Deconstructing Hollywood: Negative Stereotyping in Film
Kim Deep

The Western (mainly American) film industry leads to a commonplace and distorted view about people of Arabic descent. Arab characters in such American movies exemplify everything that is anti-Western. Cinema pigeonholes Arabs in three main ways: the Arab as being wealthy, the Arab as terrorist, and the Arab as "the other" - one who is heathen, evil, and uncivilised. Popular western cinema also stereotypes the Islamic religion and portrays followers of Islamic faith as religious fundamentalists.

Although many popular movies are made for entertainment purposes, films, being a powerful and popular form of mass communication, invariably transmit social and political messages. By portraying Arabs in a negative fashion, the Western film industry only serves to further the ideology of Western expansionism that has prevailed since the Middle Ages.

The wealthy Arab stereotype threatens the security of Americans and the American dream of prosperity. Movies, such as Into the Night (1985), associate Arabs with power and wealth, often through organized crime, such as smuggling operations. Other examples include Rollover (1981), where Arabs are seen as an evil force trying to bring ruin to the American economy, and the now famous The Sheik (1921), in which Rudolph Valentino plays a licentious sheik who captures a British woman and leads her to his wealthy residence in the desert.

The popular James Bond movie series, which is heralded on the official website as "one of the longest running and most successful film franchises in history," uses the stereotype of the wealthy, dangerous Arab in many of its films. In Octopussy (1983), the villain, Prince Kamal Khan, is described on the website as "an exiled Afghan prince with a penchant for fine food, jewels and atomic weaponry," who "teams with a power-crazed communist general in an attempt to unleash nuclear holocaust in Western Europe." Thus, the stereotype of the wealthy Arab is invariably tied to that of the Arab as terrorist.

The image of the Arab terrorist is appallingly prevalent within the medium of film. In the movie Wrong is Right (1982), a sheik supplies terrorists with nuclear bombs to be dropped over Tel Aviv and New York. In Iron Eagle (1986), an United States Air Force pilot is shut down by a fundamentalist Middle Eastern state. The archenemy in True Lies (1994), a Muslim terrorist group named the Crimson Jihad, pilfers nuclear weapons and threatens to detonate them. In the middle of the twentieth century, Arabs were seen as overseas terrorists. Increasingly however, such terrorists have now become internal, and work undercover, such as in the film Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987). These terrorist images lead to harassment, physical attacks, violence and distorted perceptions of Arab people.

Many movies imply that the Islamic faith is closely tied with terrorists. In Network (1977), Arabs are seen as barbaric religious fanatics. Recently, Rules of Engagement (2000) was criticised because it portrayed Arabs as a senseless, extremist mob attacking the U.S. Embassy. (The original, fictional story that the movie was based on used the setting of a Latin American country that was unnamed, not the Middle East). Rules of Engagement has been criticized for being offensive, racist, and prejudiced against Arabs and Islam.

By linking Arab culture and religious practices with terrorism, film creates a false representation of Islam and denounces one of the world's oldest religions. For example, a scene in Navy Seals (1990) includes anti-Allah comments against a backdrop of yellow ribbons and American flags." In Not Without My Daughter (1991), an Arab husband forces his American wife to wear the traditional veil of Muslim women once they move to the East after living in America. The film portrays Muslims as fundamentalists who are determined to restore the subordination of women. Another film, The Siege (1998), met with much opposition from Arab-American groups such as the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). The film tied Islamic practices, such as washing before prayers and the call to prayer, with violence. Thus, The Siege reinforces the idea that the Islamic religion is closely associated with terrorism.

Islam literally means "submission to God" and is based on peace, patience and equality. Thus, the notion of followers of Islam being fundamentalists is false and reductionist. It is a monotheistic tradition based on the teachings of The Koran ("divine revelations") as well as those of the prophet Mohammed. The religion of Islam identifies Mohammed as the last prophet, following after the footsteps of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Thus, Islam shares many qualities and traditions of Christianity and Judaism.

Arabs are seen as to be continually at war with Western concepts of politics, social economy and order. Yet, the film industry, when referring to Arabs, does not display geographical areas but a fantasy-like, mystical Arabland, which has no geographical, political or social reality. The term Arab is defined as "a member of the Semitic people of the Arabian Peninsula." The word itself is misused. often, it mistakenly includes Turks, Persians, Greeks and Egyptians. The misuse of the term undermines the truth that Arabs come from different countries, beliefs, religions, and cultures. Their background and diversity are complex.

Frequently however, the Arab population is seen as the 'other' - an uncivilized, boorish people, who are loud, crude and irrational. In Not Without My Daughter the foreign characters, are always thronged in large groups by simultaneously speaking and using hand gestures. The director manipulates the Western audience into feeling overwhelmed by the characters rather than depicting this expressive style of non-verbal communication as an accepted cultural difference. They are also seen as a people who are heathen, backward and evil. In The Exorcist (1973), which was directed by William Friedkin (the same director who made Rules of Engagement), the prologue at the beginning of the movie is set in Northern Iraq. This suggests that the evil that one of the main characters was possessed with originated from the East. In a more recent movie, The Mummy (1999), one Arab character is described as a "smelly little friend" and a "stinky fellow." These examples prove that many films depict Arabs to be a people opposite to how the West perceives itself.

Children's movies are not exempt from this negative portrayal of Arabs. The Disney movie Aladdin (1992) is one example of the idea of the Arab as "the Other". The original lyrics from the beginning number (before they were banned due to pressure from various Arab-American groups) are as follows:

"Oh, I come from a land
From a far away place
Where the caravan camels roam.
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!"

Many may argue that directors of such movies choose particular stories for entertainment value (not political or social issues), and that each movie has to do with the individual style of the director, as well as taking into account financial considerations. Such critics maintain that movies are simply an escape from reality - that they offer pictures of life closer to myth than actual truth.

Yet, a movie does not only entertain. It also has the ability to impart knowledge, whether the director intended it to or not. For mainstream audiences who may not know much about the Arabic people, movies become a real, yet not legitimate, source of learning. It has been proven that stereotyping is significantly more prevalent in groups with less education. Films have a large, substantial impact on viewers whose frame of reference does not expose them to other cultures, as well as people who depend on the media for information about the larger world in which they live in.

Ignorance about Arab people by no means excuses the stereotype. Films, like other media, have the capacity to transmit messages that will eliminate the use of stereotyping based on ethnic identity. When movies perpetuate the myths of the wealthy Arab, the Arab as terrorist and the Arab as other, they are strengthening a historical clash between the East and the West. Although they have become tired cliches, there is a serious and cumulative effect in repeated stereotyping in cinema. Future film attempts to portray Arabs objectively must challenge the stereotypes of an Arab persona that is diametrical to accepted values. The Western film industry must attempt to reach a state of conscious social commentary in their cultural products. These relentless stereotypes have become dangerously well established in the psyche of the mass audience. Millions of Arabs around the world cannot be summarized by a few all-encompassing categories.

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