass" as Monk or Salieri, we must import darker-skinned and unfamiliar races to demonize them. Certainly Naveen Andrews, Art Malik, and Ben Kingsley have all played wonderful roles as Indians (I know Malik is Pakistani, but that's another matter), but all have been pressed into service to terrorize Americans. (As a side note, I just read that Andrews' character on Lost is supposed to be Iraqi. Really? I mean... really? This boggles me. Can we really not tell the difference? Not to mention the fact that many Indian or Pakistani actors are actually also British but hardly ever get to use their real accents.) And let's take Lawrence again: any actual Arabs are in the background (or Omar Sharif, who we stole from Egypt because he's hot enough to play anywhere) while English and American (or American-Irish-Mexican in Quinn's case) actors put on false noses and brownface. Again, I assume, to make them unlike "us" enough (though frankly at the time there were many fewer casting options, so it's not a very good example).
I've gotten away from the point, which I think was a sort of review of this documentary, but not really. I actually don't have a problem with crossing ethnic lines a bit in casting, because it's all acting anyway and I like a lot of the performances that result. But as a pattern, it's more disturbing. And it's combined with another pattern of demonizing the inhabitants of a whole region of the world, which again isn't a problem on an individual basis (there are bad guys everywhere) but becomes one when its endemic.
So what are your observations? What have you "learned" about the Middle East from Hollywood, or have you seen a film that altered the pattern? Do you have a favorite non-Arab Arab performance? Has anyone read this book?