Montana Smith said:
Originally Posted by Hani Shukrallah
The Indiana Jones film I have in mind was possibly one of the most blatantly racist films ever produced by Hollywood, which is saying a whole lot, especially when the object of racism, as in this film, happens to be Arab (make that Arabs -- all of them).
We've been cued. Our Racist-conditioned neurons rush through our brains: we anticipate one of those stereotypical-Hollywood affronts to our collective and progressively attuned moral meter, which bored us when we were kids but tend to leave us breathless as we grow older...no doubt the lack of oxygen can't dull or cloud such blatent racism to come.
Originally Posted by Hani Shukrallah
Most of the action is supposed to be taking place in 1930s Cairo, where, amazingly, the army of the Third Reich holds sway. Cartoon, you may say, but how many, I wonder, among the film's American audience, not least George W himself, actually came out of the theatres fully convinced that Egypt was under Nazi German rule in the 1930s (our imperial masters' arrogance, after all, is equalled only by their enormous ignorance of the world they insist on "leading" -- by the nose)?
Now we've been primed, not by facts, but by derision based on faulty perceptions like Third Reich controled Cairo...cartoon indeed. One wonders how many,among the Arab audience, not least Mahmoud A, actually finish the "article" fully convinced of conspiracies and rationalizing hatred.
Originally Posted by Hani Shukrallah
I remember little of the film;
Truth, but hardly enough to discount the contortions employed to support racism, "possibly one of the most blatantly racist films ever produced by Hollywood".
Originally Posted by Hani Shukrallah
One scene, however, has stayed firmly in my mind. Indiana Jones is being attacked by various turbaned and robed "Arabs" in a Cairo souq, which is borrowed from a mediaeval Baghdad souq, as portrayed in a '50s Hollywood version of a tale from A Thousand and One Nights.
What he does remember, however little, is impressive if remarkably self serving and perfectly reasonable in an indictment of racism.
Originally Posted by Hani Shukrallah
Indiana Jones (a younger and less haggard Harrison Ford) kicks and punches his way through half a dozen of these evil-looking baddies and, finally, the worst of them all appears on the scene. The earlier fighting has cleared the middle of the souq, and it is in this space that the American hero and his villainous Middle Eastern-featured antagonist face off. Dressed all in black, including the inevitable turban, the hook-nosed "Arab" wields a mean curved sword. He prances and preens, his sword twisting and swerving elegantly.
Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting "hooked-nosed Arab"... Terry Richards:
Hook-nosed. OK, so this guy is liberally embellishing events and people in a film he remembers little of to support his divisive racist claims.
Originally Posted by Hani Shukrallah
But here is where the filmmakers have their little joke on us.
Someone is having a little joke at our expense and I believe its "someone in the "Arab Intellectual" subculture."
Tana said:
If it was a fact, and not mere opinion, the reasoning would be taking the Jewish issue out of a 'popcorn' movie.
The Diary of Anne Frank was a popcornmovie?!
Tana said:
The scene with the sultan is played for laughs...
What was the joke?
Tana said:
It seems more likely that the treasure was donated by "the finest families in Germany" - the Junkers, the industrialists, and the like.
There's not a thing to indicate otherwise.
Tana said:
I can't remember whether the Jewish reference in Raiders was in the film, or was just in the novel: Dietrich's remark about Belloq's Jewish robes and the ceremony he planned for opening the Ark.
You really need to watch them again boy-o! It was.