Real Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

May 4th, 2007Esra'a (Bahrain)

This is an interesting documentery that explores “a long line of degrading images of Arabs–from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding “terrorists”–along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.” [Source: YouTube video description.]

Edit: This is an excellent one that Nadia posted, it’s more detailed -

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12 Responses to “Real Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”

1. #1 Nadia - May 4th, 2007 at 5:54 pm

   this one’s pretty good too
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi1ZNEjEarw

2. #2 Esra'a - May 4th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

   That’s a much better one. Thanks.

3. #3 Hannibal - May 4th, 2007 at 10:16 pm

   I wrote something on the same subject in my blog and I had the chance to meet with the author of the book that should read : Reel Bad Arabs… and not Real, in fact Jack Shaheen, the author used a pun here, Reel ( related to the cylinder on which photographic film is wound) and it means as well “real bad arabs”.

4. #4 Marten - May 5th, 2007 at 2:49 am

   This propaganda machine, who plays with the fear of the unknown / foreign is a shame and unfortunately very influential. With prejudices they build up stereotypes which are instrumentalized by Joe Public, politicians and again by filmmakers for new blockbusters.

   The image of the American antagonist has been pretty stable during the last decades. Only the representatives have changed. We had the Russian communist, the German nazi and now the real bad Arabs. All of them have in common that they don’t respect American values and want to destroy the US and kill the citizens. Moreover they are corrupt, criminal (mafia from Italy, China and Japan) or to summarize: not “human”, the personalized evil.

   This propaganda machine works quite well. An example: Germans normally appear in Hollywood movies as evil-doers or soldiers. As a consequence you only can hear them shouting in a harsh tone and not talking smoothly. Thus a lot of people think that German is a very harsh language and are surprised if they hear me talking in a “normal” voice.

   Concerning the real bad Arabs in the movies and in the news you come to the conclusion that Arabs are mainly lunatics with beards, bombs and guns. Upon those background informations you can’t differentiate and Joe Public won’t do extra critical research.

   What to do?
   Write critical comments on movie databases like http://www.imdb.com, don’t finance those movies with your cinema visit and promote “underground movie festivals” with an open-minded aspect.

   so long,
   Marten

5. #5 Nadia - May 5th, 2007 at 11:11 am

   Can somone help me identify the movies in the second one?
   All I got is:
   True Lies
   Rules of Engagement
   Back to the Future
   Jewel of the Nile (i think)

   Action movies are not my forte. That one about the plane hijack seriously looks amazing.

6. #6 Esra'a - May 5th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

   I’ve no idea, but read this article.

7. #7 Esra'a - May 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

   And watch this (of how many Arab films actually are.)

8. #8 Nadia - May 6th, 2007 at 3:52 pm

   oh yeah, i’m pretty sure that one played at the arab fil fest a couple of years ago but i didn’t catch it. i didn’t know it was the same girl who did slingshot hiphop tho.

9. #9 Esra'a - May 6th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

   Yeah me neither. Apparently she’s that cool.

10. #10 Nora - May 8th, 2007 at 1:14 am

    The Reel Bad Arabs documentary originally came from Jack Shaheen’s book, which I highly recommend anyone to read. It is basically divided up into what the movies are and how they depict the Arabs. He watched some 300 movies/news clips, etc and found maybe 15 were actually decent and even less that he would recommend anyone to watch (These aren’t the exact figures as I cannot remember the exact figures). He is a real nice, genuine guy who has long worked in the media industry trying to prevent the vilification of Arabs on movie sets such as Disney’s Aladdin and more recently George Clooney’s Syriana.

11. #11 Mohammad Alazraq - May 8th, 2007 at 2:34 am

    Hey Esra’a ,
    We actually organized a public screening at the Royal Film Commission in Jordan for this film , and then we had quite an interestring discussion after, people from very different parts of the world attended the U.S, Europe, Asia…

    We are planning on inviting Dr.Jack Shaheen this November to have an open discussion with him as well, I’ll make sure to report about it here:)

12. #12 Esra'a - May 8th, 2007 at 4:34 am

    Thanks for the clarification Nora, that sounds like a promising book. I am not sure why there are so many Arab fans for Syriana… I felt like it was a serious misrepresentation of Arabs and how our structure works (over-simplified and very backwards mentality/society).

    Mohammad, I heard about the Royal Film Commission and it seems really great, I really hope you can write about it and tell us what else is being screened, especially if there are any new independent films out there that we need to pay attention to. Looking forward to your future posts!