Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People
- Vídeo
- 2006
- 50 min
Adicionar um enredo no seu idiomaThis groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood block... Ler tudoThis groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of deg... Ler tudoThis groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs an... Ler tudo
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There are many, many flaws in this documentary. First, it assumes that we are stupid, and that we believe everything Hollywood tells us. Wrong. I am friends with quite a few Muslims, and I don't think they're terrorists. Nor do I watch many movies with Arab stereotypes. In fact, of all the movies cited in the documentary, I've only seen "Aladdin." And when I do see stereotypes, I can differentiate them from real life. This documentary even gives existing examples of positive Arab portrayals in films like "Syriana," "Three Kings," and "Kingdom of Heaven." Gee, how groundbreaking. If Shaheen can find the good Arab roles, then any movie audience can, too. And they can recognize them.
Secondly, this documentary poorly made. "Reel Bad Arabs" is, as another reviewer said, a talking head giving examples. And it's only one talking head. Any work of nonfiction, whether it be a documentary or a news article or a book, cannot survive on one expert opinion alone. And this documentary definitely doesn't. The narrator, Jack Shaheen doesn't even have screen presence. This documentary is just 50 minutes of him whining into a camera in an effort to advertise his book on the same subject.
Thirdly, this movie is unnecessary. Here's the basic point: Some movies stereotype Arabs, but there are also some movies that don't. What Jack Shaheen should have done was just to give us a list of the "bad" movies and a list of the "good" movies and leave it at that. That would have taken two minutes at most, instead of this fifty-minute run-on. We would have been able to figure out what the stereotypes were (once again, we're not stupid), and that the good portrayals were the ones where Arabs acted like actual human beings.
P.S. Did anyone else notice how Shaheen used the original line from "Arabian Nights" (Aladdin)--"Where they cut off your ear/ If they don't like your face"--when nobody sees that version anymore? All video released use the line: "Where it's flat and immense/ And the heat is intense." That controversy was closed off long ago and is now irrelevant. Like the rest of this documentary.
Great Film!
Note: While I have devoted this review to an evaluation of the documentary's argument, my score of 4/10 comes also from the poor technical aspects of the "film." It is really just an extended interview with a talking head. Expect to see it in college classrooms but rarely elsewhere.
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Self - Narrator: Politics and Hollywood's images are linked; they reinforce one another. Policy enforces mythical images, mythical images help enforce policy. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America has said "Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA." The Arab image began to change immediately after World War 2. There were three things that impacted the change: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, in which the United States is unequivocally supported Israel; the Arab oil embargo in the 70s, which angered Americans when gas prices went through the ceiling; and the Iranian Revolution, which increased Arab-American tensions when Iranian students took American diplomats hostage for more than a year. These three pivotal events brought the Middle East into the living rooms of Americans, and together helped shaped the way movies stereotyped Arabs and the Arab world.
- ConexõesFeatured in The Arrivals (2008)
- Trilhas sonorasAl Qantara
Composed by Simon Shaheen
Performed by Simon Shaheen and Qantara
Published by The Two Tenors and Qantara: Historic Live Concerts of Arabic Masters
Courtesy of Ark 21 Records
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- Плохие арабы: Как Голливуд унижает людей
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- Consulte mais créditos da empresa na IMDbPro
Bilheteria
- Orçamento
- US$ 100.000 (estimativa)
- Tempo de duração50 minutos
- Cor