Entry 7

The film American East was about Muslims living in Los Angeles in a post 9/11 United States. The most heartbreaking character was the cab driver and aspiring actor. During the film, he asked his pregnant girlfriend to marry him because he thought he was in a more stable position having gotten a part on a TV show for which he was scheduled to appear seven times. However, the script was completely rewritten and he was left to play the part of terrorist. Though it obviously bothered him, he said he would do the part. However, after agreeing to do this, he tells his agent that he won't do this sort of part again. As the film goes on, the actor is recognized in a coffee shop by some rather stupid young men who think that he really is a terrorist rather than consider that what they saw had been a promotion. After quite understandably yanking their chain by saying he really was a terrorist, he ends up being arrested and missing his chance to audition for a part that he really wanted. By this point, the character is quite understandably depressed and fed up. After loosing his job as a cab driver because his boss needed somebody who would work full time, he tries to explain to the director of the television show that he was uncomfortable playing the part of a terrorist only to have the entire situation devolve into a hostage situation where he is eventually killed. The worst part is that his pregnant fiance was speaking to him on the phone whenhe is shot by a sniper.

Film Analysis

Rebecca Beaudry
HIS 3105
Film Analysis
March 19, 2009

The 1999 film, The Mummy takes place in Egypt during the 1920s. This film tells the story of an ancient Egyptian priest and his attempt to break free from the curse he was under and bring the woman he loved, Anck-su-namun back to life. The heroes of the movie accidentally aid Imhotep, the priest, in breaking free of his prison only to spend the rest of the film attempting to right the wrong they had committed.
The film opens on Anck-su-namun and Imhotep together. It quickly becomes apparent that the two are having an affair. This is confirmed when they kill the Pharaoh so that Anck-su-namun can be free of him. Unfortunately, they are caught and Anck-su-namun kills herself after telling the guards that it was she who killed the Pharaoh. This was done with the intention of having Imhotep bring her back to life, however, in the middle of the ceremony, Imhotep and his fellow priests are caught. Their punishment for this crime was to be mummified alive in the case of the priests and in the case of Imhotep to be buried alive with a swarm of flesh eating beetles after his tongue was cut out.
The next seen is set in the early 1920s, where the French Foreign Legion preparing for a fight in the ruins of the fictional Egyptian city of Hamunaptra. It is later revealed that this particular group was so enamored with the legend of Hamunaptra that they walked all the way to Egypt from Lybia in search of it. After the French Foreign Legion looses the battle, the main male character, Rick O’Connell wanders off into the desert. From there, he eventually ends up in Cairo where an artifact he had stolen from Hamunaptra is stolen from him in a bar by the brother, Jonathon, of the female lead, Evy Carnahan.
Realizing that this the artifact is important and that within it is a map to the legendary city of Hamunaptra, which was supposedly the City of the Dead, an ancient burial ground, Evy insists on meeting the person who had originally possessed the artifact. Eventually, she is forced to barter with the lecherous Egyptian warden of Cairo Prison to free Rick before he is executed. Said warden then pushes his way into their expedition to Hamunaptra to ensure that he receives his portion of the profits.
Throughout this film, the Medjai, a group of warriors desended from the secret guard which protected the Pharaoh killed by Anck-su-namun and Imhotep follow the heroes and alternately attempt to stop the expedition to Hamunaptra and aid the heroes of the film after they accidentally free Imhotep. It is Ardeth Bay who aids Rick, Evy, and Jonathon. Though Ardeth Bay is by far the most competent character in the film, it is Rick and Jonathon who, despite their blunders and bumbling save the day.
In the opening scene, it becomes apparent that Anck-su-namun is concubine of the Pharaoh. The impracticality of her clothing, or lack there of is amazing. She spends her only living moments in the film wearing a loincloth and lines of ink painted upon her body. The Pharaoh knew Ank-su-namun had cheated on him when some of these ink designs upon her arm had become smeared. Neither he, nor any of the other characters stopped to think that the only way Anck-su-namun could avoid smearing the ink was to stand. To sit or lay down, or even to lean against a wall would have hopelessly smeared the ink. Even accidentally moving her body in the wrong way would have smeared the ink.
When the boat they were traveling upon was burned down by the Medjai, Evy and the other characters had to escape with the clothing upon their back. In the case of Evy, this meant she was in a nightgown. Left with no other choice, she is forced to buy clothing from the locals. Once she dons this clothing, including a veil, she is looked upon by Rick and the lecherous prison warden as a sex object. That is not to say that neither was attracted to Evy before then, rather that putting on this clothing made her all the more attractive to them.
The prison warden is portrayed as dirty, lecherous, and greedy throughout the movie. He barters with Evy for the release of Rick, only satisfied when offered twenty five percent of the cut of the profits made by the expedition to Hamunaptra. However, before Hamunaptra was revealed, he attempted to feel Evy up only to be rebuffed. When Jonathon is describing why he hates camels on the way to Hamunaptra, it is not a close up of the camels they are riding that is shown, but one of the warden, instead. Jonathon’s explanation that camels are dirty, smelly, and that they spit fit the warden exactly during this scene. Later on in the film, it is the warden’s own greed which kills him. Having wandered off from the group, he begins to pry the remains of flesh eating beetles from a wall, thinking them to be jewels. It is one of these beetles which burrows under his skin and eventually kills him.
After his death, Imhotep becomes something of an evil spirit, trapped until Evy accidentally releases him. From there, he goes on a quest to make himself whole using the body parts of the thieves who stolen the jars which held his internal organs. He is aided in his quest by the cowardly Beni, who betrayed at one point or another every major character in the film. When confronted with Imhotep, Beni begins to pray to any and all forms of God, including holding out a star of David to protect himself and praying in Hebrew. Imhotep assumes Beni is a Jewish slave and takes him as his head minion.
Though Imhotep was not originally evil, beyond his regicidal urges, something about how he died and then resurrected himself turned Imhotep evil. He eventually kidnaps Evy and attempts to kill her to bring Anck-su-namun back to life. Eventually, Imhotep is killed by being made mortal by a spell said by Evy and then set upon by the mummies of the guards which had killed him originally.
There are many examples of orientalism in the film The Mummy, from the portrayal of the seductive Ank-su-namun to the portrayal of Imhotep. The heroes of this movie are not Ardeth Bay or the Medjai, who have been watching over Imhotep to ensure he remained imprisoned for generations, but rather the bumbling heroes who loosed Imhotep in the first place.

Entry 6

So, am I the only one who was disappointed by where we stopped in Aladdin? We didn't even get to his big entrance as a prince, which surely would have sparked much discussion (particularly in the way Aladdin made up his princely name). Anyway, my big issue was the way all the women old enough to be considered sex objects dressed. This essentially amounted to the stereotypical flowing pants and a top which could double as a bra. Admittedly, they all put something on over themselves when they left their houses, but that doesn't change that most of the women in this children's movie are running around in what amounts to a bikini top and a pair of pants. Even Jasmine, the princess, runs around wearing this clothing. They put her in a purple dress that covered a lot more later on in the movie. Why can't she wear that instead of the bikini top and pants? She's a princess, not some cliched harem girl. Why is it a law that Jasmine has to marry a prince before she reaches a certain age? Can't she marry a member of the nobility? An important soldier? And why didn't her father arrange a marriage for her long before this? Surely he would have thought of it by then. Why when she reached that age? Did she become an old maid the day after she turned however old it was? This seems doubtful. Jasmine looks like a teenager.

Entry 5

Not Without My Daughter was an interesting film. It was written by a woman named Betty and based off of her real life experience in Iran. It is, perhaps, the fact that she wrote it herself which makes it the most interesting . What did and did not really happen is sketchy, however, it is clear that Betty and her daughter went to Iran with Betty's husband on a vacation and were essentially trapped there by her husband. They did eventually manage to leave the country through illegal means. Everything else seems to be open to interpretation. Despite the largely negative view of Muslims, particularly women perpetuated by the film, it is the women of the film who are the strongest and most sympathetic characters. When Betty's husband tries to coerce information from their daughter on where she and Betty had been that day, it is one of the female relatives who takes the child away to relative safety. The women who teach at the school Betty's daughter attends are the most sympathetic. They request that Betty spends her days at the school because of how upset her daughter becomes. Though they are restricted by rules and regulations, they do explain to Betty ways for her to get around these rules, such as arriving at school late. They cannot allow her to leave the school with the child unless her husband accompanies her, however that is very understandable. They not only have themselves to think of, but also the other students. When Betty's husband beats Betty at the school because he rightly suspects that she and their daughter were late arriving because they were somewhere else trying to find a way to leave the country, it is these women who take Betty's daughter away and do what they can to protect her by bringing the girl into a classroom.They could not have interfered in the beating, but they could and did protect their student.

Entry 4

I'll admit, I was more than a bit disapointed when we did not watch Aladdin last week. I was looking forward to watching, and picking apart that movie. not to mention that catchy songs were just what I needed to deal with my work load for this week. But hopefully we'll see Aladdin this week instead. The film about the Coolies was insteresting and disturbing. I learned more about the subject in one hour than I had known before. What sticks out to me is when the captain of a ship recorded the various deaths at sea. When he wrote it down, he added descriptions and other things which suggested that he had had at least passing familiarity with these people. But what I found disturbing was the mention of old laws in what I think was Tahiti being enforced once again. Laws that had essentially been debunked decades before. It raised the question of what had been happening in that country which would lead to something like that. The documentary did not mention the cause of these laws being reinstated, and did not have the time to do so, however to bring the subject up and then not explain it fully was disapointing. It seemed as if nearly a century was skipped over very quickly at the end of the documentary, and perhaps they should have found some other way to do that. Or have made the documentary into two hours instead of just one hour.

Orientalism Paper

Rebecca Beaudry
HIS 3105
Orientalism
Feb. 19, 2009

Orientalism is the depiction of the East by Western writers and artists. Edward Said defines Orientalism in a much harsher fashion. According to him, it is the hostile and disparaging view of the East. This was, according to him, influenced by centuries of colonialism and imperialism.
This view of the meaning of Orientalism is supported by numerous films and books. In the film Peace, Propaganda, & the Promised Land: US Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the focus is on how the United States media favors Israel over Palestine. While the film was biased in favor of Palestine, it brought up numerous points and raised equally numerous questions. These questions included why the US favored Israel and why Palestinians were so vilified in the media. The only reputable source mentioned in the film which depicted the area relatively accurately was the BBC.
This bias against the Palestinians resulted in the true conditions in Palestine not generally coming to light in the United States media. This included many of the check points and the all Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. The US media also rarely mentioned that the historical basis for why the Israelis were in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. Nor did the United States media mention that the Israelis were illegally occupying Palestinian territory.
The film also mentioned how even when deaths or bombings in Palestine were mentioned, the Palestinians were essentially dehumanized. In one instance, children killed by a landmine were blamed for their own deaths, while the people who placed the bomb were essentially exonerated. Despite the fact that this was in a relatively residential area.
Likewise, the documentary, To Die in Jerusalem favored the Israeli woman. However, by the end of the film, it was the Palestinian woman, not the Israeli woman who looked better by the end of the film. This film focused on the mothers of two girls who died in a suicide bombing. One girl, Ayat, was the suicide bomber, the other, Rachel, was the only other person to die in the attack. Rachel’s mother cared little for what Ayat’s mother had to say, and did not care about the conditions in Palestine.
Instead, she tried to vilify both Ayat and her mother, rather than face the problems caused by her own government. When Rachel’s mother went into Palestine to meet with Ayat’s mother, she was so terrified, that she left. Several of the camera men had been arrested and Rachel’s mother honestly fear for her life, yet still she refused to see how the conditions in Palestine may have influenced Ayat to do what she did.
When Rachel and Ayat’s mothers finally speak face to face, Rachel’s mother dominates the conversation. She all but ignores anything Ayat’s mother has to say, instead choosing to all but accuse Ayat’s mother of raising Ayat to be a suicide bomber. She ignored the points Ayat’s mother tries to bring up, such as the man and child Ayat had seen die when she was young and the conditions Palestinians faced on a daily basis.
It was incredibly hypocritical that Rachel’s mother so vehemently refused to acknowledge the conditions Palestinians faced, yet had all but fled in fear of her life from Palestine. She refused to acknowledge what she obviously knew to be truth, instead hiding behind perceived superiority. When she visited a prison to speak to Palestinian inmates, she refused to hear their side of the story as well and began to lecture them, as if she knew all the answers. It was obvious by that point that she looked down upon Palestinians and rather than being oblivious to what was occurring in Palestine, she was well aware.
A third film was on the Coolies. These Indians were essentially indentured servants sent to various parts of the British Empire and treated almost the same as slaves had been treated. England had recently abolished slavery within its colonies and had need of cheap labor. So they turned to the old practice of indentured servitude. People, who likely had very little understanding of what they were agreeing to signed away years of their lives to working on plantations or in other such industries.
Labor conditions were harsh, and many people died. Likewise, many of the plantation owners treated the Coolies horribly and worked them much as they would have worked their slaves. Numerous people died during the trip from India, and losses were expected. Many times, the Coolies were sent to live in the former slave quarters. The conditions in these areas were appalling. Due to the conditions these people were forced to live in, nearly two thirds of infants died. Yet, it was their mothers who were blamed, for not having proper motherly instincts, rather than the plantation owners who forced people to live in such unsanitary and harsh conditions.
The film Reel Bad Arabs focused on the portrayed of Arabs in films and media. The speaker mentioned the mythical Arabland, which according to him is where much of the portrayal of Arabs in film takes place. In this place, there was more Hollywood mythology than truth. Arabland, according to the narrator, was a conglomeration of Hollywood myths, stereotypes, and clichés of what the Middle East was like.
He pointed out how regularly Arabs were used as villains and how on many occasions, Arab men were portrayed as lecherous or, as in the case of the film True Lies, incompetent. Women, according to him, were portrayed as either sexual symbols or heavily veiled and all but without individuality. They were often portrayed as unintelligent or barabaric, or were insulted in passing. Another example used in the film was the popular children’s movie, Aladdin. In this movie, even the opening song was horrifyingly racist, calling the area barbaric, and then further explaining that the barbarity was essentially acceptable because it was “home.”
Orientalism is how the West depicts the East in any and all media. According to Said, Orientalism is the negative depiction of the East by Westerners, as influenced by colonialism and imperialism.

Entry 3

The documentary, To Die in Jerusalem was at times very disturbing. It was about the mothers of two girls who had died in a suicide bombing. One of the girls, Ayat, was the bomber, and the other, Rachel, the only other person to died during the attack. It struck me how young Ayat was. She was, according to the documentary, just eighteen when she did this. Ayat's mother clearly had no idea this was going to happen, and neither did her friends. All of them were, it seemed, quite shocked that she would choose to do this. Ayat was so young and it made me remember a lot of the incredibly stupid things I did when I was eighteen and how unlike me, Ayat would never have a chance to regret doing them. I'm not sure why, but Rachel did not quite evoke as much sympathy from me. I think it's because my view of her is colored by her mother. Much of the film focused on Rachel's mother, who was determined to speak to Ayat's mother. As the documentary went on, she became less and less put together as her daughter's death almost seemed to consume her life. Admittedly, I have no idea what it is like to loose a child, but Rachel's mother seemed to be quite extreme at times. It was as if the only opinion that mattered to her was her own. Likewise, she was sure that Ayat's mother had known about what Ayat was planning. When the two women finally spoke, it became clear that Rachel's mother was only willing to listen to her own opinion and refused to listen to Ayat's mother, who was trying to bring up several very good points.