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REEL BAD ARABS

 

Step 3: Read Shaheen's description below of "True Lies" (1994), which he includes on his all-time Worst List for its stereotypical and demeaning portrayal of Arabs, then view the two video clips (see the links below) from the film and read the brief piece from Entertainment Weekly about the film and the controversy it sparked.

 

Reel Bad ArabsReel Bad Arabs documents the negative, stereotypical portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood films by analyzing over 900 films from the early 20th century to today.  In a Foreword to the book, William Greider writes, "Malign images segregate some Americans from the whole experience of citizenship, . . . [casting] a cloud that shadows Arab-Americans still and induces a kind of blindness among other Americans, who have unwittingly consumed the propaganda for generations in the process of being entertained."

Shaheen
Dr. Jack G. Shaheen is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communications at Southern Illinois University and a former CBS News consultant on the Middle East. He is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on media images of Arabs, and has written widely on the subject. "Hurtful and harmful stereotypes," Shaheen notes, "do not exist in a vacuum.  Continuously repeated, they denigrate peoples, narrow our vision and blur reality."





"True Lies" (1994), Twentieth-Century Fox. Arnold Scnwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Tia Carrere, Art Malik.  Writer & Director: James Cameron.  A remake of a French film about a spy leading a double life, it boasted a budget of more than $110 million.  Perhaps the use of a Harrier jet and other ultra-tech devices prompted producer-writer-director James Cameron to say, "I think the nature of how we create movies is really changing now."  The studio thanks for their cooperation the US "Department of Defense" and "United States Marine Corps Aviation."

"True Lies"


"True Lies" (1994).  Analysis by Shaheen, Reel Bad Arabs, pp. 500-4.

Institutionalizing the Arab stereotype. Make no mistake, Cameron's True Lies is a slick film perpetuating sick images of Palestinians as dirty, demonic, and despicable peoples. The reel portraits are so remote from reality as to give normal viewers the willies.

Cameron presents Palestinian Muslims as fanatical kuffiyeh-clad terrorists. Stalking America, the Palestinians plant nuclear bombs, detonating an atomic bomb in the Florida Keys. Although the stale Arab-as-nuclear-terrorist image is a familiar one, True Lies is the first feature showing Arabs exploding a nuclear bomb inside the US. Since the thriller Trunk to Cairo (1966), films such as Delta Force 3: The Killing Game (1993), Wrong is Right (1982), Operation Thunderbolt (1977), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987), Back to the Future (1985), Terror in Beverly Hills (1988), Black Sunday (1977), Invasion USA (1985), and The Siege (1998) have displayed detestable Arabs invading the US, trying to nuke, poison, and terrorize citizens from Miami to New York, from Indiana to Los Angeles. Also, reel Arabs try to nuke Tel Aviv. Cameron labels his Palestinian terrorist group, "Crimson Jihad." Crimson, meaning red, implies blood. The root of "crimson," states the Oxford dictionary, comes from the Arabic language. Yet Cameron misuses the word "jihad," wrongly implying that jihad means violence.

Scene: In Switzerland, US special agent Harry (Schwarzenegger) attends a posh party, complete with "boring [Arab] oil billionaires." Harry's mission is to ascertain the identities of villains transporting nuclear weapons. Stealthily, Harry taps into a computer; the screen displays Arabic writing. Arab thugs arrive, but fail to thwart Harry's efforts.

     Dialogue: Helen asks Harry, "Have you ever killed anyone?" Quips Harry, "Yeah, but they were all bad." Throughout, Arab "terrorists" spout out "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) and "Bismallah" (in the name of God). And, cowardly Palestinians scream, "Yallah, Yallah!" (Hurry, Hurry!).

     Note: Why does a respected international movie star such as Arnold Schwarzenegger slaughter Arabs as an exterminator swats flies? After watching Schwarzenegger dispatch upwards of 64 Palestinians, I stopped counting. Did the actor ever pause to consider this film's impact on Arab-Americans, their families? As soon as the film was released, Schwarzenegger appeared on television with CBS-TV's Paula Zahn, telling her, "The most important thing to me is my family." He explained that as a concerned parent, he carefully monitors what films his three young children may or may not see. When asked by Zahn whether he'll take them to see True Lies, he responded, "When they grow up, they can see it." Following her interview, Zahn smiled, saying, "Well, True Lies, really, was great fun!" (25 July 1994).

     Sadly, moviemakers, audiences, and film critics applauded True Lies' status-quo stereotypes. Explains Schwarzenegger, as a guest on CBS, "So many people are excited about it... and what made me really happy with the film were the reviews, that the critics were one hundred percent behind this movie... the New York Times, to the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, People magazine" (7 July 1994). Many critics gave True Lies a "thumbs up." "A Heck of a Ride" said Good Morning American Joel Siegel; "There's something for everybody," wrote Richard Corliss of Time. Sighed CBS's Gene Siskel, "The terrorists are totally boring." And, "He [Schwarzenegger] just might as well be working in a carnival, knocking off stuff with a BB gun!" Syndicated columnist Russell Baker, however, was not enthused, writing, "Schwarzenegger... slaughters multitudes for a laugh... the murdered villains are Arabs, apparently the last people except Episcopalians whom Hollywood feels free to offend en masse." Watching "two hours" of the kind of "violence," says Baker, "is vulgar, immoral and disgusting." Don Bustany and Salam Al-Marayati point out in their Los Angeles Times "Counterpunch" essay: "[If Schwarzenegger] wore jeans instead of a tux, carried a six-gun instead of a Beretta, rode a palomino instead of a Harrier jet, and killed 'Redskins' wearing feathers instead of 'brown skins' wearing beards (and kuffiyehs), we'd have a classic and racist cowboy and Indian movie."

     Outside a Washington, DC, Movie Theater, marchers protested True Lies. They carried placards stating: "Hasta La Vista, Fairness," "Reel Arabs are not Real Arabs," and "Open Your Eyes and Terminate the Lies."  Yet, criticism, protests, and declarations did not adversely affect ticket sales. True Lies topped box office charts, pulling in $62 million in just two weeks. Because of the movie's striptease, performed by Jamie Lee Curtis, some women's groups thought the film was sexist. Not so, says Tammy Bruce, president of the National Organization for Women's Los Angeles chapter: "Compared to the Arabs, women come off relatively well in this one."

Launch Videos:

 

Arnold's 'Lies' comes under fire

By PAT H. BROESKE AND NISID HAJARI in Entertainment Weekly, 8/5/94, Issue 234

AFTER RAKING in $62 million in just two weeks, True Lies has eased fears about recouping its reported $120 million budget. But Arnold Schwarzenegger's actioner is now embroiled in another sort of trouble, a controversy involving charges of racism and sexism.

A loose coalition of Arab-American organizations picketed the film's mid-July opening in more than 10 cities across the country, protesting its cartoonish depiction of fanatical, kaffiyeh-clad Arab terrorists. The New York City-based National Council on Islamic Affairs and the American-Arab Relations Committee have called for a boycott of the movie and for its outright banning in 54 Arab and Muslim countries. "This film is truly a bunch of lies," says Albert Mokhiber, president of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)&mdashthe group that persuaded Disney to alter possibly offensive lyrics for Aladdin's video release.

As it did with Asian-American groups concerned about racial stereotyping in Rising Sun, the film's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, rebuffed Arab-American groups' early requests to screen the film. Just weeks prior to Lies' release, the studio agreed to add a disclaimer ... but [t]he disclaimer hasn't won Fox much goodwill. "When I stayed to see it," says ADC spokeswoman Anne Marie Baylouny, "I was the only one left in the theater."

The ADC is asking that Schwarzenegger tape a new statement for the Lies' video, explaining that the film's villains do not represent any particular race. "With the fall of the Soviet empire, Hollywood needs a new enemy; we've become a convenient scapegoat," says Mokhiber. ...Cameron, who was praised for his gun-toting heroines in Aliens and Terminator has also been slammed for Lies' attitude toward women, especially in the film's much talked-about striptease scene. "I felt embarrassed for both Jamie Lee Curtis and for her character when I watched her scenes," says Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan, whose review helped spark a debate over whether the film was misogynistic. "In the context of an action film, a strong character is in control. She's being controlled. The audience is laughing at her because she's being humiliated." Unlike the Arab-Americans, however, women's groups have yet to condemn the film. . . .

Cameron also dismisses charges of sexism. "I don't think every scene in a movie has to present itself as an example of political correctness," he says, defending the controversial interrogation scene in which a hidden Schwarzenegger bullies wife Curtis into confessing her love for him. "I've had a lot of guys say, 'I need one of those rooms at my house.'"

Given Lies' blockbuster potential, occasional denigration may be a small price to pay for Curtis. The actress refused to comment, but her CAA agent, Rick Kurtzman, insists, "True Lies has been a great vehicle for her."  And that bottom-line thinking is exactly what worries Lies' critics. "This movie will have far more effect on how people think because it's being seen by so many people," says Turan. "It may be mindless, but that doesn't mean it isn't affecting minds."
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