Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Self - Narrator: Politics and Hollywood's images are linked; they reinforce one another. Policy enforces mythical images, mythical images help enforce policy. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America has said "Washington and Hollywood spring from the same DNA." The Arab image began to change immediately after World War 2. There were three things that impacted the change: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, in which the United States is unequivocally supported Israel; the Arab oil embargo in the 70s, which angered Americans when gas prices went through the ceiling; and the Iranian Revolution, which increased Arab-American tensions when Iranian students took American diplomats hostage for more than a year. These three pivotal events brought the Middle East into the living rooms of Americans, and together helped shaped the way movies stereotyped Arabs and the Arab world.