Would Raiders be considered disrespectful of Arabs if released today?

Who cares...it was a good movie that was released long ago. It's not disrespectful.

 

I just think it's pathetic how people have to cut out good parts and swearing in movies to tone it down so it's not offensive. I mean don't these people have better things to do with their time than to butcher someone elses work of art which is what they're really doing. Trying to force thier values on everyone else is wrong. These are the same pathetic morons that try to get certain violent videogames banned and such. In the end, all these people have to do is one simple thing. Every TV has one and it's called an on off button. All they need to do is press it. simple enough

So no,I don't find any of the IJ films to be offensive or disrespectful.

 

There should be a little bit of political correctness in some places, but people are beginning to take it a little too far.

I say if they ever cut anything out of the Indy trilogy we all band together and protest till it sucks the life out of us. And as if there aren't any Arab movies where they make fun of Americans.

 

Here's an interesting essay about the portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood:

Arabs in Hollywood: An undeserved image

Raiders is mentioned in there. I think stereotypical portrayals are definitely something to be aware of, but I don't think Raiders of the Lost Ark should be edited, but I do think future films should be more aware of how they portray other cultures. Constantly portraying another culture as thieves/beggars/scam-artists can only hurt both parties.

 

The thing is, as has been mentioned, the majority of the Arabs in Raiders were "good", and helped conceal the truck near the end.

 

Down with censorship and political correctness and up with freedom of speech and opinion, no matter how uneducated that opinion may be. We still have a right to it.

 

Amen, DarthHtrad

 

No

 

A clip fromt he article linked above:

"By liberating the ancient Hebrew ark from illegal Egyptian possession, the American hero rescues it from Nazi sequestration, allegorically reinforcing American and Jewish solidarity against Nazis and their Arab collaborators"

As Dan Akroyd would say, "Jane, you ignorant *!"

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Nazis subjugated the Arabs in a certain part of Egypt and put it under martial law, forcing the Egyptians to help them dig for the Ark. The Ark was not in the Egyptian's possession, illegal or otherwise. It was LOST. No one knew where it was. When the Ark was discovered by Indy, the Egyptians defied the Nazis by protecting him and helping him get it out of the country, at great risk to themselves. The story is about good vs evil, not Arab vs American vs German vs Jew, you stupid.....

...sorry but dumb people really annoy me.

 

It doesn't make any sense to speak your mind and then get ridiculed because of your intelligence. I think it's kind of funny--If they annoy you, why reply?

 

Hmmm....

 

I replied because they annoyed me. And because someone might actually take that article seriously.

 

Understood, point well taken!

 

I think pre-9/11, it probably wouldn't have been. Today, I'm not sure. I, personally, don't think Raiders is disrespectful. As was previously mentioned, I found The Mummy far worse in perpetuating rascist stereotypes and nobody's ever protested against that.

As a side note, many Hindus objected to the portrayal of Indians in TOD.

 

"If you want to talk about a swashbuckling throwback film that was possibly racist watch The Mummy. Everytime an arab character walked onto the screen someone commented on the smell. That's racist. Shooting a sword wielding villian that just happens to be arab is not racist."

It was just one character, not every Arab.

I think the news should've been censored during 9/11, it made Arabs look bad... Wait, not Arabs. What were they? Ahh, who cares! To me it's bad guys and it will always be bad guys.

If there's more Arab good guys than bad guys or more Arab bad guys than good guys in a movie I could care less. It's not like everytime you go to a country that there's a small chance that there'll be any buttheaded people there. Buttheads are everywhere.

 

In the Mummy, every American with the exception of the main character was a greedy oportunist too so given that, the question is that should movies only make white guys bad guys?

 

Well they already do!!! Just take Star Wars, mopst of the bad guys are white and British ;-). In a good deal of the movies, white gyus are usually the most evil. Sure they might have their ethnic minions (hispanic, black, arabs, etc.) but quite a few times the top bad guy, the greedy or evil one is a white guy bent on riches or world domination. So as far as that whites are portrayed as bad too. The problem is that it doesn't work the other way most times, you don't see too many non-white heroes, as there are also plenty of non-white top bad guys too.

It just depends on context. Does the movie was really unfair or exploitative or not. If it wasn't I don't mind if much of the movie falls into the stereotypical Hollywood stuff. Of course we all have different thresholds.

 

BOO! HIISSS!! BAH! BS ! DOWN WITH PC! If you don't agree with something, or are offended, or don't like it, DON'T WATCH IT!!


















*DUH*














You'd think the PC people would realize that wouln'd you?

 

Upping to free thread from the autolocker



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

i dont think it would be disrespectful to the arabs in this day and age..but im sure some people might offended because there is always somebody who is soo easily offended and try to ruin the movie for everybody else..