America on Film. Sean Griffin
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in the Middle East is a continuation of centuries‐long struggles between religions, tribes, and nations. During the Middle Ages, Christian Europeans waged war against Muslims (and others) in an attempt to claim and colonize the Holy Lands. These so‐called Crusades eventually gave way to more modern forms of colonialism, wherein various European powers controlled the region, extracting material wealth and strategic advantages. The situation was exacerbated by the creation of the Jewish state of Israel by the United Nations in 1948. Israel was created by dividing the former British territory of Palestine; Palestine was mostly inhabited by Arabs, and they vehemently rejected the partitioning. Wars and armed conflict between Israel, Palestine, and Palestine’s Arab supporters immediately resulted and continue to this day. In yet other parts of the Middle East, corruption and greed for the area’s wealth and strategic location allowed for the rise of brutal dictators (Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Bashar al‐Assad in Syria), and most recently anti‐Western religious extremists such as the Taliban, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, and ISIS. Much of the Middle East continues to be an unstable region filled with violent struggle, fueled by highly diverse and opposing nations, religions, cultures, and ideologies. As such, Americans of Middle Eastern descent are themselves a highly diverse group of individuals.
Intriguingly, one of the most significant things about Arab Americans onscreen in America is their relative scarcity: Hollywood has much more regularly depicted images of Middle Eastern Arabs while nearly ignoring the presence of Arab Americans. In classical Hollywood cinema, Middle Eastern Arabs could sometimes be found interacting with British or French protagonists (as soldiers, explorers, archaeologists, or tourists), images that reflected the history of European colonialism in the region. In films such as Beau Geste (1926 and 1939) and The Four Feathers (1915, 1929, 1939, and 2002), European armies battle scores of Arab tribesmen, and the films somehow make it seems as though the Arabs rather than the colonizing nations are the villainous invaders. Sultans are shown sending their armies to lay siege to the white soldiers’ fortresses, scimitars blazing and ululations rending the air to make them seem strange and terrifying. Some critics have referred to these films as “Easterns,” because their narrative tropes seem almost identical to those of the Hollywood Western, replacing bloodthirsty Indian savages with bloodthirsty Arab ones.
In other films, Arabs were sexualized figures who either enticed or otherwise served the lusts of white lead characters. Intriguingly, a number of Hollywood films show Europeans “going native” – being personally transformed by participating in Arabic culture – one aspect of Orientalist desire. As discussed more fully in chapter 6, Orientalism is the term used to describe the ways in which the West has imagined the East (including the Middle East) as an exciting, primitive, and sensual landscape, the alleged opposite and repressed Other of white Western civilization. Thus, in the incredibly popular silent film The Sheik, “Latin Lover” Rudolph Valentino plays the titular Sheik Ahmed, who forcefully and lustfully kidnaps a chaste British heiress named Diana. She is simultaneously terrified and thrilled, but their romance cannot become acceptable until it is discovered that Ahmed is actually of European lineage. Decades later, the epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) dramatized how English soldier T. E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) was attracted to and eventually adopted into Arab tribes as they fought for independence from their colonizers. Similar to the sexual and racial overtones of The Sheik, there are subtle indications that Lawrence’s fascination with Arab culture is linked to both homosexual and sadomasochistic desires on his part.
Probably the most pervasive image of sexualized Arabs in Hollywood films is that of the belly dancer or harem girl. Again a function of Orientalism, the Hollywood harem is presented as an exotic Arabian Nights fantasy wherein anything (sexual) is possible. From the early silent film A Prisoner in the Harem (1913) to the Bob Hope–Bing Crosby musical comedy The Road to Morocco (1942) to Elvis Presley in Harum Scarum (1966), harems have been a constant source of fascination for white audiences, reducing Arab women to little more than dark‐skinned and sensual objects. Arab culture as a site of mysterious unbridled sexuality is even at the heart of the classical Hollywood horror film The Mummy (1932), as well as its countless sequels, remakes, and updates (even into the twenty‐first century). In the original The Mummy, Im‐Ho‐Tep (played by British actor Boris Karloff) is a monstrous living‐dead Egyptian prince who lusts after a Western woman who may or may not be the reincarnation of his lost love.
As noted above, rarely have Arabs been shown becoming part of the fabric of either European or American communities. There has been an attitude among many that people of Arab heritage cannot assimilate into Western society (as in the adage “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”). Just as Irish and Italian Catholic Americans were once considered unable to assimilate because they supposedly held a stronger allegiance to the pope than to the president, so too do many today assume that Arab Americans pledge allegiance to the Muslim faith and not the United States. One of the few assimilated Middle Easterners to appear in Hollywood film is the Persian peddler Ali Hakim (played by white actor Eddie Albert) in Oklahoma! (1955). Yet Ali Hakim is more an all‐purpose exotic character used for comic effect than a genuine expression of emigration and/or assimilation. An inflammatory representation of an unassimilated Arab American character from the same era can be found in Herschell Gordon Lewis’s cult gore film Blood Feast (1963). In it, Egyptian caterer Fuad Ramses brutally murders a string of (white) women in order to prepare a cannibalistic feast in honor of an Egyptian deity. This linkage of sex, violence, and (non‐Christian) religion continues to mark more contemporary stereotypes of Arabs and Arab Americans.
By the late 1960s, as the United States became more involved in the Middle East due to both the need for oil and support of the new nation of Israel, the old image of the sultan was reconfigured into that of the modern‐day oil mogul. A small number of films included subplots about wealthy Arabs being sent to America for schooling. Although this younger generation were often pictured as enjoying American culture, their presence was more often played for comic “culture clash” shtick. For example, in John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965), the “Crown Prince of Fawzia” (Patrick Adiarte) tells his father King Fawz (British actor Peter Ustinov) that he has been expelled from Notre Dame because he is Arab and not Irish. Many Arab Americans have taken offense at the almost comic‐book stereotypes in this film. Yet it is also possible to read this little‐known comedy, written by Arab American screenwriter William Peter Blatty (who would later go on to write the novel and Oscar‐winning screenplay of The Exorcist [1973]), as a parody of Arab stereotypes – as well as American foreign policy. The king creates his own football team with his guards, coached by a bumbling American pilot named John Goldfarb (Richard Crenna), and uses his connections with the US State Department to force Notre Dame to play them. Although a few Arab Americans of the era protested the film, it was the University of Notre Dame that was most upset. They sued (unsuccessfully) its studio, 20th Century‐Fox, at least in part because the Arab team wins the football match!
The growing economic power of Arab nations (and resentment of them by some Americans) was exacerbated in the 1970s as OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) instituted a petroleum embargo, resulting in gas shortages and higher prices. Also, by the 1970s, a number of radical groups working for the liberation of Palestine or for other Arab or Muslim causes made headlines with bombings, kidnappings, and airplane hijackings, culminating in the 1979 kidnapping of 52 American hostages in Iran, who were held for more than a year. These various developments led to the rise of what has become today the most prevalent image of Arabs: the Muslim terrorist. Ever since the 1970s, Arab terrorists have become an easy cliché in action films like The Delta Force (1986), Executive Decision (1996), G.I. Jane (1997), and Rules of Engagement (2000). While often these films show white American heroes battling Arabs in foreign lands, Arab terrorists have also been shown “infiltrating” (as opposed to assimilating) into US society in order to bring it down. Black Sunday (1977), for example, shows a Palestinian terrorist plotting to hijack the Goodyear Blimp and hold the Super Bowl hostage. Other Arab terrorists in the US factor into films as diverse as Back to the Future (1985), True Lies (1994),