ACMA01 -Discussion Questions, Reel Bad Arabs

 

Constructing History: View and discuss the documentary film, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

 

Watch this film as a group in tutorial. Make notes as you view it, and form small discussion groups after the film is over. Come back together as a class for discussion and exchange of ideas. Here are some

questions to inspire discussion and critical reflection. Utilize the materials from today’s tutorial to construct answers with strong paragraphs and strong claims for your responses and include this in your journal.

 

1. Aladdin is an animated film aimed primarily at children. Do you agree that we should take the images and representations of a film like this seriously? Why or why not?

 

    Children are very pure and they are not knowledgeable on how exactly middle east people look like. If films like Aladdin bring out the worst in middle east characters, children will have their own knowledge to the Arabs. Probably those are negative knowledge to the Arabs. The most important thing to children is that, those characters are aggressive, wild and amative which are not good for growth of children. This may make children become unsociable people when they grow up.

 

2. Why do you think Hollywood inserts demeaning images of Arabs into films that have nothing to do with the Middle East?

 

    I think it is a kind of psychological hints to people in the world and there are two domains needing to talk. In media, American films advocate individualistic heroism. They always build hero images to fulfill people's dreams and give them idols to follow. In politics, America and Arabs are not very friendly to each other. The American people need to make their figures to show their positions in politics and make demeaning characters to reinforce people's first impressions of Arabs.

 

 

3. What images come to your mind when you think of Arab men, women, and children?

    

The very first thing coming to my mind is they always are covered by black clothes. Arab men seem cruel. Arab women cannot show their faces to strangers. Arabs children are different from other children and they are isolated by other races.

 

• Are those images different after having seen this film? Why or why not?

 

    I totally changed my mind after seeing this film. Before saw this film, I knew they were not same like films described. Every group has both good and bad people, I should try to make friends with them. Then I had rights to say how they looked like. But I prefer making friends with other people. After I saw this film, I knew that they are as same as us. They have warmhearted and friendly people and touching stories. They are just different from us in skin colors. We should understate them because of any different cultural habits.

 

4. How might Hollywood films influence public opinion on Israel and Palestine?

 

    They make Israel and Palestine people foxy and poor. Hollywood films make people think they are living in very poor conditions.

 

• Does the fact that these are fictional films designed as “entertainment” matter in terms of their potential to influence real-world public opinion?

 

    I do not think so. America are the place where "heroes" are made. Some people may think this is just entertainment, but in fact, it is "brainwash". When people see one thing many times, they will believe it is true. Automatically, people will have a "right" opinion on Israel and Palestine.

 

5. How do you think these films might shape perceptions of our society in the Arab world, especially among young people?

 

As long time later, young people will assign Arab in bad people group naturally according to their knowledge they have when they are children.

 

• How might such accounts contribute to the (positive or negative) historical legacy of “the West”?

 

These films with same stereotyped images have been shown for many years in Hollywood. And they keep contributing negative historical legacy of the western countries. The negative effects on younger people will lead them to have more ideas of Arabs with harmful images.

 

6. Do you agree with Dr. Shaheen’s contention that the Iraq war was made easier by a century of demeaning stereotypes?

• Why or why not?

• What do you think Dr. Shaheen means by “easier”?

 

    I completely support Dr. Shaheen's perspectives on the Iraq war. Hollywood films create many Arabs characters that are villains, which give a plethora of American people ideas that Arabs are not good people and they are not peaceful. Mass media is a very useful and important tool to spread ideas. It hides the real Arabs' life and Americans receive wrong information from the mass media. American wanted to save Arabs from the life with poor conditions but that was just a fraud of Hollywood films. That is the reason why the demeaning stereotypes made the Iraq war happen easier.

 

 

7. Do you believe that films have the power to reinforce or challenge stereotypes and group animosities?

• Why or why not?

 

    I do not agree with this point of view. I think the perspectives in people's minds are not easy to change because they have already believed those for years. They respect something new, but they may not accept those be their views. Every new change needs decades to make them true. Thoughts have to be altered from children.

 

8. Do you think films have the power to influence how we see the world and how we pass on historical information?

• Why or why not?

 

    Yes, films do have the power to effect people to see the world. Films are distinguished from teleplays because films have more literary contributions to the world. And the supporters of a film trust what they see in it due to the values of films. Teleplays will be forgot one day in the future but films will not. Films are more likely to record what happens in a century. Its historical values are enough to influences generations.  

 

Adapted from the Media Education Foundation: http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/412/studyguide_412.pdf