People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Larbi Ben M’hidi University-Oum El Bouaghi
Faculty of Letters and Languages Department of English
Movie Industry, Public Opinion and the Making of Foreign Policy:
Syriana (2005) and Body of Lies (2008)
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Anglo-American Studies
By: DABAL Zitouna
Supervisor: Filali Bilel
Examiner: Badi Rima
2016-2017
Candidate Declaration Form
I am Dabal Zitouna
Candidate of Master at the Department of English, Larbi Ben M’hidi University, do hereby declare that the dissertation entitled The American Movie Industry, Public Opinion and the
Making of Foreign Policy: Syraina(2005) and Body of Lies(2008). in partial fulfillment of MA Degree Anglo- American Studies is my own original work, and it has not previously, in its entirety or in part, been submitted at any university.
.
Date: …. /…. / 2017 ID number…………………....
Signature of the candidate
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I
Dedication
My warmest gratitude is first and most extended to my fathers’ soul and to my mother who never get tired to pray for me in each Salat and encouraging me morally and physically.
Second, to my dear brother Houssem, who always support me to carry on and never let me alone. To my best friends, Rania Sabrine and Hakim. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my dear friends: Rahima, Nadjet, Habiba and everyone who believed in me.
II
Acknowledgments :
Praise be to Allah, most Glorious, who helped us to complete this modest work, and without his help, none of this would be possible. I am, particularly, grateful to the best person I ever seen, if I can describe him with one word I would say that he is an expensive diamond, my academic advisor Mr Filali Bilel, he always been my first source of academic inspiration,motivation, and critical discussion. His guidance, high standards, patience, taught me a lot.Second, am so grateful to Mr. Bouri, Mr Aaid and Mss Achiri. Also, I would like to acknowledge Mss Maameri Fatima who helped us through the year on our dissertation especially on the seminar module. I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to my examiner
Badi Rima for her critical thinking. Finally, to everyone who has contributed to the realization of this study including the teachers of English Department and the administration.
III
Abstract
This dissertation reflects the history of stereotyping process in the American movie industry as the endeavor is to examine the role of movies in affecting the public opinion and shaping the political decision towards the Middle East. Distorted images against the
Middle Easterners mainly Muslims are established through different means like books and journals. Motion pictures is also exploited to spread such an image whether directly or indirectly, as visual lens have a tremendous role in affecting the heart and the mind of viewers more than written tools many political messages are screened. The research is based on the selection of two famous movies Syriana (2005) and Body of Lies (2008) as case studies. These films reveal notions of ‘otherness’ and symbolism which are the basis of ‘‘Modern Orientalism’’ that in turn are linked with Islam and terrorism. The
Investigation concludes that the Arab-Muslims are portrayed negatively in most American movies, and it is an extension of American ideology that has embedded within imperialistic interests in the Middle East.
Key words: American movie industry, stereotyping, Modern Orientalism , Arab-Muslims, public opinion, imperialistic interests, Middle East.
IV
Résumé
Ce mémoire reflète l'histoire du processus de stéréotypes dans l'industrie cinématographique américaine, car elle tente d'examiner le rôle des films dans l'influence de l'opinion publique et l'élaboration des décisions politiques envers le Moyen-Orient. Des images déformées contre les Moyen-Orient, principalement les musulmans se sont manifestés par différents moyens comme les livres et les journaux. Les images animées ont
également été exploitées pour diffuser ces images directement ou indirectement, car les lentilles visuelles ont un rôle énorme en affectant le cœur et l'esprit des téléspectateurs plus que des outils écrits. De nombreux messages politiques sont examinés. La recherche basée sur la sélection de deux films célèbres Syriana (2005) et Body of Lies (2008) en tant qu'études de cas. Ces films révèlent des notions d'altérité et de symbolisme qui sont à la base de ‘‘l'orientalisme moderne’’ et les relient à l'islam et au terrorisme. Par conséquent, ce Mémoire conclut que les Musulmans arabes sont représentés négativement dans la plupart des films américains, et c'est une extension de l'idéologie américaine qui a intégré les intérêts impérialistes.
Mots clés: industrie cinématographique américaine, stéréotypes, ‘‘l'orientalisme moderne’’, Musulmans Arabes, opinion publique, intérêts impérialistes, Moyen-Orient.
V
ملخص
تعكس هذه المذكرة تاريخ عملية التنميط في السينما األمريكية، كما تهدف إلى دراسة دور األفالم في
التأثير على الرأي العام و تشكيل القرارات السياسية تجاه الشرق األوسط. تم استعراض صور مشوهة ضد معظم
سكان الشرق األوسط و خاصة المسلمين منهم و ذلك في مختلف وسائل اإلعالم كالكتب و المجالت و كذلك تم استغالل
األفالم لنشر كل ما هو سلبي سواء كان بطريقة مباشرة أو غير مباشرة، و ألن الوسائل السمعية البصرية لها دور هائل
في التأثير على قلوب و عقول المشاهدين أكثر من الصحافة المكتوبة فقد تم استغاللها لنشر جملة من الرسائل السياسية .
هذه األطروحة استندت على دراسة فلمين شهيرين "سيريانا")2005( و"بادي أوف اليز")2008( و كالهما يكشفان
على مفاهيم "الغيرية" و الرمزية المتجذرة تحت غطاء سياسة اإلستشراق الجديدة و التي تم ربطها باإلسالم و
اإلرهاب. أخيرا وليس آخرا ، كشفت هذه الدراسة على أن معظم األفالم األمريكية تصور العرب المسلمين بشكل مسيء
و منافي للحقيقة وهذا ما يفسر بأن هذا التهميش هو إمتداد لأليدلوجية األمريكية التي تهدف إلى تحقيق مصالح إمبريالية
في منطقة الشرق األوسط.
الكلمات المفتاحية: السينما األمريكية، عملية التنميط، 'اإلستشراق الحديث'، العرب المسلمين، الرأي العام، المصالح
اإلمبريالية، الشرق األوسط.
VI
List of Acronyms
CIA : Central Intelligence Agency.
CPI : Committe of Public Information.
FBI : Federal of Bureau Investigation.
SUV : Sport Utility Vehicule.
WMD : Weapon of Mass Destruction.
VII
Table of Content
Dedication…………………………………………………………………………I
Acknowledgment…………………………………………………………………II
Abstract………………………………………………………………………….III
Résumé…………………………………………………………………………...IV
V………………………………………………………………………………ملخص
List of Acronyms………………………………………………………………...VI
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………VII
General Introduction……………………………………………………………..1
Chapter One :The Movie Industry, Public Opinion and the Making of
Foreign policy…………………………………………………………………….5
.I. The Movie Industry…………………………………………………………...5
1. The Development of the Movie Industry ……………………...... 5-7
2. The Significance of the Movie Industry………………………….....7-10
3. Genral Overview about Stereotyping…………………………...... 10-13
4. American Orientalism and the Image of Arab-Muslims…………...13-17
II. The Impact of Movie Industry on the Public Opinion…………….……...17
1. The Role of Motion Pictures……………………………………….17-18
VIII
2. Positive Portrayal of Arab and Muslims………………………… 18-22
3. Negative Portrayal of Arabs and Muslims…………………………20-22
4. Categories of Generalization in the American Movies………...... 22-25
III. The Making of the American Foreign Policy in the Middle East…...... 25
1. The American-Middle Eastern Relation………………………...... 25-27
2. American Movie Industry and Foreign Policy in the Middle East...27-28
3. Orientalist Discourse in the Declaration of ‘War on Terror’………28-29
4. ‘Otherness’ in the American Politics and Movie Industry ………...29-34
End Notes…………………………………………………………………………35
Chapter Two :The Representation of Arabs and Muslims in the American
Movies : Syriana(2005) and Body of Lies(2008)………………………………...36
I.Syriana (2005)………………………………………………………………....37
1.The Main Cast of the Movie………………………………………..37-38
2.Plot Description……………………………………………………..38-41
3.Analysis of the Movie……………………………………………....41-51
4.Critics Meet Syriana………………………………………………...51-52
II.Body of Lies(2008)…………………………………………………………....52
1.The Main Cast of the Movie………………………………………..52-53
2.Plot Description……………………………………………………..53-55
IX
3.Analysis of the Movie………………………………………...... 55-60
4.Critics Meet Body of Lies……………………………………….…..61-62
End Notes………………………………………………………………………………..63
General Conclusion…………………………………………………………………64-66
Works Cited..……………………………………………………………………..…67-71
1
General Introduction
The motion picture industry became the principle hotspot for the moviemakers to venture American foreign policy since its establishment. All through the twentieth century, the film business has turned into a noteworthy apparatus for the American government to advance US legislative issues. Since this time, Hollywood had accomplished its point of transmitting American strategy to the world by making an interpretation of it into motion pictures. Notwithstanding the Hollywood business, there were different types of passing on US strategy, for the most part, books and music; however, they didn't coordinate the pretended by the film business. Besides, the movies that Hollywood delivered were more about the plot, foes of the United States and also the present ones. The significance of Hollywood lies in the way that it is viewed as a source of perspective because of its viability in planning and spreading the message that the moviemakers need to pass on. Its significance and its part additionally lie in the way that it can impact the Americans individuals' assessment specifically, and the world in general, since it has turned out to be so unmistakable to the entire globe.
Undeniably, misrepresentation of Arabs and Muslims by western mass media particularly in the United States was not a new phenomenon. For many years the
Americans visual mediums promulgating negative stereotyped images especially about the
Middle Easterners. At the first time movie industry was used as a mean of cultural entertainment by mocking and making fun of all Arabs and Muslims in the world by showing them as barbarians, savages and uncivilized, the purpose is to project the
American superiority and heroine over the inferiority of Arabs and Muslims.
Nowadays, movies industry went beyond its traditional aims to include propagandist aims through creating negative images about the Arabs and Muslims to influence the public opinion in America and outside it. After 9/11 attacks the portrayal of 2
Middle Easterns became more aggressive and they are projected and considered as ‘green danger' and terrorists who must be killed and any military intervention is justified through the use of media.Thus, the research based on a careful choice of two movies Syriana
(2005) and Body of Lies (2008) that depicted Muslims and Arabs as terrorists also considered so crucially as it included messages embedded behind it.
Among the aims of conducting this research is to show the negative and stereotyped images against Muslims and Arabs in the movie industry and the motives behind its orientalist discourse.It attempts to trace the aims behind the shift in the movie industry from the entertainment motives to political ones. In addition to that, the main focus is on the impact of the misrepresentation of Middle Easterners on the public opinion.
However, the essence of the research is based on the attempt to answer some important questions: How did 9/11 attacks help in changing the image of Arabs and
Muslims in the movie industry? How do these movies attempt to break from the classical stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims? To what extent movies were successful in effecting
Western public opinion? And what is the relationship between the Movie industry and the
American foreign policy?
What is new about this study is that it tackles the topic of the impact of
American movie industry on the public opinion and the making of foreign policy from a new perspective; it sheds some lights on orientalist discourse in movies and the motion pictures controllers insert notions in their productions to convey hidden aims. The
research analyzes the two movies Syriana and Body of Lies looking for these notions and symbolism through an analytical method and tries to relate it to the American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Choosing the two movies was not an arbitrary choice. It was a direct result of two fundamental reasons: the first is that the nature and the kind of movies serve to 3 accomplish the desired target; its plot is about War on Terror, terrorism and its relation to the American foreign policy. Second, the arrangement is extremely profitable and was exceedingly acknowledged and cheered by both the audiences and the critics.
This dissertation is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is entitled ‘‘The
American Movie Industry, Public Opinion and the Making of Foreign policy'' introduces the history of the American movie industry, its main phases, and its vital role. In addition to that, it sheds some lights on the historical background of stereotyping and how it reached the American land to move on to the positive and negative representation of Arabs and Muslims and its implications on the viewers. Also, It highlights some notions which are highly appeared in the American movies and opposing Arab-Muslims. However, The second chapter is entitled "The Representation of Arabs and Muslims in the Movies
Syriana (2005) and Body of Lies (2008) ". It investigates the representation of Arabs and
Muslims in American movies. It presented the case studies in general to have an overlook about its plot, the characters…Etc. Finally, it analyzes the two movies to detect and highlight the notions of ‘otherness' and stereotyping opposing Islam and Muslims as a whole.
In the quest of this research, many sources are partitioned between primary and
Secondary sources, varying from books, articles, reviews, and two famous movies. A book entitled Orientalism by Edward Said and the book entitled Contending Visions of the
Middle East: The History and Politics Of Orientalism by Lockman Zachary are used to give a historical survey about the stereotyping of Islam and Muslims from the ancient civilizations to American media and to shed some lights on orientalist discourse which are highly used by both the European and later on adopted by the Americans as it highlights the main motives behind it. Second, two famous books which are written by Jack Shaheen, the first one entitled Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict after 9/11 and the other one is Reel Bad 4
Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People are widely used to provide examples about distorted images in movies against Arabs and Muslims especially after 9/11 attacks. Third,
How Hollywood Projects Foreign Policy by Sally Totman details how Hollywood projects the Middle Eastern States to formulate its foreign policy and its imperialistic interests.
Finally, and most importantly the two movies Syriana and Body of Lies.
This research employs several approaches of methodology. First, the historical descriptive approach is used mostly in the first chapter in presenting and giving a brief account of Islam and Muslims on motion pictures following 9/11 and the focus would be on the elusive tools that used in movies industry. The analytical approach is utilized in analyzing two movies: Syriana (2005) and Body of Lies (2008). Choosing these movies had considerable reasons as it serves to achieve the American desired goals also it was highly accepted by both the audience and the critics. A qualitative approach was also used as plenty of primary and secondary sources are carefully selected, to end up, the format and the content of this research follow the instructions given in the seventh edition of the modern language association (MLA format).
5
Chapter one:
The Movie Industry, Public Opinion and the Making of
Foreign policy
Introduction:
The movie industry is an important tool for the U.S and serves its economic and political goals. For many decades, the American Hollywood movies have been projecting stereotypical images against the Arab and Muslim world. However, these pictures which are associated with terrorism, violence, and fanaticism affected the public opinion and helped in one way or another in the making of the American foreign policy. Thus this technical part serves to show the relationship between the three elements (the movie industry, public opinion and the making of foreign policy). It is divided into three sections, the first one is devoted to giving a brief historical background to the American Movie industry, its main phases and its economic and cultural importance to the US, while the second section aims at showing how movies affected public opinion, then moves on to the role of Amerian films and their relation to the American foreign policy in the Middle East.
I. the American Movie Industry:
1. The Development of the American Movie Industry:
The American Industrial revolution and mass production led to the emergence of a broad range of innovations like the electricity, automobile, airplanes and cinema. The latter emerged in almost all the western countries, as the first industrialized entertainment tool.
In the late Eighteenth century, the majority of people used to enjoy the work of a large variety of musicians and magicians, but after the first wave of motion pictures, people started to buy tickets to attend cinematic programs.
The American movie industry is the form of artistic expression which quickly became a dominant force in the industry.Therefore, narrative forms were projected orally 6 on screens instead of the written lens and films which used to have a powerful ability to influence local and national cultures. In fact, the Movie industry is categorized and separated into five periods: the silent era, classical Hollywood cinema, post-war period, transitional period, and the contemporary period.
In the silent era (1895-1929), movies are produced silently in motion pictures
‘‘that is, the films were produced without synchronous sounds, not that audiences watched them in silence :live musical accompanied ranging from single piano player to a full orchestra was the norm for movie exhibition through ‘the silent' era of cinema’’ (Monro 1)
. At first silent movies were about working class and following1900, it concentrated on the middle class. However, after the First World War, the American filmmakers gained control over the global film markets after Italy and France, and it was influenced by German expressionism1. With the innovation of Thomas Edison's ‘kinetoghraph' (1891), this made it easy for transportation and outdoor.Among the major directors of silent movies, it is necessary to mention Griffith, sonnett Mack, Flaherty Robert. (Monaco 30-3)
Moreover, the Classical period (1930-1945) witnessed the transition from silent to sound films, and it was considered as a the ‘golden age of Hollywood'. Arguably, the arrival of sound movies welcome by fans and led to the ending of many silent films stars.
However, classical movies, which were affected by French poetic realism2, and which were characterized by the expressionist style, contributed enormously, during World War
II, to the war efforts through the production of the propagandist films.
World War II affected filmmaking and audiences' perception. The war led to the production of dark, gloomy and morally ambiguous movies which were influenced by
Italian Neorealism3 in which the style is characterized by natural lighting and grainy.
However, most stories were told about ordinary people, and this is the characteristic of 7
‘Post-War Period Era' (1946-1959). Following that Era, Transitional Period (1960–1979) occurs; however, it witnessed the reflection of a great transition at the level of social and cultural values. As a result, many foreign films were released. From 1980 till present day,
Multinational Corporation projected many movies that helped in a great success and global dominance through the emphasis on special effects to draw audiences into movie theaters. (
Monaco 217-30)
2. The Significance of the Movie Industry to US:
Movies have became a worldwide beneficial tool; they were used as an economical and cultural means for expansion. Economically, according to Liu Zhen,
Hollywood movies, in 2000, rank the second in the export revenues in the United States and reached US$ 30 billion, as an example the movie Titatnic (1997) costs over US$ 140 million but it had profited US$ 1.8 billion by mid 2000. Thus, Hollywood movies paved the way for new investment in both domestic and foreign markets. (12-3)
Moreover, film industry is considered as a vital medium and a ‘Soft Power' for transmission and exportation of the American cultures and values.Through the embodiment of the American ideological consumerism and hedonism at all levels, it will influence the audiences and push them indirectly to imitate the Americans. Lui Zhen also confirmed that besides the effect of viewers, Hollywood movies produced great political and intellectual impact as a means of cultural war. In other words, the process of colonization of the other's mind bears the aim of showing the US superiority over the inferiority and backwardness of the influenced countries. ( 13)
2.1 The First World War:
America entered the war in April 1917 after a series of attempts by the president
Woodrow Wilson to keep the nation neutral during the war. But after the sinking of the 8
American ships in the North Atlantic by German U- boats, Wilson asked for ‘war to end all wars' by joining the allies against German and Austro-Hungarian. After the US entered the war, the Committee of Public Information (CPI) raised to spread all that is positive for
America's involvement in the war locally and globally. Thus, movies are used as a propagandist tool in achieving this goal. (Paul 1-2)
According to the Secretary of War ‘Newton Baker', CPI has a great rule for
America. He said: ‘'It was of great importance that America should be represented not
Merely as a strong man fully armed, but as a strong man fully armed and believing in the cause for which he was fighting, that is fighting for ideas and ideals'' ( qtd.in Michael 186).
Baker, however, argued that CPI propaganda is holding an important part of the war through creating illusionary and negative images of an enemy precisely Germans and showed them as ‘barbaric, animalistic enemy' and Huns.(2)
2.2The Cold War Era:
During the Cold War Era, movies served as an anti-communist propagandist tool that project the capitalist values and democracy. Thus, the movie industry during that era was affected by the ‘red scare'4 during the McCarthy presidency. In the 1950's, science fiction movies showed different aspects of the Cold War politics. As an example of many released movies of that kind ‘Invasion of the body snatcher'. The last was interpreted as an entirely reference to the McCarthy era, in another side ‘Earth stood' served the same goal.
Undoubtedly,the United States wanted through movie industry to justify its power and hegemony to its enemies. Show notes:
Historians have begun to set the American film industry's Cold War Role in
a wider, international context by, for instance. Highlighting Hollywood's 9
willingness to export American ideals in line with the US department's
wishes. However, this celluloid ‘cultural diplomacy.' Has yet to make
serious inroad into mainstream cold war historiography While only a few
scholars have taken the lead from the revelation of Hollywood-state
Department collaboration to search for potential Links between the film
industry and other government agencies during The conflict. (1)
Collaboratively, Hollywood Movies and many national agencies fashioned the history of the Cold War to serve the American interests ‘‘demonizing the enemy is so common during the times of War'' (Alsultany 15).
2.3 The Second World War:
Similarly, during the Second World War the United States mobilized visual wars through the use of movies to bring the world to its side. Movies portrayed the American saviors of humanity in fighting the German and Japanese enemies. However, it projected anti-Nazi theme. Jack Shaheen, a ProfessorEmeritus of Mass Communications at Southern
Illinois University, claimed that the Arab- Muslims images became more distorted after the
Second World War especially after the event of the Arab Oil embargo of 1973. Many movies released to misrepresent Arabs ‘‘ Never do movies present Palestinian as innocent victims and Israelis as brutal oppressors……no movies show Palestinian families struggling to survive under occupation, living in refugee camps''( Guilty 187).
3. General Overview about Stereotyping:
Historically speaking, stereotypes are deeply rooted from the early times especially after the widespread of Islam in most European countries. Islam was perceived 10 as a threat to Christians and Christianity and Muslims believed in the wrong God. Lokman
Zachary, the president of the Middle East studies association, asserted that : ‘‘ Muslims were for a long time understood to be just another pagan horde assaulting Christendom, not the bearers of a new monotheistic faith which were in many ways similar to Christianity and Judaism'' (19).
To adequately understand how westerns studies created the binary opposition between ‘West’ ‘East’ and ‘self’ ‘other’ which is an aspect of stereotyping process, it is necessary to go further to the time of both ancient Greece and Rome. Greeks, however, see themselves as culturally superior and the other people from the other origins especially non-Greek speakers as inferior and ‘barbarians’. Therefore, dichotomization between
Greeks and Persian was common as the latter threatened the independence of the former.
The process served as a means to reformulate images based on mythical representation not on reality, mostly all countries that Greeks meet faced stereotyping which would be called
‘oriental despotism’.
Roman also adopted Greeks dichotomization system as they regarded the ‘East' which mainly refers to Greece as culturally damaged that must be conquered and civilized.
Later on when the Roman empire divided into two spheres: ‘the Western Roman Empire' and ‘the Eastern Roman Empire', the Eastern part was marginalized and depicted as ‘not properly Roman' by the west eventually because the former use Greek language for high culture and not using Latin language, and the West considered as ‘the rightful heir of ancient Rome'. Thus marginalization and binary opposition substantially rooted in ancient civilization before it moves to the future civilizations and the aim was mostly for political role and expansion. (Lokman 8-10) 11
The development of Islam made a noteworthy risk to Christian mastery of terrains particularly after the gigantic broadening of the Muslim realm. At the point when Muslims eradicated the Byzantium nearness first in Egypt and Syria, then it moved to Spain.
Apparently, Christians lost more terrains, and the dread turned out to be more elevated, as a reaction to the impressive Muslim development, numerous scholars responded. However, it is likely to mention ‘John of Damascus' who exclusively influenced his fellow
Christians. He demonstrates that Islam is a Heresy and Muslims follow wrong God. (Said
50)
The massive conversion to Islam from Christians, Zoroastrians to Jews formed a significant threat to Christendom thus Christians must immediately respond by creating wrong and distorted images about Islamic empire and Muslims as a whole to stop its spread and to justify its hegemony and power. Distorted images were present against Arabs even before the emergence of Islam. Therefore Arabs were seen as ‘rapacious bunch of pagan, ' and later on they were called ‘Saracens' which mainly refers to cruelty and violence of Arab Muslims who spread devastation everywhere. Consequently, stereotypical images which were created by Christians against Arabs and Muslims were omnipresent before the coming of Islam and become more cynical after its full spread.
Even with the decline of Muslim empire and Europe flourished the fear and hatred of Islam still alive. (Zachary 12-4)
The beginning of the Eighteenth century witnessed an interest by the Europeans in studying and investigating of Islamic and the Middle Eastern culture by embracing the idea that it is their duty to civilize the races which are for them are inferior. However, different
Arabic countries from Algeria and Egypt in North Africa to the Middle East countries were colonized. Apparently, the European discursive colonization of the Muslim world was built upon constructive binary opposition between the West and the East (Orient). Thus, 12 colonialism process brought in hierarchical demarcations that move to shape updated images and attitudes against Arab Muslims. (Arti 2-3)
Islam continued to be seen as a danger for almost western societies and the prophet Mohammed as a false prophet and evil, who cheats people and gives them false instructions to mislead them from the right religion. This belief is associated with
Stereotypes, which were commonly created by spreading a set of images and knowledge.
Hence, Europe came to create the orient to control and dominated it through the process of
Orientalism. However, the latter defined as the study of language, culture, history and the religion of Eastern by the Westerns travelers and scholars, more precisely as the representation of the Eastern world by the western one.
The Western interests in the Eastern world are dated back to the time of Crusades when Christians failed in recapturing the holy land they opened roads to the Middle East.
Thus, after returning to their homelands, they brought stories about the Eastern daily life.
Travel writings about the Eastern world astonished Western scholars and theorist, and they started to write about Middle Easterners. Moreover, Orientalism became a powerful process whereby the oriental world became known to the Western world. Noticebly, the
Eastern world is depicted as primitive, violent and irrational people. As a result,
Orientalism emerged to fix stereotypical images in the mind of public opinion through written lens and later on through visual mediums. According to Edward Said the aim behind these studies is to realize hidden interests which are mainly to dominate it. (32)
Undeniably, orientalists depicted and fashioned the Orient in a manner that fit their western values and behaviors. The latter justifies that colonialism was not just a political domination but mainly about the reframing and reproduction of the Islamic world and Muslims were understood according to their old origins and became the primary target 13 of Orientalism study. Orientalism discourse about Islam, Arabs and Muslims considered as a dangerous, the more it spreads, the more it affected and damaged the minds, and it aims at distorting the real images of Islamic faith and Muslims as a whole. ( Said 157)
4. American Orientalism and the Image of Arab-Muslims:
The image of Arabs and Muslims is influenced by inherited stereotypes from
Europe as the Americans saw them as violent, barbarians and savages who created a big threat to the American national security. Americans, however, formed these distorted images from the incident of ‘Tripolitan war'5 in which the American ships attacked by the
Middle Easterners.
Simultaneously, many writings in the late Eighteenth and the early Nineteenth century reinforced the stereotyping against Arab Muslims. Narrates like ‘slave in Barbary'
(1797)by Caleb Bingham, ‘the American Captive' by James Ellison and the novel by Mark
Twain ‘The innocents abroad' were enormously affected the American mind and heart in which Arabs depicted as villains, backward and untrustworthy, in another side Muslims represented as pagans and savages.
After the Second World War, direct colonialism had ended, and imperialism rose which is manifested in particular cultural, economic and political practices. However,
Edward said named Orientalist practices after that era ‘‘Modern Orientalism''. The latter refers to the extension of the Western imperialistic process and the colonization of the mind all over the world particularly through means of communication. Mass media became an important way of promoting Western ideologies and imposing it either directly or indirectly.
Said emphasized that modern Orientalism was not modern as it appeared but it is and an inherited aspect from the traditional and maily moved from Europe to America. 14
(300), after the event of the Arab oil embargo against the US, in which Middle Eastern
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries banned exports to the USA and the other western nations. Consequently, oil prices increased in America. After the incident, new distorted images of Arab Muslims emerged particularly in visual lens.
Aside from his anti-Zionism, the Arabs is an oil supplier. The Arab is
Associated either with lechery or bloodthirsty dishonesty. He appears As
an oversexed de-generated, capable, it is true, of cleverly divisions intrigues
, but mostly sadistic, treacherous, low, slave trader, camel driver, money
Changer, and colorful scoundrel. These are some traditional Arab roles in
the cinema. (Said 262)
After 9/11 attacks, Arab Muslims were perceived as a green danger that must be defeated, and political violence associated with Islam and Muslims set the edges for modern orientalist discourse. In that milieu, Muslims were projected as terrorists and extremists who are contrasted with the modernized western way of life. Therefore, misrepresentations of Arab Muslims heightened mistrust between the East and the West and contributed enormously to the rise of Islamophobia.
Islamophobia is a phenomenon which is mainly divided into spheres, the first one is Islam and the second is Phobia. The whole term refers to the great fear of Islam, according to the definition in Cambridge Dictionary ‘‘Islamophobia'' is broadly linked the
Islamic religion and Muslims with the illness that is associated with hatred. Therefore, the term came to oppose both Islamic faith and Muslims. 15
Moreover, some scholars came with another terminology that nearly goes hand in hand with Islamophobia; it is Anti-Muslimism. Subsequently, they saw Islamophobia as a phenomenon which is dated back to the time of crusades, thus the term refers to the opposing of Islam by non-Muslims mainly Christians , According to the French historian
Albert Hourani, Islamic religion considered as a significant threat to Westerners who saw
Islam as ‘‘a false, Allah is not God, Muhammad was not a prophet ;Islam was invented by men whose motives and character were to be deplored, and propagated by sword'' (qtd. In
Fawaz 68). Whereas, Anti-Muslims refers to the opposing of Muslim people. Hence, the great spread of Islamophobia and Anti-Muslimism led to many discriminations and violence towards American-Muslims precisely.
Some researchers argued that the rise of Islamophobia in America is going back to the event of the Iranian revolution 1979. The revolution headed by Ayatollah Khomeini and led to the overthrow of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was supported by the US.
Consequently, the revolution resulted in the American military intervention Against
Iranians and from that event Americans perceived Islam as a hostile religion to the west.
According to Huntington, Muslims and western Christians are confronting each other due to ideological and ‘political aspiration' and caused mainly in ‘intercivilizational quasi-war'
(Melani 267)
Simultaneously, other historians and researchers asserted that Islamophobia in the
USA appeared as a result of a series of bombing attacks. These events include the 1993 bombing of the world trade center, the 1996 bombing of a military base in Saudi Arabia, the 1998 bombing of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and USS Cole in
Aden in October 2000. (Richard Crockatt 73) 16
The bombing of the world trade center in 1993 became a turning point in the
American history in which 10 Muslims were proved guilty of killing Americans with an attempt of killing the president Mubarak. Hence, the FBI accused Bin Laden of that bombing and lists him in the top of unwanted terrorists. Another incident is the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Bill Clinton attempted to give positive images to Islam and Muslims, but he failed and distorted images about them still becoming more aggressive. Therefore, a High average of the American public opinion saw Muslims as an anti-Americans and anti- Westerns who must be listed in the top of unwanted and unfavorable people. (Fawaz 72)
Moreover, the bombing of a military base in Saudi Arabia in 1996 created more fear for the American public opinion, in which the incident caused the death of nineteen
American soldiers. Similarly, the bombings of US embassies in both Tanzania and Kenya which resulted in the killing of two hundred African bystanders, also after two years later the attack on the US Cole in Aden which is also resulted in the death of seventeen sailors
(Little 311). Therefore, all these incidents strengthened the spread of Islamophobia and all
Muslims and all who resemble Muslims became like a ‘green danger' who must be killed.
Most historians argued that great western hatred toward Islam and Muslims became more aggressive after the event of 9/11 attacks. The 9/11 event considered to be the crucial event in the world and a turning point in the American history. There were many stories about that event, according to Zai in his book Countdown to 9/11: Islam under Siege Hijackers attacked the north tower and about ten minutes ‘‘Pentagon'' was bombarded by another plan killing more people. Americans argued that Al Qaeda was responsible about the incident of the 9/11. Consequently, Anti-Muslim sentiments reached its pick after the event and many policies were target mainly against Muslims in many domains: Education, employment……. Anti-hate crimes, discrimination and prejudices 17 were commons against the majority of Muslims who are considered as terrorists who must be killed to free America.
Dramatically, Hate crimes against Islamic mosques and Muslims had increased aftermath the event. These attacks include throwing bombs into mosques, assaults on
Imams and abusive messages. However, police reactions towards it proved to be so weak.
(Robert and Jonathan 104). Rubina Ramji in ‘‘Examing the Critical Role American
Popular Film continues to Play in Maintaining the Muslim Terrorist Image, Post 9/11'' argued that post9/11 led to demonization and dehumanization of Muslims in general; he said ‘‘ Muslims communities and families face bias crimes, sweeping arrests, widespread and media hostility and official assumptions of ‘guilt by association'''(1). Consequently, any terrorist acts refer to Islam and Muslims.
II. The Influence of Motion Pictures on the Public Opinion:
1. The Role of Motion Pictures:
Media is considered to be an important instrument in which it strengthened hatred towards Islam and Muslims. Hence, negative attitudes toward them became so negative,
Christopher Smith in ‘‘Anti-Islamic Sentiment and Media Framing During the 9/11
Decade'' asserted that the largest number of Americans convinced that Islamic faith encourages violence. Movies without any exception played the same role if not the most powerful tool in effecting public domain.
Movies are significantly affected viewers concerning the updated events and enormously impacted their minds and hearts. Since in the digital era, people are watching
TV more than reading books. In the past periods, the aim behind inventing movies was primarily for the sack of rising economic revenues and cultural exchanges. Nowadays, movies considered to be a means for cultural promotion than for entertainment ones. 18
Apparently, it handled all characteristic of individual heroism and can be seen clearly in the adaptation of American culture. Thus, movies played as a propagandist too in projecting the American culture; this can be called ‘Cultural imperialism.'
‘‘cultural imperialism has been an influential concept in the representation of the modern Christian missionary movement''. In other words, it occurs as an effect of the western influence on the language, values and attitude, besides it played a tremendous role in educational and political streams. (Kuldip 3)
Retrospectively, Movies played a big job in affecting audiences' behavioral patterns especially teenagers who imitate all what they see on screens without bearing into their consideration the dangerous implications it can carry on them. In the same manner,
Hollywood movies formulated images which affect people all around the world. Arabs and
Muslims from the early times were projected on the American motion pictures. Therefore, some movies projected them in a positive light and some projected them in a negative way.
2. Positive Prtrayal of Arabs and Muslims:
Some moviegoers presented Arabs and Muslims in a positive way in which there were Arab Muslims heroines who share good things with Americans. The aim was mainly to help audiences to deal with other people and cultures positively, as well as to show the
American heroism over the other races. According to Jack Shaheen repetition of distorted images about ‘cultural other’ cannot lead to achieve desired interests especially in political arena ‘‘ Hollywood’s reel positive scenarios demonstrate that movies do not have to perpetuate harmful stereotypes to be successful. Imagemakers should keep in mind that their motion pictures continue playing important role in world politics; constantly repeated, reel evenhanded images may help advance peace’’ ( Guilty 42-43) 19
The final cut (2004) is an American movie, the heroine of that movie became a best friend of an Arab character ‘Hasan’. The latter helped the protagonist ‘Robin
Williams’ to face his past problems and eventually he successes. In another movie, Enough
(2002) the protagonist is an Arab-American who helped ‘Slim’ an American women from the harassment and cruelty of her husband. In the Sentinel (2006), similarly, Aziz Hassad is an Arab American who represented as a good and hard worker character who is searching for extremists and terrorists.
Furthermore, Hollywood movies projected that there is a mutual love, friendship and respect between Westerners and Easterners, more precisely between American and
Arabs. In the movie Yes which is released in 2005, that movie considered to be a model of a real love story between and Arab man and an American woman. The same story can be found in the movie A fond Kiss (2005), where there is a black Pakistani man fell in love with a white Irish girl. According to Sally Potter affirmed in Guilty: Hollywood verdict on
Arabs after 911, that despite the real difference between the West and the East mutual coexistence can be viewed and he said: ‘‘–despite differences cultures can successfully connect-reminds us that besides the history of conflict, there’s also the history of multicultural friendship’’( 40).
The promotion of Arabs and Muslims positively in Hollywood movies has to do with projecting the American values, democracy and heroism to the rest of the world.
Thus, American filmmakers tend to shape the attitudes of public opinions through the images and language in visual lens. Motion pictures, however, have the ability to convince people to adopt all what is promoted, and visual lens have exclusive ability to affect the receivers more than printed mediums. Jay Reid acknowledges in The Age of Sympathy that filmmakers created stories which fits the American’s principals and behaviors and he said 20
‘‘Filmmakers play a key role in the creation of ‘history’ as the past is imagined, imitated, and envisioned on screen’’ (1)
In Hollywood and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American, Peter
Decherney stated that Hollywood movies are defined as a perfect mixture between Art and
Commerce in which it transformed American culture, values and ideology to the world.
Pedagogical techniques that successfully used by moviemakers let the viewers to be convinced of how good are the Americans and how they can communicate well with ‘out- group’ people ‘‘ the dominant Americans always save the day. This image becomes a floating signifier in movies’’ (Ramji 3). In the case of good portrayal of Arabs and
Muslims in movies especially in pre-9/11 attacks, American public opinion mainly accepted them as friends and neighbors to live with. Thus American motion pictures played an important role in shaping attitudes.
3. Negative promotion of Arabs and Muslims:
The Westerns Imagemakers represented Arabs and Muslims as ‘the other’, who are culturally, religiously, and racially as ‘the enemy’ of Western civilization. Mass-Media and Movies in particular presented them by using some words to refer to them like:
Extremists, Terrorists and fundamentalists. Therefore, distorted and repeated negative images against them led to high misconceptions and greatly affected public opinion.
Generalization and repeated negative images on motion pictures have tremendous impact on viewers. Jack Shaheen argued that repetition has an educational value and as a therapy and propaganda that affect the psyche of people, he said: ‘‘[Propahanda] must always be simple and repetitious…. It confines itself to just a few points [and images] and repeats them over and over’’ (Guilty xxi), also he used the Arabic proverb and he stated 21
‘By repetition, even the donkey learns’. In other words, people perceive all what is on screens as reality and true and believe in it even it is mytical and wrong.
Hollywood movies projected Muslims as being evils and corrupted people who apperared with dark skinned and wild eyes, mainly wearing robes with gungs. Shaheen pointed out :
The stereotypes are deeply ingrained in American cinema. From 1896 until
today, filmmakers have collectively indicted all Arabs as public Enemy, brutal,
heartless, uncivilized religious fanatics and money-mad cultural ‘others’ bent
On terrorizing civilized Westerns. (Reel Bad Arabs 2)
Movie-goers successfuly showed Arabs and Muslims as villains who are driven by secular motives under the instructions of ‘Islamic faith’. Movies, however, give a monolithic understanding about Islam and Muslims in which all images of violence, fanatism and terrorism are strongly linked to them. Fimmakers were inspired by pre- inhereted images from the European and imposed them on screens, mainly they used
‘mythology’ as a technique to mislead the audiences about who are Arabs and Muslims in
Movies and who really they are on reality. As one technique, ‘‘ Muslims= Arabs’’ is used, this dichotomy blurred the viewers in which all Muslims in films resemble Arabs, hence
Americans found difficulties to differentiate between them. Jach Shaheen acknowledge that Arabs represent the minority of Muslims and not all Arabs are Muslims or vise versa, he said ‘‘Arabs represent … only one fifth of the world’s 1.3+billion Muslims’’ (Guilty xiii) 22
Moreover, the majority of Muslims populations reside in non-Arab countries and
American nations are good example. Deciecively, American Movie-makers have completely ignored to make the difference between the categories of Arabs and Muslims in the presentation of their Culture on motion pictures, as a resulte viewers blindely consider them as the same. The context in which Islam and Muslim is projected can be seen in different movies. Each time filmmakers refer to the Arab world as the place which must implies the primitive life, the underdevelopment, the rawness, the overcrowded streets and the Western world as the real place for civilized people, The inhabitants of the Arab world generally are not well dressed and portrayed all as brown people with big noses, concerning this point Jack shaheen says ‘Hollywood bamboozles us by placing influential stereotypes into the mind of viewers’ (Guilty xx)
4. Categories of Generalization in the American Movies :
The big screens hosted both Islam as a religion and Muslims as a minorities in every possible way. The latter demonstrat how the West in general and USA in particular was and still obsessed with picturing very ugly images. Post-9/11 films, according to Jack
Shaheen in his two books ‘Reel Bad Arabs’ and ‘Guilty’, Arabs and Muslims displayed in a form of five categories ‘Arabs as Villains, Terrorist, Maiden, Sheikhs, and Camoes’, and he said in most Hollywood movies Arabs and Muslims are depicted as :
Bearded Mullahs, billionaire sheiks, terrorist bombers, black Bedouins, and
noisy bargainers. Woman surface either as gun toters or bumbling
subservients, or as belly dancers bouncing voluptuously in palaces and
erotically oscillating in slave markets. More recently, image-makers are
offering other caricatures of Muslim women: covered in black from head toe, 23
they appear as uneducated, unattractive and enslaved beings, slowly attending
man, they follow several paces behind abusive sheiks. (Reel Bad Arabs 23)
In The first category ‘Villains and Terrorist’, Arab-Muslims are presented as
‘Evils’ who are tending to kill innocent Americans . the Movie Fatwa(2006) shows Arab-
Muslim killing Americans by using bombs, According to Joel Pearce the movie includes distorted images that heightened hatred between Westerns and Easterns and he announces that ‘Fatwa is racist propaganda, creating offensive caricatures of both Western and
Middle Eastern culture. Instead of breacking down the cultural barriers, it just adds yet another layer to the already impenetrable wall’ (112-3). Fire over Afghanistan, is another movie in which Afghans are depicted as villains, ‘Afghanistan is not an Arab country’ but its people are portrayed as the same as Arabs in that movie, so this representation misled viewers and participated in widening misconceptions against Arab-Muslims.
The second category is ‘Arab-Muslims are Maidens’, the latter mainly concerns women in which they are portrayed in most American movies as submissive, naïve, dependent and weak who totally different from Western women. As best example the movie Pretty Persuation (2005), the protagonist of that movie is a Muslim girl named
Randa and she portrayled as different, strange and unwelcomed by her classmates primarily because she wears Head Scarf, Kimberly is a main character of the movie angrily he told Randa ‘‘What’s that on your head? You haven’t tried to bomb anybody, have you?’’. That scene particarly shows how Americans view non- Christians and Muslims in general, at the end of the movie Randa kills herself because she suffred from the repeated attacks and aggressions. The third distorted image ‘Arab-Muslims are Sheikhs’, in several
American films Arabs and Muslims protagonists are generally depicted as uncivilized rich people who are surrounded by too much maidens and living in big luxurious palaces , as an 24 example the famous movie the sheikh , which was adapted from the novel in the same name, Arabs are depicted as wealthy and barbaric people mainly inhabiting an empty lands, the protagonist of the movie named Ahmed Bin Hassan, he lived with too much concubines and later on he kidnapes Diana Mayo (the Western girl) in order to add her to his lists of mistress. The director of the Film tried to show to viewers that rich Arabs are kidnapers and ‘slavery and sexual abuse of women are basic elements of Arabic culture’ (
Ahmed 5)
‘Camoes’ is a widely used category in Hollywood movies, however, Arabs and
Muslims are depicted as thrillers who came from unknown places just to kill the American by bombing their selves or they end up to be killed by the American agencies. The movie titled Time Lapse (2001) is the best example; Faisal and his colleagues in the movie bought guns of mass destruction to use it against the Americans but before using them they are caught by the FBI agency.(Guilty 35)
Distorted images against Arabs and Muslims in Hollywood movies demoralize viewers and heightened hatred towards them and in usual times they justify any cruelty and violence against them by these stereotypical images. Sam Keen believes that the good weapon to respond to enemies is by mind and by motion pictures and he said ‘‘Enemies:
We first kill people with our minds, before we kill them with weapons. Whatever the conflict…. We’re on God’s side; they’re evil’ (qtd.in Shaheen 25), Therefore, Sam Keen clearly manifested that the other enemies are evils; he primarily refers to non-Western and particularly Arab-Muslims as barbarians and uncivilized who must be killed directly or indirectly.
25
III. The Making of the American Foreign Policy in the Middle East:
After becoming the super power in the world, US started to intervene in the
Middle East indirectly according to its values, principals and personal interests. The latter shaped the American perceptions to the area mainly it affected the political and the
Economic decisions towards the region. Hollywood movies in particular played an important role in transmitting American foreign policy and the outcomes became worst generally on Arabs and Muslims. In this sense, it is necessary to examine the historical background that combines both nations.
1. Historical Background of American-Middle Eastern Relation:
The first interaction between the US and the Middle East is dated back to the
Barbary wars. However, the significant meeting points between both nations were after the
Second World War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1945, the US foreign policy in the Middle Eastern states was interventionist. Therefore, American leaders build their diplomatic relations around giving military and economic helps to its Arab allies and mainly can be seen in the American supportive role for anti-colonial movements in the regions.
Apparently, Middle Eastern regions were so important for U.S, as the former mutually has 64 percent of the world’s oil holds and its essential country is Saudi Arabia, which alone controls 24 percent of the world’s supplies. Therefore, U.S runs to make diplomatic relation with these nations as controlling the Middle East’s resources is a source of power for the Americans. To realize its interests in the region, U.S followed different strategies to seem totally different from the British and French imperialism in Middle
Eastern nations and she resolved the early 1950’s events like the assassination of the king 26 of Jordon (1951). However, Truman in 1951 suggested the creation of economic office in the region particularly in Beirut and he appointed for that mission Edwin Locke, who is a member of ‘pro-Arab American diplomats’. These economic attempts failed by the end of
1952. Truman also supported the Iranian independence and the Iranian prime minister ‘
Muhammed Mussadeq’ as a process to gain control on oil industry and he strengthened
America’s relationship with Iran, later on when Mussadeq nationalize oil and oppose all
British and American influence in Iran . Consequently, when Eisenhower came to power he worked with “British-led conspiracy” to withdraw Mussadeq from the office. Truman,
Moreover, U.S started to support democratization process. (Yakub 29-33)
Moreover, Before the Second World War, the American presence in the Middle
East was mainly for cultural and religious aims. However, the post-World War led to the increase of U.S presence in the Middle East nations due to the discovery of oil holds in the
Persian Gulf, and it became aware of the necessity of holding control over the oil industry in the Middle East because oil is a vital resource for the American industries. To achieve its goals, the United States must make good diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern leaders, as a process she declared the democratization process along with modernization process as an ideal for spreading peace in the regions but the process failed because U.S declared its support to Israel. U.S policy makers denied any kind of relations to Israel concerning political policies towards the Middle East, However, the senior state department official argued that they have a tied relation with Israeli state and he said: “we are very much influenced by the Israeli definition of Islamists. To a large extent, Israeli’s view of Islamic fundamentalism shapes U.S officials’ perception of this phenomenon” (
Fawaz 74). 27
To preserve its global power over the world, the U.S applied ‘the benevolent supremacy’ primarily in its relation with the Middle East. The ideology intensified enormously during the George Bush era with increased use of force for the enhancement of
America’s image as a super benevolent power. As a definition to the ideology, Tim
Sermmerling in his book ‘“Evil” Arabs in American Popular films’said:
The benevolent myth that the United States stood up against tyranny over
the administration painted a picture in which the United States had to stand
up to this despot to save the Middle East and the world of nations along with
the principles of honor, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace.(22)
Moreover,Tim Semmerling argued that the real reasons behind the democratization process and spreading peace in the Middle East is due to the American anxiety to loose its hegemonic power in the world especially to its need of oil resources. As a good solution
U.S stated to use media particularly Hollywood movies to justify its intervention in the region also to justify any military aggression againt its inhabitants. The psychologiste
Allport justified the American foreign policy in the Middle East as a state of American fears, and it appeared in a kind of stereotypes and prejudices . he stated ‘stereotypes is the response to anxiety’ (qtd.in Semmerling 6).
2. The Relationship between American Movies and American Foriegn Policy :
The Relationship between hollywood movies and American politics is an interelated relation in the sense that most of movies are projecting American foreign policy. However,Hollywood industry has became an important tool for the American politicians. The effect of movies has no limited impact since the world become a small village because all the technologies advancement and people all over the world have an easy access to TV.Sally Ann Totman in her book entitled How Hollywood Projects
Foriegn Policy asserted that Hollywood has big role in influencing the public opinion and 28 transmitting ‘political messages’ and American government is giving help to Moviegoers and the latter are helping the American regime through projecting stereotypes about ‘the evil other’ who threat the security of the Americans, in addition to releasing movies on its foreign policy. Consequencely, both are benefiting each other.
3. Orientalist Discourse in the Declaration of ‘War on Terror’ :
Immediately after 9/11 attacks, George W.Bush declared ‘ War on Terror’, or ‘War on Middle Easterners’, he clearly identified binary opposition by saying ‘who are with us’ and ‘who are with terrorists’ and he ranked Americans to be ‘innocent victims of terrorism’ who are tending to spread freedom and democracy in the world, whereas Middle
Easterners are terrorists and ‘Evil perpetrators’ who tend to spread terror and violence in the world. Consequently, these two different antities of representation allowed the
Americans to be superior and the ‘evil other’ as inferior. Moreover, ‘War on Terror’ strenghtened dichotomization between the West and the East in which all Muslims are blaimed for any single violence on American lands. Terrorism, however,is justified as a problem of religion and not political one. Dr.Uzma Jamil, a post doctoral research fellow at the international center for Muslim and Non-Muslim understanding at the university of
South Australia, noted that blaiming all Muslims for terrorists events is an American strategy and an ultimate orientalist project. He acknowledges also that American politicians anounced : ‘‘Muslims-all Muslims everywhere- must take moral responsibility for 9/11 attacks because they are all Muslims.thus they are asked to denounce terrorism and apologize for the actions of others as the basis that their shared religion is responsible for the violence.’’(33)
‘War on Terror’ led to the appearence of terrorim and anti-terrorim themes in
Hollywood movies. Arguably, the purpose behind that is to affect public opinion and convince them through screen lens of the neccessity of contring terrorists and terrorism in 29 the Middle East. However, the American government approved any foreign policy by the support of public opinion. The hurt locker (2008) is a good example about terrorism and anti-terrorim subjects, in which it portrayled the Iraq War and Iraqis people as killers
,violents , and terrorists who are threatening the global security. Americans in the movie are depicted as good people and the ‘saving of the day’, who work against terrorism.
According to Robert Niemi, movies played a big role in effecting viewers and he said about the movie the hurt locker: ‘‘the film’s greatest fallacy…. Portray the psychological and moral state of US troops without addressing the character of the Iraq enterprise as a whole.’’(228). Another movie which has the same theme is Zero Dark Thirty, which is profoundly recorded in the talks of ‘War on Terror’ and represented Osama ben Ladin as a terrorist who belong to al-Qaeda. Therefore, in most post9/11 movies the depiction of
Arab-Muslims as terrorist is common, Abdulkader H.Sinno quoted and said : ‘‘vast majority of Muslims and Arab characters on American Entertainment television were constructed in some way to violence and featured primarly in plots involving torture or terrorism.’’(qtd.in Yvonne 177)
4. ‘‘Otherness’’ in the American Politics and the Movie:
4.1 “Otherness” in Politics:
Muslims and Arabs were marginalized in American political life as they were minorities and considered from the early time as “the evil other”, thus antipathy towards them resulted in keeping them out of the mainstream. Yvonne Haddad, a professor of
History of Islam and Christian-Muslim relation, argued that the success of putting binary opposition between Westerners and Arab-Muslims from the Middle East concerning updated policies were merely based on American interests in the Arabian Peninsula in addition to preserve its good relations with Israel. (91) 30
Moreover, Americanization process was successful in a way that let millions of
Muslims to be eager to belong to the American culture because they were convinced by the similarities between American culture and Islamic one concerning virtues and good co- existence. However, strikes against Egypt, Jordon and Syria in one hand, led to the projection of Arabs and Muslims in motion pictures as ‘cultural other’ to effect public opinion and to get their total support for Israel. Furthermore, hostility towards Middle
Easterners reached its pick during the Arab-Israeli conflicts, as a response to that Nixon administration in 1972 constituted a committee which is responsible for investigating and collecting data about Arab immigrants under ‘ the freedom of information act’. In another hand, the Gulf war helped in widening the gap between Americans and Arab-Muslims, especially when the state during the presidency of Clinton accepted the Israeli definition
‘bibi-zation’ for Arabs and Muslims as the real terrorists and the ‘Green danger’.( Yvonne
94-7)
4.2 “Otherness” in Hollywood:
‘‘The concept of the “other” is important because people define what they are by first knowing what they are not. This is a technique often used in film to get the audience on the side of the hero. The hero is often seen as having qualities that the audience can relate to or aspire to possess’’ (Sally 10-11). Clearly,The quotes shows the importance of the usage of the process of ‘Otherness’ is shaping the audiences’ attitudes. Most
Hollywood movies contain such techninque to inspire viewers of how civilized are the
Americans and how the ‘others’ are inferior. As an example, the movie Top Gun (1986) shows how U.S Air force and gungs make America as a superior and well developped nation in contrast to other countries which are inferior. 31
Arabic language is highly used in contemoporary movies especially the post 9/11 movies, mostly the voice of Arab and Muslim speakers is reduced to ‘unattractive utterances’. Primarly, the aim behind volley sound of Arabic language is to show the superiority of the West and the primitivness of the East (Oriental world). Additionally,
Arab speaking characters in movies wear the same traditional clothes , and according to
Abed El Rahman Tayyara, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies and Arabic, they also ‘‘share the same menacing look that includes images of violent bearded men with bad teeth dressed in nomadic or peasant clothing (abaya), except for a few “friendly” individuals.’’ (4). Therefore, the usage of Arabic language in Hollywood movies depended on the American ideologies and serve their interests indirectly even it shifted to some objectivity in the representation of Arab culture.
4.3 Construction of “Imagined Geographies” in the American Movies:
“Imagined Geographies” is a term introduced by Edward said in his book
Orientalism and he asserted that places mainly the Middle Eastern nations are constructed and based on subjectivity and mythology and not on reality and he said: “the geographical space of the orient was penetrated, worked over, taken hold of” (211).
Oriental Geographies and places in Hollywood movies are created by the
Occidents in a manner that fits the American implicit interests. However, Middle Eastern landscapes are represented according to the American ideologies. In almost contemporary
Hollywood films, wilderness, desert and urban jungle are projected to viewers as an ultimate reality of Middle Eastern’s places. Stephen Prince, an American film critic, noted that viewers and audiences of motion pictures receive any things projected and construct realities upon it. He said: “The media also give form and substance to world events. They 32 construct the Political realities to which we respond. Through the media we learn what is good or bad, right or wrong, strong or weak, just or unjust”.(xiv)
The movie Siege is a good example, it depicted Saudi Arabia as wild and empty place and the protagonist is “Sheikh” who resembles Osama Bin Laden. Exclusively, in the movie there is a use of radar view shots, it is used to attract viewers to certain important images; here in the movie the focus was on the Sheikh and the car in the desert.
However, the aim behind using such technique is to effect audiences and shape their perception of the Middle East, mainly ‘the other place’ portrayed as the target place and it is linked to the ideology of Wilderness. The latter ideology used in movies to make focus on the target place as an exotic place and generally linked to cruelty and terrorism. Lina
Khatib argued that the desert is used as a means to serve the American political plans and it used also to create binary opposition between the West and the East, she said: “the desert is an example of a classic binary (barbarism versus civilization); the political agenda is served because the desert is invested with ideology. It is not only—being “foreign”—a
“condition of excitement”, but also a condition of fear. Fear is transposed to the people who inhabit the desert.’’(22). Therefore, generalization about all Middle Eastern nations on Hollywood screens are desert places is a falacy and bears the aim to blure viewers, in addition to othering, it shows the superiority of the Americans and the inferiority of Arabs and Muslims.
Hollywood movies played an important role for the American imperial projects in the Middle East, through stereotypical images and distortion in motion pictures it makes the Middle East an acceptable and suitable ground for the American hegemony.
“Otherness” process, however, is widely used in Hollywood movies. 33
Middle Eastern appeared in distinctive lens mostly they have been portrayed in
‘exotic ethnic terms’. Edward Said pointed out that the creation of binary opposition between the East and the West and the notion of “otherness” are ultimately the source of
American identity and he mainly classified the representation of Arabs and Muslims by the
Americans to three dogmas. The first dogma concerns making a precise contrast that recognized the acculturated the west from the regressive East and this can be seen for instance in Hollywood movies where Egyptian Middle Easterners are entertainingly depicted as ‘the Evil other’, and later on the portrayal became more distorted as in Hostage
Crisis, the movie in which Arabs are depicted as criminals and violent people who kill women and children. In the second dogma, however, said acknowledges that the aim behind mixing mythology with history in Hollywood movies has imperial motives. Finally, the last dogma concerns the representation of the East as an exotic place that should be controlled by the West and Edward said conclude that the concept of “otherness” is highly related to American imperialism. (Qtd.in Arti 1-3)
The construction of the Middle East geographies which previously called the
‘orient’ shaped people’s perception about it; in addition to that it influences the American political agenda. Therefore, U.S mapped the area and associates it with images of violence and mystery and defined as a weak region whether economically or politically which hugely need the American interference. In that sense, American filmmakers prefer producing war movies because these movies are highly used two entities good/bad and
‘heroes and villains’, thus it will serve to project the American ideologies.( Sally 13)
To sum up, American movie industry is an important source for raising the
American revenues, beside that it considered as a means for promoting American culture and ideologies all over the world. However, after the cold war America turned its sight to 34
Middle Eastern nations and accused it for being terrorist states and having WMD to show it as inferior to western countries. Moreover, distorted images against them became so negative on Hollywood screens and Arab-Muslims were considered as a green danger who threatens the American global security. Consequesly, all terrorist attacks are referring to
Middle Easterners.
Hollywood movies and American Politics have interrelated relations as movie industry promotes the U.S politics with the help of American government. In other words,
U.S used movies as a propagandist tool to fuel its interests in the Middle East primarily through affecting the public opinion because American government is taking the approval of public opinion concerning any foreign policy towards any nation.
35
End Notes
German Expressionism1 is a cultural movement that is challenging to define as it is not distinguished by a singular style or method of creation, but rather is better described by both the mindset of the artist creating the work and the generation he or she lived in.
French Poetic Realism2 was a tendency employed by many French filmmakers in the
1930s. A genre characterized by nostalgia, French Poetic Realism depicts the marginalized of society through a lens of disappointment, regret, and estrangement.
Italian Neorealism3 is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors.
Red Scare4 hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the US
(Communists were often referred to as “Reds” for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag.)
The Red Scare led to a range of actions that had a profound and enduring effect on U.S. government and society. US Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, investigated allegations of subversive elements in the government and the Hollywood film industry. The climate of fear and repression linked to the Red Scare.
Tripolitan War5 (1801–05), conflict between the United States and Tripoli (now in
Libya), incited by American refusal to continue payment of tribute to the piratical rulers of the North African Barbary States of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and Tripoli; this practice had been customary among European nations and the nascent United States in exchange for immunity from attack on merchant vessels in the Mediterranean.
36
Chapter Two :
The Representation of Arabs and Muslims in the American Movies
Syriana(2005) and Body of Lies (2008)
Introduction :
Stereotyped portrayals of Islam and Muslims in the American motion pictures reflect US governmental issues towards the Muslim world. In that sense,the portrayal of
Arab Muslims in Hollywood motion pictures ought to be perused and comprehended in connection to the bigger setting of US political and monetary mastery of Muslim nations.
Also, American films fuel negative pubic feelings towards Muslims and try to strengthen and support military viciousness in settling clashes between the US and Muslim nations. through the examination and investigation of The two post 9/11 films Syriana (2005) and
Body of Lies(2008) .These two films don't deplete the examination of Hollywood stereotyped portrayals of Islam and Muslims; in any case they give a decent case of how
Hollywood motion pictures have been coursing negative pictures about Islam and
Muslims. These motion pictures verbalize the US political motivation behind the 'war on
Terror'. This Chapter is divided into three sections, first with genral overview about the image of Arab-Muslims in the American motion pictures, then the plot description of each movie, to analyze it and move on to its criticism.
I.General overview about the Image of Arab-Muslims in the American motion pictures :
the Arabs and Muslims in movie has been depicted through hundreds of years in outlandish route in which they assumed the part of villians while the Americans are great individuals. Since the landing and the foundation of the world silver screen, the US 37 arrangement has dependably existed in the motion pictures that had been created, regardless of whether in direct or in circuitous way. The reason is that the American government and Hollywood industry has been chipping away at the sake of each other.
From the 1990s the legislative issues of the US has turned out to be more known through the movies that Hollywood is delivering, especially the relationship of the United States with the Middle East states. Those states had been portrayed in uncountable films. All through time and in 2001 the US had been assaulted, since that time the American government till now as yet accusing the Arab-Muslims of being doing as such i.e.: considered them as the psychological oppressors who assaulted America. Hollywood then again, has had a justifiable reason motivation to portray the Arab as the fear based oppressors and as they have a connection with the nations that have the atomic weapons this cliché pictures built a limits between the East and the West and it makes the idea of
'otherness' acceptable. Those cliché pictures increased much power and believability because of the oversue by societies.it turns into a standard that should be took after, and additionally it prepared to US to develop as a leadinf control. The picture of Arabs and
Muslim didn't change yet it reiforced after the attackes of 9/11. Moreover, this section watched out for analysis of two films Syriana and Body of lies through which the primary thoughts that have been dicussed in the theoritical part will be connected.
II. Syriana(2005) :
1. The Main Cast of the Movie Syriana :
The following is a list of the main characters in the movie that the analysis will
refer to, they are mentioned in order to draw a clear vision about the plot.
38
Character His / her role
Robert Barnes(George clooney) A CIA agent
Bryan Woodman(Matt Damon) An American energy analyst and a trader in Geneva
Jimy Pope (Chris Cooper) The leader of Killen
Dean Whiting(Christopher Plumen) A Washington Lawyer
Bennet Hollyday( Jeffrey Wright) She is assigned by Dean Whiting to do diligence which supports the merger
Prince Nasir( Alexander Sidding) A Persian Gulf Emir
Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha) A youngest brother of Prince Nasir and the supporter of U.S
Mohammed Sheik Agiza( Amr Waked) An Egyptian
Wassim Khan (Mazhar Muni) A Pakistani Oil Worker
Source: Box Office Mojo. Full Cast and Crew. Web.30, Mar.2017
2. Plot Description :
Syriana is a thriller motion picture which is whriten and coordinated by Stephen
Gaghan and discharged on November 23,2005. The focal character of the motion picture is
the star George Clooney, who assumes the part of Bob Barnes and the story is gotten from
the book entitled See no Evil by Robert Baer. Besides, the plot of Syriana is spun around
Oil and Middle East legislative issues and chiefly it comprised of four interconnected
storylines, each of which presents distinctive settings and it is threw on one male saint
(Robert Barnes) , this narrative technique is called Hyperlink cinema1. George Clooney
who is the central character of the movie won an academic award for his role as a CIA
agent, and the directer Stephen Ghaghan nominated for his movie Syriana as the best
screenplay (Box Office Mojo). Therfore, the movie was successfull as an economic 39 product and returning$ 94 million at the box office. The latter was highly watched and it contains many themes as fighting terrorism ‘War on Terror’, violence, racism, social exploitation and Islamic fundamentalism.
The protagonist of the movie ‘George Clooney’ accompained by other minor characters : Matt Damin, Jeffrey Wright, Chris. As it was mentioned before the movie is consisted of four storylines, the first story is the story of Pakistani workers who suffered from unemployment, the second is about Prince Nasir who is an eldest son of Emir ‘El
Imirate’, then the movie reveals the story of Bob barnes and finally the story of Bryan
Woodman. However, the main focus in the movie was on the story of the Pakistani workers mainly the story of Wasim Khan.
2.1 The Storyline of Wasin Khan :
Wasim Khan is a Pakistani laborer who accompanied his father to an extensive oil organization called Connex looking for an occupation. Because of a few changes, both are terminated from the organization and on the grounds that they don't communicate in
Arabic positively, the shot of being work outside the Oil business is so powerless, accordingly, Pakistani specialists suffred from neediness and deportation. Later on Wasim and his companion meet an Egyptian Islamic radical who called Muhammed Sheik Agiza who shrewdly persuade them to join the Islamic school and after that he induce them to committ suicide by besieging themselves for the sake of 'Jihad'. In a straightforward words, the narrative of Wasim Khan wich in view of social level uncovers who destitution and cold-bloodedness from wealthier class lead guiltless individuals to end up terrorists.
However, the motion picture demonstrates how guileless are Pakistani Muslim workers and how they compelled to end up fanatics under Islamic intructions. (Albert n.p)
2.2 The Storyline of Prince Nasir : 40
Prince Nasir is the eldest son of the Persian Emir , he is well educated and smart person who merely wants to devolope his country and preserve its resourses from any
Western exploitation. To do so , he drilles a natural gaz to Chinese oil company and canceled the long running contrat with the American company ‘Connex’. To recuperate its lose Connex company cooperate with Texas company called ‘Killen’ and the cooperated company became Connex-Killen company. Therefore, Prince Nasir through the cancel of
American contra ,he created enemies for himself first he found himself confronting his father and brother because both are in favor of the American influence and secondly he made the American leaders annoyed. The American policy makers became angry and decide to kill him. Many assassination plotted againt Prince Nasir, the first one was when he visit Beirut but it ended with fail. After the failure American negotiators convinced the old Amir to choose his youngest son Mechal as his successor, the latter prince was easy to be manipilated and giving him leadership will serve the U.S interests in the region and later on the CIA assign Bob Barnes to kill Prince Nasir.( Albert n.p)
2.3 The Storyline of the CIA Agent Bob Barnes :
Bob Barnes is an old CIA agent whose job is to put an end to illegal arm traffic in the Middle East, then he is given a mission to kill Prince Nasir who threatned the
American interests in the region. Bob Barnes failed to do his task because he is tortured by the Iranian agent Mussawi. Hezobollah leader reached the place where Musawi is about to beheading Bob and he stopped him. Later on, when the CIA agents heard about the kidnapping of Bob they depicted him as a rouge agent because they fear that he would speak about the planned assasination of the prince Nasir. Bob Barnes tried to warn the
Persian Amir Nasir about the assasination but both are killed with the guided American bomb. (Elbert n.p) 41
2.4 The Story of Bryan Woodman :
Bryan Woodman is an American energy, who is seeking to realize the interests of his company. He attends the party of Persian Gulf Emir in Spain where he lost his old son
‘Max’. Prince Nasir grants Bryan’s company 100 million US$ Oil interests and he points him as an economic supervisor. Bryan Woodman’s wife thought that her husband took the job as a compensation of the death of her child Max so she left him. After bombing the
Emir and Bob Barnes, Bryan returns to his family. (Albert n.p)
3. Analysis of the Movie ‘Syriana’:
The movie Syriana reveals many messages, some of them are explicit and some of them are ultimately implicit. Generally speaking, it talks about terrorism and the real motives behind it and exlusively reveals political messages that must be manifested.
However, this section is concerned with analysing many scenes from the movie in order to apply what have been disccused in the theoritical part.
3.1 Islamic Instructions as a Source of Terrorism :
Syriana opens with a scene where poor workers in an empty desert are waiting for a bus to carry them to their work in Connex company. Mostly, their faces are covered by dust as camera shots their faces to show how much they are suffering. The movie sheds light on how social motives lead to terrorist actions and this can be applied on one character from the movie Wasim khan (Mazhar Muni). Gaghan focused in presenting his movie on Wasim Khan, who is unemployed Pakistani-Muslim and portrayed him as a naive who cares a lot about his family, and ‘brainwashed victime’ who seduced by an
Egyptian to became a terrorist and bomb himself in front of an American oil tanker.
(Quilty 169-70) 42
Many post9/11 Hollywood movies dehumanize Muslims but the movie Syriana succeed in way or another in humanizing them and opposing a strong belief that all
Hollywood productions are giving false images against all Arabs and Muslims. Gaghan said that he didn’t want to include any stereotypes in his movie, and presenting Wasim
Khan as an innocent and a victime of violence can be considered as a good proof.
However, many scenes aimed at projecting social injuctice which greatly lead the Pakistani worker to convert to Islamic fundamentalism. As an example, Wasim’s father are confronted by a guard and when Wasim attempts to protect him, violently the guard beats him. Later on, when Wasim met the Egyptian man called Sheik Agiza, he merely convince him of the neccessity of being against Westerners who are the enemy of Islam and
Jihadism is an ultimate way for cleaning the world from Western unjustices. In this context, Muslims are established as innocent victims who are seduced to became terrorists by Islamic instructions.
The Movie Syriana highly depicted Islam as an extremist faith which chooses the weak soul and the broken heart to manipulate them under the so-called ‘‘will of Allah’’and
‘‘Jihadism in the name of Alalh’’. Islam makes use of weak people and turns them against their standards and this what really happened with the poor Pakistani man ‘Wasim Khan’.
3.2 Binary Opposition and Otherness :
Prince Nasir and his younger brother Meshal are the richest persons of the country, whon are surrounding by Luxuries and all sources of happiness. Besides that, great difference between the two brothers occured on the motion picture. Amir Nasir portrayed as an open minded person who seeks to develop and liberalize his own country and who is good and qualified enough to run it . Whereas, Meshal is always presented to be surrounded by luxuries, and entertained himself a lot for example he plays billiard. In 43 one occasion, when he was playing with a remote control he leads to the death Bryan
Woodman’s son in swimming pool. Therefore, he is portrayed as an evil who befriends the head of American company just to be the successor of his father and defeat his older bother.
The relationship between the two brothers resembles in a way the relationship between the West and the East. Prince Nasir who is a good person versus Prince Meshal who depicted as evil and so greedy. The oriental people are always depicted as backward, barbarian, uncivilized who are rich and run for sitting on the throne ,in contrast to Western people who are civilized, modern and good people who seek to modernize the country and run for its benefits. As Nasir was educated by Western universities he considered as a
Western product and ultimately depicted as good person who maily deserves to run the country but the evilness of Meshal indicated his inhereted Arab notions of backwardness and irrational thinking who is not qualified to run the country. When the Persian Emir told
Nasir that he decided to appoint Meshal as his successor, he says : ‘‘you cannot do this.He is barely qualified to run a brothel, much less a country.’’Later one, Nasir became a martyre of enemies conspiracy and killed at the end of the movie. Therefore, Stephen
Gaghan implicitly formed the binary opposition between the two characters to refer to the superiority of the West and the inferiority of the East, in addition to othring oriental people and show them as ‘ Evil other’.
3.3 ‘Imagined Geographies’ and Deserts :
Syriana is a hyperlink movie which operates in different settings and shifts from
Iran, Washington, Texas, Spain(Merbella) and Switzerland. However, Western places are well projected , mostly they are green places. Whereas Persian Gulf places are commonly empty deserts. This presentation was based on an old inhereted images which stand for 44 making binary opposition between deserts and gardens. Mainly the deserts in movies symbolize the backwadrness and savagness,in contrast to gardens which symbolize civilized life, fecundity and progress. In the movie, there are no deserts in Western places and no green places and gardens in the Middle East, thus binarism in American movie industry become a significant driven force that factionalize the real settings of the Middle
East.
The opening scene of the Movie presents a group of poor workers who are waiting for a bus in a desert. The camera emphasis on their dirty clothes and shoes to show how they are suffering from miserable life and another picture focues on anti-behavior treatment between workers. Later on, another scene shows an upset workers wearing blue uniforms and they are walking in the desert and leaving the Connex company,In this picture, workers are also covered by dust. However, the two pictures suggests that the inhabitants of the deserts are poor, violent and cruel people. Therefore, even there are means of transportation and there are refineries people still in poverty due to their backwarness and lack of education. In this sense, the filmmaker Stephen Gaghan, in one hand he intented to fantionalize Middle Eastern settings to stereotype all its inhabitants and convince the audiences that all Muslims and Arabs are poor and violent and In another hand he tried to make sharp binary opposition between Western and Eastern cultures and thereby projects how civilized are the Americans and how Arab-Muslims are barbarians and poor people.
However, gardens and green landscaps in the movie occurs mainly in big cities.
The first scene of a beautiful garden was in Washington D.C, it shows an old man cutting out dry flowers. He was presented in a good picture. In contrast to desert, gardens were lit with natural sunshine . Most terrorist actions were happened in the desert as the bombing of Prince Nasir and his family, in another scene the terrorist Mohammad Sheik Agiza 45 appeared in many times in the desert with two Pakistani men in which he teachs them
Islamic basics and convince them of the neccessity of killing the non-believers and
Westerns people. As Baudrillard explains, the desert can be “associated with the figure of the non-human or anti-human who is outside the social order’’ (n.p)
4.4 The Use of Arabic Language and the Mosque’s Secret :
The use of Arabic language occurs in the movie Syriana in both its types
‘Literary’ and ‘colloquial’ and it serves to comprehend an arrangement of social inequality, political injustice and violence in Arab lands. One of good cases that uncover social imbalance of non-Arabic speakers is the narrative of Wasim, who is looking for a job and in light of the fact that he communicates in Arabic ineffectively he discovered challenges,, and this maintains the imporatance of speaking Arabic, at the same time reveals the suffering of immigrants. After being unemployed worker, Wasim meets a wealthy Arabs man, and the following is their conversation :
Arab man: ithnīn min ‘iyāl hurumtī ab‘adūhum min hadhā al-balad, ta‘rif
lish? Lainnu mā ‘indhum shughul (Two of my wife’s relatives were deported
from this country. Do you know why? Because they have no job).
Wasim: mā lāzim tidfa‘ lī hal-h_īn,‘it_īnī ishī assawī wa ba‘dīn inti tishūf
(You do need to pay me now. Let me do something for you and then you
Can decide).
Arab man: ma‘dhira! ‘indī lista tawīla min nāss yabghūn yiqadimūn li
hādhi Alwazīfa (I am sorry, but I have a long list of people who want to
apply for this job).
Arab man :Idha bidek tichtighal f hādhi al madina lazmek tit’alam ilogha
it’alam logha Arabia ( and if you want to work in this country, learn 46
the language, learn Arabic). ( Abed el-Arahman 12)
This discussion demonstrates how dialect has a tied connection with power, as dominat gatherings segregate ruled ones and non-Arabic speakers have no chances to build up their economic well being in Arab lands just on the off chance that they are great speakers. As the Arab man denied Wasim from work even before testing him on the off chance that he is great laborer or not, this conduct demonstrates social imbalance in the
Arab world as it demonstrates the anguish of non-Eastern in the Eastern world. The
American movie producers pointed by indicating social inquality in the Arab world to persuade watchers that the tenants of the Middle East do separate outsiders and they are vicious and unfeeling. Another illustration that demonstrates the brutality of Arab men is when pioneers of the organization forbide workers to converse with each other. Since
Wasim's father do not comprehend Arabic dialect he did not realize what the report says and he conversed with his companion. Therefore, the protect beats him hardly and when
Wasim attempted to help his father he is likewise beaten by the monitor. The professor of
Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic language‘Abed El Rahman Tayyara’ who contended that the past scenes extraordinarily extend the American pondering the Arab world, which says that Arabs utilized Arabic dialect as a wellspring of mortifying the non-Arabs and by speculation the watchers will at last be persuaded of the way that all Arabs are pitiless and social injuctice exist in all the Middle East and he says :“one group holds more power, has more privileges or more resources and uses the ‘difference’… as a legitimization to dominate and marginalize the other” (13)
Arabic words and Quranic verses are used in element settings. It was reflected in the arrangement using total terms. One of the illustrations is "Salam Aleikum" such a word has been used by each Muslim character, in each psychological militant discussion or meeting. For instance, Muhammed Cheikh Agiza teachs Wasim and his 47 companion Faruq Islamic guidelines which are absolutely fanatic and have a tendency to contradict Westernes who are living in Arab nations Regarding this one can identify an arrangement of messages, first is that Arabic words is a danger, Islam energizes and respects the boorish and the fear based oppressor activities against 'the other'.
Muslims always speak Arabic in American movies while the majority of Muslims around the world do not speak Arabic. This indicates that the stereotypical view and generalization about Muslims and Arabs all over the world is omnipresent in movies. As a well illustrated example is that , the majority of people from Pakistan, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Turkey which have the majority of Mulims they do not speak Arabic, but in the movie Syriana Pakistani workers use Arabic language and also they exchanges
Quranic verses. Therfore, these depictions inhibit negative thinking because they do not allow people to perceive real image about Muslims.
Syriana anticipated scenes of mosques and prayer. Be that as it may, the mosque is a triumphant card in the motion picture. It is utilized to attract regard for the watcher so they will loathe and disdain Muslims, on the grounds that if their homes is associated with dread ,then consequently the non-Muslims will be more apprehensive of having them in their neighborhoods and alongside their homes since it is a fear protect. Mosques as it is the consecrated place for venerating God, it turn into a place for showing fear based oppression and fatatism as the Egyptian character Muhammed Agiza who assembled pure individuals to show them the principle direction to execute non-Muslims.
3.5 The Mystery of Veiled Women :
The second scene of the film ‘Syriana’ begins with a photo demonstrating a dinky scene picture of Tehran proposing that it is sunrise. At that point the concentration movements to a lady who is sprucing up in a faintly lit room. The camera gradually tilts down demonstrating her body as she is doing up the catches on her jeans and is going up 48 against a coat. There is a genuinely long shot concentrating on her bosoms and another all over. At long last, she puts a veil on her head and leaves in the first light.
The previously mentioned scene of the anonymous lady sprucing up oblivious makes a cognizant utilization of generalizations and cliché traditions obtained from orientalist filmmaking and established Hollywood silver screen. In this scene, the cover proceeds to remain for the image of sexuality and for the obscurity of the oriental lady. The idea of mystery is fortified by the account procedure since right now of her nearness on the screen the watcher does not know how she is associated with the account line, while the scene makes an extreme utilization of cliché camera systems which are proposed to eroticize her by urging the watcher to distinguish with the predominant manly look.
In a general propensity, the Movie Syriana is set in a manly world, in which women’s part as dynamic members in the advancement of the story is more than restricted.
In spite of the fact that there are a couple of ladies characters involving essential positions as experts, they are not alterable components who put the occasions in movement furthermore, are only Western ladies. There are additionally two mother and spouse characters. Bryan’s and Nasir’s wives function as the private and emotional sides of their husbands as opposed to men‟s public pursuits. Apart from these however, non-Western women’s function is rather limited, they are mere objects of men‟s sexual desire.
Taking after the hidden woman’s take off and as far as anyone knows deserting the same place from where she has left, Bob Barnes joins a gathering of individuals who appear to have been celebrating throughout the night. They are perched on couche in an extravagantly outfitted room which is half-lit by the light of the day break fighting against eminent loss windows secured with velvet shades. The concentration of the gathering is
Arash, an Arab man encompassed by ladies who are drinking and smoking. Arash 49 sometimes strokes a lady or lights her cigarette. At the point when Barnes arrives, begins casual chitchat and asks Bob whether he has ever attempted fluid MDMA, of which, as
Arash guarantees him, "Tehran is the world capital".
As it later turns out, Arash is an auxiliary character, an arm-merchant with no major part in the film than to be murdered by a dangerous arranged by Barnes. Be that as it may, his character is vital from the perspective of the fictionalization of the story. Since he is not an individual character, but rather a character sort, and in light of the fact that this classification is more slanted to look like settled examples, Arash’s figure displays the conventionalized orientalist example of the polygamous Arab who commands over ladies.
The gathering to which he is the focal figure comprises of various licentiously carrying on ladies, sitting in anextravagantly outfitted room around the man. This shot makes reference to the allegory of the array of mistresses, the place of obscene creative ability of orientalist movies and makes express the oversexualized picture of the non-Western ladies.
The general environment communicates the exoticism of the Middle Eastern setting. The place is oversexualized, as well as makes a thought of wistfulness for a debauched pilgrim world, where the Western man can appreciate things which are precluded in a very much characterized society: unlawful sex, liquor and medications.
There is perceptible move in gendered hierarchies, however. It is not the Western women any more, but the figure of the non-Western woman shrouded in mystery in whom the
Western man takes interest
To state that Hollywood has spoken to Arab ladies barely would be putting it mildly. For a considerable length of time, ladies of Middle Eastern plummet have been depicted as inadequately clad tummy artists and array of mistresses young ladies or as noiseless ladies covered in shroud. As the tummy artist and hidden female sexualize Arab 50 ladies, as per the site Arab Stereotypes. However, Hollywood's perspective of the Orient is not just symptomatic of colonialist creative energy but rather additionally a result of the
Western male look. Sexual distinction has been a key segment in the development of the
East as Other and the West as Ideal.
3.6 The Political Message behind the Movie and it’s Impact on Viewers :
Syriana recounts an account of political interest surrounded against defilement in the worldwide oil industry with a wicked Middle East as the setting. In it, a change disapproved of Gulf sovereign distributing oil concessions to the Chinese with American oil big shots plotting with the CIA to remove the ruler. Moreover baffled Pakistani oil field laborers in Saudi Arabia prepare to end up suicide aircraft, while American oil industry authorities and lawyers shape coalitions to free Iran. Gaghan uses each generalization believable to recount his story. Furthermore, the cast drove by George Clooney, who likewise created the motion picture, is incredible.
Potentially much more fascinating and captivating than the motion picture itself is the thrown of characters, associations and conditions behind the creation and advancement of the film. The decision of title, "Syriana," was portrayed by author Gaghan as "a term that I heard in think tanks...it appeared to remain for the theoretical redrawing of the limits of the Middle East." According to Los Angeles Times article, Gaghan invested noteworthy motion picture inquire about energy with neo-preservationist think tanks in Washington and "talked with individuals from the American Enterprise Institute, the traditionalist research organization that is viewed as the neocon hatchery of the Iraq War." The article goes ahead to call attention to that Gaghan likewise went by surely understood peddle
Richard Perle in his home to direct further film look into ( Saba n.p). 51
As the movie depended on the technique of ‘‘ Hyperlink Cinema’’ which has a tendency to surpass the subjective requirements of a common human personality The measure of settings, characters and activities associated together by the rapidly moving of the camera among these diverse components end up being excessively requesting for the human personality. Syriana floods with data and it is basic to bring up the issue, what the objective of this account strategy is. A psychoanalytic review demonstrates that the measure of data and the quick cuts among the shots are proposed to intentionally confound the viewers. However, the film works with conventionalized examples both on the level of characters and in its visual style. The true to life device guarantees a capable methods for controling and affecting the public opinion.
4. Criticts meet the movie Syriana :
The excerpt of this film Syriana was not arbitrary and out of nowhere. In fact, it was considered and mapped and this is due to numerous factors that are proportional to the base of the inquiry. First, the choice was based on to what extent the movie is great and this is clearly obvious from the tremendous movie profits that the box office gained it was estimated to more than 5 billion and it was rated 6.9/10. Second, the selection was based on the famous names that covered the work from the great George Clooney to the talented
Matt Damon and directed and written by Stephan Gaghan. (Rotten Tomatoes n.p). In addition to that along with being an ambitious complicated intellectual and demanding work as Kenneth Turan confirmed “...made with equal passion and calculation, an unapologetically entertaining major studio release with compelling real-world relevance, a film that takes numerous risks and thrives on them all’’ . Moreover, another reason Is that it is worth to mention that it is a highly political thriller with hidden messages that shows that the line between the real life and the fictional one is getting fragile just like the movie
Syriana though according to Saba Sara it absolutely picture with no actual names or 52 incidents and no similarities to real world but it is blending the real and fictional facts mainly with the use of archival footage2. (Saba n.p)
While the journalist Walter Lippmann investigated if syriana give rise to
“perception” or it strengthen the stereotypes and he observed that there is more behind what is screened and this was confirmed with the political orientation of the writer and the director and why the focus is on the middle East he said “The US consumes 26 percent of the world's oil and gas, 70 percent of which is in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who hate us. I fear for what my kids will inherit”, (Saba n.p)
It is also explicit that the tale of the film is inspired from a book of a former CIA agent, Bob Baer, labeled "See No Evil." Baer's book which is subtitled, "The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism" shows clearly his own anecdotes of serving the CIA in the Middle East he is also popular of writing many articles about Saudi
Arabia like te one of the Atlantic Monthly magazine called "The Fall of the House of
Saud". Baer later wrote in 2003 another book entitled, "Sleeping with the Devil: How
America Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude," The surface reading of the titles clarifies the orientation of the plot.(Saba n.p)
III. The Movie Body of Lies (2008) :
1. The Main Cast of Body of Lies :
The following table contains main charaters with their main role in the movie in order to give clear outlook about the plot
Characters Role Roger Ferris(Leonardo DiCaprio) CIA officer in the near East,CIA station chief in Amman Ed Hoffman(Russell Crowe) intelligence chief and director of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate 53
Hani Salaam(Mark Strong) intelligence chief and director of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate. Aisha(Golshifteh Farahani) nurse in Amman and Ferris' love interest Bassam(Oscar Isaac) CIA field operative in Iraq and Ferris' associate Omar Sadiki(Ali Suliman) A Jordanian architect with very low-profile contact with Al-Qaeda and CIA's mole to catch Al-Saleem Al-Saleem(Alon Abutbul) Head of an independent terrorist group based in Jordan, aligned with Al-Qaeda Nizar(Mehdi Nebbou) former linguist, Al-Qaeda operative and attempted defector Holiday(Michael Gaston) Ferris' predecessor as CIA's Jordan station chief Mustafa Karami(Kais Nashif) former petty criminal-turned-Al- Qaeda operative under Al-Saleem who later became Hani Salaam's informer Zayed Ibishi(Ali Khalil) CIA asset in Amman, operating in Hoffman's secret side operation Skip (Vince Colosimo ) CIA field operative in Jordan
Marwan Se-Kia(Jamil Khoury) GID operative and security officer of Hani Salaam Garland (Simon McBurney) a computer geek employed by the CIA Source : Box Office Mojo.Full Cast and Crew. 22 Mar.2017.
2. Plot Description of the Movie :
The dispute between the East and the West always has been a locus that drags attentiveness and therefore the bond was not tainted with compatibility and communication, it was in fact often portrayed with scrambling and collision this opposition has varied dimensions that are to say the conflict is practiced in many ways, politically economically… .The essential concern in the matter is that the predominance and sovereignty were not for either but they were in the uneven that is why it prospered till it spreads the world of cinemas. The latter hosted the subject to TV and predominantly 54 movies become another war zone where the US television has unanimously acknowledged that its performance objective is to reverse and project what their chest holds about Islam
Muslim and Arabs.
The world of TV is highly competitive, stories go through revisions and rewriting then interpreted by directors, therefore, the competition was apparent as many movies dealt with the issue and one of them is "body of lies" which is an adaptation of the 2007 novel by the American writer and journalist David Ignatius, the story resembles the film, and it narrates the book in almost every detail. The story is a skillfully constructed post 9/11 spy thriller. The tale commences when a CIA agent Roger Ferris is sent on a mission to trace back a terrorist called Al-Saleem. Ferris begins a journey of deception when he met a member of a terrorist organization named Nizar who suggested information to put an end to his cell in return for asylum in North America something that Ed Hoffman did not hold, but even so, Ferris overcame his boss’s objection and trusted Nizar, so he moved to Iraq. In search for a safe house he was attacked t, however, the accident took his companion’s life while he was recovered along with some records. (Box Office Mojo n.p)
In the same time back in the West terrorists launched a set of attacks in different spots. Meanwhile Hoffman found Al Saleem's house so he sent Ferris to grab him.
Concurrently, Hoffman was managing a side operation called skip without Ferris's knowledge. During the mission, Ferris killed Ziyad who run to caution his fellow. Ferris feared of undermining operation integrity of their foremost mission so he urged his administrator to put an end to his side mission. For being wounded Ferris had to visit a hospital where he met a nurse named Aisha. He started to fall in love with her. Hanni
Salaam the smooth chief of the general intelligence department in Jordan, wanting to be a part of the operation he took Karami; one of the men in the safe house in order to serve 55 him. Ferris was directed to seize him, but he escaped and notified his friends in the house, something that Ferris was blamed for and caused his exile. As a consequence, Hoffman and Ferris commenced planning for a method to trick Al-Saleem with the help of Omar to drive him out of his hiding. (Box Office Mojo n.p)
Ferris is caught between two things. First, Ferris oversight salaam’s suspicion about
Omar being a terrorist and tried to withdraw him from salaam’s hands but he failed, and
Omar ended up being killed. Second, he discovered out that Aisha was captured and
Salaam withheld to help him. By the end, he volunteered himself in return of Aisha, so they took him to a desert. Despite Hoffman was observing every detail he could not find out which SUV took him. He was placed to Syria and interrogated by Al-Saleem Himself who informed him about an infiltrator and that he works for him. After that, he did not believe Ferris, so he decided to behead him. But Al-salaam and his agent freed him and captured the terrorist. Ultimately, Salaam informed Ferris that he faked Aisha’s kidnap and organized as well his capture by Al-Saleem, so Ferris gave up on the whole idea of fighting against this war and went back to Aisha. (Rotten Tomatoes)
3. Analysis of the Movie :
3.1 Arabs as Villians and Americans as Wariors against Terrorism :
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, an intense nut CIA agent who travels through the Middle East sniffing out radical jihadists. His most recent task, incited by a staggering blast in Manchester, England, is to chase down an especially the dangerous terrorist called Al-Saleem who, with a specific end goal to expand his odds of remaining escaped the mystery administrations, picks not to assume acknowledgment for the monstrosities he has planned. Ferris, with just half way valuable assistance from his supervisor Ed Hoffman. The great mission that Ferris intented to complete indicated his 56 good wills which to stop terrorism in the Middle East, as in another hand it reveals how bad are Arabs and Muslims who are working against American people.
Al-Saleem is an Arab man and radicalist character in the movie. He appeared at the first scene of the movie on the TV, where is talking about the neccessity of operating wars against the Europeans first then against the Americans. Also he confess of bombing the bus in Shefflied by saying :
As we destroyed the bus in Sheffield last week, we will be ready and
prepared For the operation in Britain, we will avenge the American war on
Islam, we will Come at them, everywhere, we will strike at random, across
Europe and then America. Continually, we have bled, and now they will
Bleed. (Scott)
The quotes emphasis on the terorist operations that is planning by Al Saleem as it assumes his acknowledgment for an assault that occurred in a Sheffield, Britain, and he advises his adherents to be prepared for another assault in Britain. He sees these assaults as countering against what he calls "America's war on Islam." therefore of this war numerous
Muslims have been slaughtered and, henceforth, Muslims are advocated in securing themselves against the US and its partners – the Europeans. Al-Saleem's discourse reflects political talk of energy relations between two gatherings where he considers his side the commanded one that necessities to shield itself. Moreover, the quotes shed light on Arab-
Muslims hatred against the Westerners and the movie depicted Muslims as uncouth, rough, fanatics, with less human gauges, forceful. Also, regardless of Islam is as yet considered as a danger toward the west as a whole.Muslims and Arabs as they are seen as an risk ,the potential political ramifications of such distortions is to legitimize harsher 57 military measures against Arab Muslims by the US government and undermine the plausibility of future discoursed between the Muslim world and the West. The film is a a valid example of how Orientalist talk impacts Hollywood motion picture generation about
Arab-Muslims. Meanwhile, the projection of Arab-Muslims’ terrorist aims and actions greatly will effect viewers and ultimately give false images about the Middle Easterners on the grounds that not the entire nation is the place of fanatism and terrorism.
3.2 The Use of Arabic Language and Quranic Verses :
Both literary and colloquial Arabic occur in the movie which is for the most part in the Palestinian tongue, is the prevailing type of the dialect to reflect every day life and direct social circumstances. Literary Arabic, fundamentally occurs in specific scenes that deal with religious realness for instance the dialect of the Quran. As an illustration, in the conversation about Jihadist religious agenda between Roger Ferris and Hani Salam (the head of the Jordian intelligence), Quranic verse exchanged which says : ‘‘wa man watawallahum minkum fa innahu minhum … (if any of you take them as allies, then surely he is one of them) (Qur’ān, 5:51)’’ (Tayyara 17).
Another Another significant Quranic reference that shows up in the movie is : ‘‘Wa lā tah_sabanna alladhīn qutulū fī sabīl allah amwāt bal ah_yā’ind rabbihim yurzaqūn (Do not reckon those who were killed in God’s way as dead. Rather they are alive and provided with the means of sustenance by their Lord) (Qur’ān, 3: 169).’’(Tayyara 17). Al Saleem refers to this verse to give religious defense for the assaults he conveys against American and European targets and inspiration for his devotees to seek after martyrdom. This scene however, shows how Muslims used quranic verses to justify the killing of innocent people
The Movie Body of Lies consolidates various vernaculars, counting Iraqi,
Palestinian-Jordanian, and Syrian. However the Palestinian-Jordanian dialect is generally 58 obvious. Casual Arabic in these scenes fills in as a social conductor through which the gathering of people can have a superior comprehension of day by day life, social associations, and traditions. In the first place certain social sets of accepted rules, the expressions are ‘‘inshallah (God willing), fur_sa sa‘īda (nice meeting you), law samah_t
(could you please) are some examples of proper social behaviors’’. The expression
‘inchallah’, which has likewise religious essences, infers that everything ought to be finished with God's will to be effectively finished. At the point when Ferris meets Aisha, the medical caretaker, at the clinic we hear her colloquialism that she will see him
'inchallah' next week. Intrigued by knowing her better, he answers saying "I was thinking about whether we can have a discussion sooner than one week from now, perhaps inshallah later this evening." This refers to the fact that Americans are respectfull people.
3.3 Desert Symbolism :
Geographical reductionism is a trademark highlight of indicating oriental terrains in conventional orientalist movies, where the leave has a tendency to be proportionate to the Orient. Though the picture of the forsake implies primitivism, the Western setting remains for human advancement. Therefore, The customary orientalist binarism between the garden, being the image of human progress, fruitfulness and development, and the desert become the place of savage components and unexploited fortunes, stays to be a critical constrain for the fictionalization of the settings in the movie Body of Lies. In spite of the fact that the film works with a rich symbolism of settings which incorporates lanes of towns and urban areas, workplaces, insides of autos and planes, the forsake and the garden are obvious re-rising components over the span of the film. They are critical in light of the fact that they regularly fill in as foundations for the characters who separately have a place with them or to the cooperation between the local populace and the other groups. 59
Body of Lies uncovered the exemplary components that were already drawn about the Arab world, where a large portion of the move makes put in the betray and the Arabs are appeared as spiritualists and numbskulls. Moreover, The deserts are an exemplary case of the restriction amongst nature and science, amongst wild and civilisation, and it additionally gives comparing pictures of a dynamic urban focus and devastate wilderness.The desert likewise inspires a state of dread since it is possessed by harsh and savage individuals. They show the characteristics of what is viewed as the inverse of civilisation, despite the fact that they have progressed.
3.4 The Oppression of Arab Women :
Numerous films have advanced misinterpretation about Muslim beliefs.In specific, wide speculations about the treatment of women in the world have generally been utilized to paint Islam as fierce or barbaric, yet for a considerable lot of the world's one and a half billion Muslims men and women, this does not seem to be valid. However,The
Western world regularly gets off-base about women in Islam.To begin, open verbal confrontation in the West portrays women in Islam as subordinate to men and in some routes mediocre therefore of Islamic sacred writing.
The movie Body of Lies reveals some mistreatment of women and shows how
Muslims women are oppressed. In many scenes women are covered by black burkaa3, and the main female Protagonist in the movie Aisha is oppressed as she could not meet her truley American man becasue her elder sister forbide her to continue in that relation.
Moreover, Ferris is portrayed as a liberatore and a good man who seek to get out Aicha from the oppressed society where she lived. Apart from all this, The Movie is set in a manly world, in which women’s part as dynamic members in the advancement of the story is more than restricted. 60
3.5 The Middle East as a Site of Violence :
Middle Easterners and Muslims in the film are appeared to be effectively mindful of their choices and submit assaults all alone accord. This motion picture concentrated on the viciousness way of the Arabs domain and included Arab fear based oppressors directing assaults against American abroad and they are essentially presented as hostile to western and who are villians aiming on perpetrating as torment much on their casualties as could be allowed.
The Middle East spoke to as a site of untamed savagery executed of willing of opponents are promptly watched, without the idea of guiltlessness. CIA officer Roger
Ferris and his US construct handler ED Hoffman track in light of Islamic terror cell over the Middle East by utilizing a blend of cutting edge innovation and low propel ones so as to bait its pioneer al-saleem. The terrorist leader al-Saleem and his supporters are appeared to be in charge of series of assaults in England and Europe incorporating an assault in
Amsterdam stream advertise that executes 75 spectators.
6.6 The Political Message from the Movie :
Since the foundation of conciliatory relations over six decades prior, Jordan and the United States have appreciated solid relations in light of shared objectives and common regard. The relationship has persevered through the complexities and volatilities of the
Middle East and has shown that the two nations can depend on each different as partners and accomplices. However, Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, Jordan stood with the US in its effort to combat the common threat of terrorism and radical ideology.
The two sides have worked together and with the international community to rid the world of the scourge of terrorism and end the threat posed to the national security of both countries.( Sally 100-2). Therefore, US interfered in the Middle Eastern nation in the name 61 of fighting terrorism and smartly deceive Jordonian agencies to realize its self-interests in the region.
The movie Body of Lies shows the cooperation between the American CIA and the Jordonian agency in countring terrorism and fetching for El Saleem, who is the head of terrorists. In addition, it shows that how good are the Americans who are fighting Arabs and Muslims terrorists.
4. Critics Meet Body of Lies :
The movie requires specific thoughtfulness regarding its content.Furthermore, how it works as a promoter to US strategies in Muslim and how it fills the atmosphere of dread of Muslims in the US. In this way, it winds up plainly fascinating to examine how the film 'body of lies' which is not just adds to the complement of the culture of fear, but additionally it strengthens the established generalizations of Muslims that Orientalist discourse has been engendering. At the expense of some sites, it is said that the movie labeled body of lies has achieved sufficient revenues and earned great public recognition as well the film starring skilled Leonardo DiCaprio and Russel Crowe And directed by ridley
Scott who has always made great works. Despite the existence of heavy names of the world of cinemas that the scenario succeeded in rendering strong characters but this film like any other one must be scrutinized to evoke points of its cinematic perfection further its deficiencies.
Viewpoints about the film according to critics vary from positives to mixed to even negative. In this regard, the famous site which collects the movie reviews from the leading critics records that Pierry Seibert of TV guide magazine said that the thriller shows ambition it tells the story of a great man seeking to excavate himself from a threatening situation display an explanation of the American feeling of being in Iraq While James 62 barardinelli of reel views marks that body of lies neither panders nor condescends. it involves current event and has a political viewpoint but it Over plays neither" he added that the film contains a deceiving theme italicized by w.h Anden's quote that says "those to whom evil is clone do evil in return".As a start, this section begin with a general plot description of the movie, then it moves to its analysis. (Metacritic n.p)
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End Notes
Hyperlink cinema1 : is a term coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the film Happy Endings in 2005. is where the characters or action reside in separate stories, but a connection or influence between those disparate stories is slowly revealed to the audience.
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage2: Recorded material, such as film, that is kept by a television network or other media outle to be broadcast when asubject relating to images in the material is discussed.
Burkaa3: A dress or kind of veil with eye holes to it, covering the whole vody from head to foot.
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General Conclusion
Throughout the 21th century, the overall picture presented on Arabs and Muslims in the American motion pictures have drastically changed, it is hideous, racist, extremist, and mainly distorted. It can genuinely now be stated that the American media intend to cover Islam and Arab-Muslims in an extremely undesirable context. More deeply, movies staged it so perfectly that it used elusive stereotyping and othering that the viewer perceive without his awareness, which embed political messages that had cover the American imperialistic interestes.
Islam is believed to be a rootless religion and is the institute of terrorism and that it threats the American global security because it was introduced by a set of terrorist attacks. Previously, the American government and American filmmakers portrayed Arabs as uncivilized, aggressive, and inferior beings. However, after the 9/11 events everything changed and so did Americans’ way of thinking about Arab-Muslims; they started blaming them for the terrorist attacks on the United States. Furthermore, Americans insulted and humiliated Arabs and Muslims in the ugliest way as they underestimated and dogged them. Therefore
Americans were forced to recognize Islam as an awful global cult and Muslims were perceived as a green danger that must be stopped for the safety of America as a whole.
However, aftermath the series of bombings the Americans projected their anger in many movies, reflecting their hatred and their anti -Islam sentiments and mainly they include many forms of Orientalist discourse and symbolism which have imbedded political messages.
This study has disclosed that American movie industry plays a significant role in projecting the American foreign policy. In addition, this study has shown how the US treats its enemies and how it justifies based on claims of protecting and saving national and international security. The US government depicts countries in a bad and pejorative way in 65 order to keep itself so glorified and so powerful and above all to control all Middle Eastern resources.
The Integration of the elements of the research is evident in the clear correlation between the two chapters in which the theoretical part which gives breif account on the
Ameircan movie industry and its impact on the public perceptions and most of othering process which are discussed in that part is all reflected in the analytical part. In the sense that analyzing the two movies Syriana and Body of Lies discloses the essence of the hypothesis which states that American filmmakers used movies as a propagandist machine to fuel the American interests in the Middle East. However, Muslims, Arab world and
Islam as a religion all are misrepresented in most American movies. Such stereotyping and binary opposition are deceiving in their influence because they target the unconscious part of the mind and tend to implement serious ideas to change people’s opinions and tendencies, in order to guarantee both short tang long term goals as an illustration; justifying wars and intervention in the name of fighting terrorism tend to legalize their stand towards Islam and Arab-Muslims. Therefore the public perception is leaned towards the inserted messages and adopts them blindly and unconsciously.
The process of conducting this research faced many obstacles, Firstly, relating post colonial notions of otherning with American foreign policy was never a subject of focus or study. And the most challenging aspect is maintaining objectivity throughout the research.
The research tried as much possible to restrain any partial views from influencing the research outcomes and conclusion.
In essence, this dissertation will help to develop a critical thinking about the portrayal of Islam and Arab-Muslims. It will also to shed some light to the notions of steareotyping, symbolism and pollitical messages which are used to oppose Islamic faith. 66
Moreover,it will motivate the viewers to make quest about the use of such stereotying that insidiously embeds a war of minds and hearts.
67
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