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. |
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"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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