Reel Bad Arabs

[Nicholas]

This is more of a documentary film rather than a movie that shows how movies and other media through the years have depicted Arabs in a bad light. It is based on the book by Dr. Jack Shaheen and a Media Education Foundation production.

It is surprising to see how long this has been going on and how subtly it is incorporated. Even in Walt Disney cartoons! This 50 minute documentary really did a good job presenting the material. It ends with some recent movies showing Arabs in a more humane way that will hopefully start to bring an end to the stereotyping.

_http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-223210418534585840

 

[bedower]

I bought the book two or three years ago, and was shocked at how long this negative portrayal of Arabs has been going on for! (The video sounds good, will watch it later.) The good news is that the book has been discussed on quite a few websites, which has helped to raise its profile.

It certainly opened my eyes to this kind of insidious propaganda, and taught me what to look out for in films, and yes, it is still going on, but not to such an extent. Films like 'Pitch Black' and 'The Chronicles of Riddick' have shown Muslims/Arabs in a more positive light, but such films are few and far between. I can't think of any more offhand, except perhaps for the 'Arabian Nights' type of movies.

Hollywood can't be blamed entirely for this projection, although it certainly doesn't help matters; the negative attitude of most westerners towards the Arabs and Islam began back in the Middle Ages with the various Crusades whipped up by the Catholic Church. Let us not forget the hand of the Vatican in this demonisation of Muslims.

It's also often forgotten that there are many Christian Arabs - for instance, around 30% of Palestinians are Christian, if I remember correctly.

Thanks for this post and the video link, Nicholas. :)

 

[bedower]

Forgot to mention that it goes without saying that there are some bad Arabs/Muslims about, the same as in any nation/race/religious (or not) group.

 

[bedower]

It's interesting, osit, that this video is 'no longer available'.

However, thanks to E's post#2 :) on this thread here , I was able to access it. I don't know whether this is relevant, but whenever I tried to view it since you posted the link, my Internet connection cut out. So I've had to install DAP, which is now downloading it for me.

Cool