Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (ISBN 1-56656-388-7, Olive Branch Press) is a 2001 book by Jack Shaheen where he surveyed more than 900 film appearances of Arab characters. Of those, only a dozen were positive and 50 were balanced. Shaheen writes "Seen through Hollywood's distorted lenses, Arabs look different and threatening."

Jack G. Shaheen (born 1935) is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University.

I have not read the book, but did see a television interview of him on this.

It was very interesting on the stereotyping and thematic tool of the "evil Arab" in Hollywood.

It was especially interesting to realise Disney's use, particularly given their audience, of the myth in movies like Aladdin and seeing short extracts from so many movies really made me realise how frequent and powerful the recurring image is and I think he is right in describing this as vilification.

JACK SHAHEEN: So there is this cloud with the hate crimes, with the profiling, with being rounded up. Again, I think this illustrates the power of film. That in spite of the reality, in spite of the material that we know to be true, we still embrace the mythology. The mythology is still a part of our psyches. Stereotypes take a long time to wither away. And for many of us, we’re comfortable with our prejudices. We don’t want to change. We’ve grown accustomed to this face.

JACK SHAHEEN: The stereotype has become so widespread that it’s become invisible to people, and the reason being is that we’ve all grown up with these images. Just look at television. We now have TV shows telling us that, in addition to the Arab terrorists over there, American Arabs over here are also terrorists. Then there’s Showtime’s “Sleeper Cell.” Here a sinister network of Islamic groups operates on American street corners. Any homeless man could be part of this network. Even Western looking Arabs are part of this anti-American conspiracy.

IMDB says
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"--along 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 international 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



The full 50 minutes of the show video.google.com/videoplay I recommend watching it.


Quotes obtained from "Transcript" at www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi (with short extracts from the film)
IMDB says www.imdb.com/title/tt0948465/plotsummary
The post 1980 movies he sights as worst offenders en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel_Bad_Arabs



Would you say you have an awareness of this vilification ?

For me, I would have to admit I was desensitized to this.. In extreme honesty I would have to put my hand up to "The stereotype has become so widespread that it’s become invisible to people, and the reason being is that we’ve all grown up with these images. "

Worth thinking about..