Reel Bad Arabs Review

Reel Bad Arabs | Kanopy

release date: November 1, 2006
Director: Sut Jhally
Writers: Jack Shaheen, Jeremy Earp 
Producers: Sut Jhally, Jeremy Earp
Main Cast: Sut Jhally, Mary Patierno, Jason Young, Kenyon King, Jack Shaheen, Ana Obregón 

Reel Bad Arabs is a documantery shining light on how western movies portrays Arabs- usually always being negative and depicting very hostile, aggressive, greedy people. This documentary shows that we grew up on here in the west, and shows how it shifted so many people's narratives about not only the Middle East but Arabs themselves. Unfortunately we see that the common narrative made of Arabs through movies, even subtly can shift your knowledge without realizing it sometimes. Movies often times portray Arabs, especially men, or women wearing the niqab, also known as the burqa to be terrorsts, and aggressive people, and then another common narrative we find is the submissive Arab women who often times get sexualized. This Documentary does a great job of showing real Arabs, and how they commonly are. 
This documentary mentioned the problems happening in Palestine, which I found to be a breathe of fresh air because this conflict, although should be all over mass media and talked about, unfortunately isn't talked about enough. I enjoyed this film and everything it stood for. 
The rating for Reel Bad Arabs on IMDb is a 7.4/10 rated by 605 IMDb users. 32.7%, equaling to 198 voters, gave this movie a rating of 10/10, and 6.3%, equaling to 38 voters gave the film a 1/10. I wasn't surprised when I saw this rating honestly. Personally I would rate this film a little higher at an 8/10, because I think the film could have been a bit longer (the film sits at 50 minutes), allowing for more information to be shared, but other than that I truly enjoyed watching the film and would recommend to a lot of people!

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