The film by Sut Jhally entitled “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”, which is based on the book by the film’s narrator Jack G. Shaheen, embodies one of the most persistent problems with the human condition and more specifically, that condition of the Western world to create stereotypes. Part of what is so devastating about the negative stereotypes of Arabs represented in the series of films discussed in the film “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”, is the fact that Hollywood movies have such an enormous weight and influence in Western culture and thus these images of Arabs and Middle-Easterners as “caricatures” of people; one-sided depictions of one aspect (that may or may not even be present) become ingrained negative images of an entire culture or group of people.
After watching the film by Sut Jhally, “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”, it becomes clear that the stereotypes of the Arab or Middle Eastern person is not just the result of the news, but of a continued habit on the part of Hollywood to present them as villains, terrorists, and bad people. In short, the themes and issues the film “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” discussed in this analysis and review represent a microcosm of a far greater problem with Western society; the tendency to make bold assumptions about an entire race of people and present these people not as rounded and developed characters or “real” people, but instead as one of many negative images; the gun-toting terrorist, the evil camel-riding sheik, or the oppressive man lording over a woman.
The fact that the kind of films discussed in “Reel Bad Arabs” are so omnipresent in Western culture and even more importantly, the fact that such representations of a culture or group of people is so short-sighted and incomplete in its representation simply reinforces the problems we already have during this time of war. Already, we have a president who openly refers to the Middle East as “the axis of evil” and often calls the entire country of Iraq as “a terrorist nation” and inevitably, these images from films emerge in our minds, if only because as Westerners, they could never really be avoided and have been so persistent. The Middle Eastern man as a terrorist alone is only further emphasized by biased news coverage along with the effort, no matter how accidental, by Hollywood as depicted in the film, “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” narrated by the author of the original book, Shaheen.
One of the biggest issues that comes to mind after watching the film about the presentation of Arabs in culture as evil in “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” is the way the classification by the film’s narrator Dr. Shaheen of Arabs in Hollywood films as “subhuman” and “stock villains” is being played out in real-life in politics and foreign as well as home politics. Far from being senseless comic relief figures as sometimes represented in Hollywood films, the damaging images of the Arab as fearless terrorists and villains willing to take their own lives and the lives of others is actually being played off of by America’s leaders as they make certain to use words in speeches like “the axis of evil.” The images represented in films depicting Arabs or Middle Easterners, even for those made for young children such as Aladdin which, as the narrator of the film “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”, discusses utilizes every possible stereotype of Arabs are indoctrinating, however unwittingly, even young Western children to the negative images of Arabs as one-dimensional caricatures who are either completely violent, evil, or bumbling and backwards.
This notion of the negative stereotypes of Arabs as revealed in the film “Reel Bad Arabs” is even further contributing to the problem in Western society and the human condition more generally to make assumptions, even if it is because of a lack of thought to the impacts of what is being seen on the silver screen, because it makes us open to believing great unjust things about an entire group or culture. The only way to stop this cycle of negative stereotyping that is allowing those in power to play off of these images of Arabs to create more fear is to raise awareness about these representations and eventually, with enough dissent, producers and other creative persons behind Hollywood films will see that the stereotypes they are presenting are completely wrong and worse, quite harmful and limiting.
Other essays and articles in the Arts Archives related to this topic include : Summary, Analysis, and Review of the Film “Gandhi” (1982) • “Sex and the Holy City” : Film Analysis • An Extended Definition of Bollywood Cinema
