Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (part 1)

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People . This 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 and gun-wielding "terrorists"--a long 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. Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and the effects of specific US domestic and internationl policies on their lives. By inspiring critical thinking about the social, political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab history and culture. Director: Sut Jhally Biographical Summary: Dr. Jack Shaheen, Professor Emeritus of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University, is a leading scholar of Arab representations in US popular culture. Shaheen is the author of the groundbreaking study The TV Arab and, most recently, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, the most comprehensive review of Arab screen images ever published. Analyzing over 900 Hollywood films made from 1896 to 2004, Dr. Shaheen exposes American cinema's systematic and pervasive degradation and dehumanization of Arabs. Articles: "Jack Shaheen continues to be a piercing laser of fairness and sanity in pointing out Hollywood's ongoing egregious smearing of Arabs." Howard Rosenberg | Los Angeles Times TV Critic

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Shaheen
• Reel
• Hollywood
• disney
• lies
• aladdin
• News
• racism
• terrorists
• true
• stereotypes
• Arab
• Arabs
• images

[naachgaana]

I am a Muslim, but not an Arab. Let us not confuse Arab and Muslim. The two groups often coincide but they are not synonyms. Arabs are members of many religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Ba'hai, some pagan religions, and Atheism/Agnosticism.

[karim300080]

for those who think arabs are terrorism, look back to the history of arabs in spain , thanks to them the civilisations , multicultures and sciences were spread all over europe when europe still suffer the dark age.

[mohammed1420h]

اللي جاي من صنهات 2000 يرعص لايك

[mohaberlin]

i ask americans ..why ??

what did we do to you???

[Godaiseirei]

the thing with disney's aladdin is-

he isn't presented as an arab hero. He's presented as an american hero.

He is voiced by an american, his appearance is based on tom cruise, he asks everyone to call him "Al", which americanizes his arab name... disney's aladdin is not a movie that is at all interested in promoting arab heroes. ALL the main characters are voiced by americans or englishmen. the characters with different accents (guards, shop keepers) are bad-guys and seen as goofy and slow.

[Fortun3tell3r]

iam egyptian and if you dont know about us then dont create your own image plx

[NonoHenak]

@Qwerty2OG correction, Sinbad and Ali Baba did not portray arabs negatively, in fact they were both the heroes. Know you're sources before you talk about facts you don't even know about or experience.

peace :)

[Mr12inches1]

@Hamzaalfarra what does dressing up as terrorist mean?

[Hamzaalfarra]

am arab and we dont look like that. we look like normal ppl not fckin dreast up as terrosit

[IronGums]

But Ali Baba and Sinbad were good guys in the original stories. It was Hollywood who reduced them to villainous stereotypes.

[ymbst]

Excellent documentary.

[Qwerty2OG]

What's realy funny is that he blames Disney's Alladin. While this storie originates from 1001 Arabian nights. Just like Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. Stories that do not portray the arabs positively. But according to Mr. Shaheen, westerners aren't aloud to portray/show/say that???

All in all, a very one-sided documentary only showing The Real Bad Hollywood, How the middle east villifies the west.