I'm so tired and annoyed honestly. Watched Body of Lies yesterday (a very good movie overall btw) and was so irritated by the number of stereotypes it was pushing.. What annoyed me more is the level of detail.. The language was always turkish/arabic.. Usually they just make someone spit a few words out and put subtitles on it.. The cities, clothes, etc were almost spot on all the time.. The verses from the Quraan, the looks, the chants, the same ol' same ol' terrorist arguments regarding the Quraan.. That was all good. But it really made me wonder that if they know AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL of that... then are they intentionally or unintentionally putting stupid stereotypes in there? For the average American child, this will form the basis of their future attitude towards Turkey, the Middle East, etc.. Just a couple of things I remember: - Movie starts off Leo meeting a guy who CRIES to him saying he wants to go to America? nevermind tht it is post war Iraq, meaning he is supposedly living in a free country now. Where he can be protected from the terrorists. Not. - The girl inviting Dicaprio to her house to meet her sister. This normally doesn't happen anywhere in the entire Middle East. I certainly don't think it would be the case in parts of Amman frequented by "Al Qaeda operatives." - The Jordanian secret service guy drinking. What the hell? - Dicaprio sitting with the two kids and they tell him they hate their food but love burgers and spaghetti. - The only non-American "good guy" in the movie is the girl Dicaprio is into. She is, incidentally, the only non-Arab, non-headscarf wearing Muslim in the entire movie. - I'm tired of the a-hole American terrorist hunter (Russell Crowe in this case). These characters are pushing neutrals to the extremist side. Every one of these movies will form a part of an impressionable mind. Which makes it much more diffuclt to eliminate stereotypes and racism down the line. It's come to the point where i'm starting to see almost ALL movies as pushing some sort of agenda. It's really really damaging. Once the movie was done a friend actually said (referring to Russel Crowe's character) "they're all like that underneath it all". It took literally an hour to convince this guy otherwise. I guess what I'm worried about is the constant attempt to cash in on the widening rift between humans. You create a difference between two types of people, and there is money to be made off the supporters of each side. Doesn't the average American worry about what kind of stereotypes Hollywood has slappen on the average American? It is being watched all over the world. Do you think that hollywood is portraying you correctly?
The day that Hollywood accurately portrays life the way it was meant to be is the day that I'll start giving any attention to anything mainstream.
I give Hollywood credit for coming a long way in their portrayals of Asians. For a long time we've come a long way from the 'no speakee engrish' buffoons of Breakfast at Tiffany's and the sexpots of The World of Suzy Wong. While there are still some unflattering portrayals of Asians in general it seems like we are portrayed and accepted as people and not stereotypes.
I agree with the OP I really hate how movies push their views on people. It's part of the reason I go to only one or two movies per year - usually comedies.
I considered Hani Salaam to be a 'good guy'. I considered Ed Hoffman to be a 'bad guy'. I hated that they used Aisha as a love interest. Typical Hollywood auto-include. The dinner scene was pretty useless and could be cut, but the hamburger/spaghetti seemed to be done to 'humanize' the middle east, since as you said... most were the 'bad guys'. Is it a stereotype to hate your mother's food? Do you cliches or not? I don't understand your complaint about the guy crying to go to America? He is afraid for his life for spying. Why would he want to stay at that point? Your points on the matter seem to contradict themselves. Jordanian secret service guy drinking... WTH to you, I thought you wanted to stop the stereotypes? The point of the movie to me seemed to be Anti-American spying. The movie seemed to show the conflicts as something American ineptitude is exacerbating.
I notice the Asian portrayals too. The movie itself had a lot of cliched portrayals. An impressionable protagonist who "sees both sides clearly". The cunning but ambiguously good/bad "realist", Hani Salaam, who works within his system to change for the better while also being a part of the system. The ignorant American intelligence operative who's no better than the American Dad. They're all known qualities like chess pieces for the audience to follow. A trainwreck ensues until the tables are turned. I guess it's a little more damaging because the movie tries to give an air of authenticity when movies rarely are. They probably didn't give the love interest a headscarf so the audience could see her pretty face. The movie was long but I thought it was decently entertaining.
But Hollywood still thinks Asians aren't good enough for starring roles unless it is a martial arts/action flick.
The Stereotypes were an indie/hipster band out of Canada who didn't put out any records or play any actual music. I grew tired of them but I do miss them.
Where did you rip off your latest unfunny bit of wisdom from? Link? White people like to make fun of humorless plagiarists. Also, texxx "agreeing" with the OP? Priceless.
in triple X with ice cube he said that everyone in the NRA is old and a racist. That wasn't very cool.
What stereotypes? Cheech and Chong's 'Up in Smoke' was no stereotype, For a 1/2 Mexican dope smokin' pill popping bass guitar playing surfer I was looking in a mirror I laughed so hard, it was 'This Is Your Life rhester'
I know, right...there are plenty of young NRA members. But, no. It really doesn't bother me much anymore. Movies aren't meant to portray what all of society is. Usually, they are trying to develop specific characters and themes. The audience picks up on stereotypical roles rather quickly so I can see why they would be used.
