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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September/October 2007, page 52 Music & Arts “Reel Bad Arabs” Screened in Hollywood
THE HOLLYWOOD premiere of Jack Shaheen’s “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” took place June 20 at the Directors Guild of America. In his introduction to the screening, Pulitzer-Prize winning Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg noted that, at some time, Hollywood has stereotyped just about every ethnic group. Nonetheless, Rosenberg, the first critic to discuss Arab stereotyping in his columns, said he hopes more positive images can be worked into future scripts. Shaheen’s documentary—the culmination of six years of work under a grant from the Media Education Foundation of Massachusetts—opens with silent motion picture renditions of lecherous sheikhs seducing Western women. These early stereotypes evolved into ruthless oil billionaires who kidnapped blondes for their harems in the 1950s and ‘60s. Noting that Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA, Shaheen theorizes that the 1974 petroleum shortage and Iranian hostage crisis of the 1980s fueled even more plots about the evil perpetrated by Arabs and Muslims. The Israeli filmmaking team of Golan Globus produced more than 30 films vilifying Arabs, but other contenders for racist portrayals are “True Lies” and “Rules of Engagement.” During the question-and-answer session following the film, Shaheen guessed that maybe 10 feature films have been politically correct in the post-9/11 era, but noted that television productions are in the vanguard of portraying Arabs as villains. He specified as particularly onerous “Jag” and “24 Hours.” The latter targets Arab Americans as dangerous people operating sleeper cells in mosques—which is untrue, but leads most viewers to think otherwise. Shaheen praised ABC’s series “Lost” for portraying its Iraqi character, Syeed, as no better or worse than any of the ethnic groups represented. “’Gentlemen’s Agreement’ paved the way for Jews and ‘Philadelphia’ portrayed AIDS victims positively,” concluded the retired journalism professor. “Now we need a breakthrough film for Arabs.” —Pat McDonnell Twair |
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