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Sadia Mohiuddin
History 271
Dr. Isom-Verhareen
April 23, 2014
Orientalism in Film
Since the attacks of September 11th 2001, the relationship between America with the
Middle East completely changed, for the worst. Before the attacks, the Middle East was seen to
be a mysterious and tourist area where people would go to enjoy exotic sands of the East. The
after math of the attacks caused America to distrust the Middle East. Orientalism in the Middle
East has increased in the last 20 years. According to Edward Said, Wilson’s Fourteen Points,
Matthew Bernstein, and The Grass reading by Cooper, gives us a close analyzation of the how
the Middle East is portrayed by the West. “Orientalism is a way of seeing that imagines,
emphasizes, exaggerates and distorts differences of Arab peoples and cultures as compared to
that of Europe and the United States”. It involves seeing the Arab culture as being exotic,
backward, uncivilized, and even dangerous at times. Through-out the different readings, the
word Orientalism is given many different definitions. However, the main points remain the
same.
Matthew Bernstein, Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film, gives different examples of
how Orientalism plays a central role on the production of film. “Orientalism describes a strand of
colonialist discourse in the ideological arsenal of Western nations- most notable Great Britain,
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France, and the United States- for representing the colonies and cultures of North Africa and the
Middle East”.1 In this quote Bernstein describes his perspective on Orientalism.
He supports his statement by saying, orientalism is a way of perceiving these areas that
has been supported, justified, and reinforced by the West’s colonialist and imperialist ventures.2
In other words “Orientalism is a distinctive means of representing race, nationality, and
otherness.3” In terms of defining Orientalism, Said uses the terms such as: discourse, to refer to
a body of texts that can construct social realities as individuals experience them, and
“imaginative geography”, a social construct that coincides in many ways with the colonialist
ideologies that prevailed in the 1800’s, the peak of the British and French Empires4. Also, he
makes a clear distinction from colonialist discourse and Orientalism, since colonialist discourse
in part but its initial focus on North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean and more significantly
by its basis in the historical threat that Islamic culture represented to Western Europe.5 He
supports his statement by going into depth about the Ottoman Empire and the Western’s view.
Edward Said outlook on Orientalism is a conical text of cultural studies in which he has
challenged the concept of orientalism or the difference between East and west, as he puts it.6 He
1
Bernstein, Matthew, and Gaylyn Studlar. Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1997.
2
Bernstein, Matthew, and Gaylyn Studlar. Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1997.
3
Bernstein, Matthew, and Gaylyn Studlar. Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1997.
4
Bernstein, Matthew, and Gaylyn Studlar. Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1997.
5
Bernstein, Matthew, and Gaylyn Studlar. Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1997.
6
Kerr, Malcolm. "An Introduction to Edward Said’s Orientalism." An Introduction to Edward Said’s
Orientalism. Accessed April 22, 2014. http://www.renaissance.com.pk/FebBoRe2y6.htm.
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stated that that with the beginning of the European colonization the Europeans came in contact
with the lesser developed countries of the East. They found their civilization and culture very
exotic, and established the science of orientalism, which was the study of the Orientals or the
people from this “exotic” civilization.7
Said’s argument was that the Europeans divided the world into two parts, which was the
“Orient” and the “Occident”, or the civilized and the uncivilized. The term orientalism was used
for the European to express themselves. The Europeans defined themselves as being the superior
race when associated to the Orientals; therefore they justified colonization by this notion. One of
the biggest problems ascended when the Europeans began to oversimplify the attributes they
associated with Orientals, and started representing these artificial characteristics associated with
Orientals in their western world through their scientific reports, literary work, and other media
sources.8
Once you start viewing another culture as the “other”, you make it easier for the
government to dominate that culture. Politicians often view other cultures in an oriental fashion,
because this would make it easier for them to economically and socially dominate over the
current people. Wilson’s Fourteen Points circumvents orientalism in that he provides a new
ideology that includes all nations rather than viewing some countries as “others” he views all of
humanity as one.
Kerr, Malcolm. "An Introduction to Edward Said’s Orientalism." An Introduction to Edward Said’s
Orientalism. Accessed April 22, 2014. http://www.renaissance.com.pk/FebBoRe2y6.htm.
8
Kerr, Malcolm. "An Introduction to Edward Said’s Orientalism." An Introduction to Edward Said’s
Orientalism. Accessed April 22, 2014. http://www.renaissance.com.pk/FebBoRe2y6.htm.
7
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Cromer supports Said’s statement that European’s when talking about the Orient were
consequently racist. In that Cromer uses imperialistic jargon to illustrate the Middle East as the
other. Cromer’s language is increasingly racist an example of which is when he describes the
Harem with diction that does not correctly portray what a Harem actually is.
Said’s statement on 207, rings true when Cromer in describing the Egyptian government,
makes it seem that the government is incapable of taking care of itself, therefore the British need
to come in and help the Egyptians govern their own selves. This shows that the colonial powers
view the Middle East, not as citizens or people, but as problems that need solving.
The British and France saw the Orient as masses of land instead of people. They agreed
on policies that would enable them to divined and conquer the land. Wilson’s ideas were
irritating to them because Wilson held the ideology that humanity needs to be preserved and we
need to unify rather than be divided. Wilson believed that the Middle East should govern the
Middle East, whereas France and Britain felt like the Middle East should be divided up amongst
and governed as mandates.
The European felt as if it was their duty toward humanity to bring civilization to the
uncivilized world. So they developed relations with the “Orient” portraying artificial
characteristics in efforts to understand and learn the culture. These characteristics that they
associated with the “orient” translated into orientalism when it came to fruition in the West.
The readings by Cooper on Grass go hand in hand with the 1925 film, Grass: A Nation’s
Battle for Life. The reading turns its attention to the incessant struggle between the “Baktyari
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and Nature for Grass”9. The film is based on the written journal of Merian C. Cooper, Ernest
Schoedsack, and Marguerite Harrison, of their journey from Angora to the land of the Bakhtiari
people. The silent film captured an indigenous tribe as they migrate to better land in the
changing seasons.
The film focuses on the journey of the Bakhtiari Tribe and their hardships while
migrating over the Karun River and mountains. The film portrayed a culture of the past; they
focused on the very beginning rather than the present. The film presents its audience with a
documentary that gives a name to the “forgotten people”. Cooper used the spelling “Baktyari”
rather than the correct form “Bakhtiari”, to simplify the reader’s task and make the pronunciation
easier to the average English speaking person. I found it interesting to do that, in a sense; it
shows you how Western influence is portrayed. The main purpose of the film and journal was to
show us how the nomadic people lived. The film shows the tribe migrating to find better grass
because the grass dried up due to the season change. Without fresh rich grass their animals will
die and since they depend on their animals for shelter and food of the race, life itself will die.
The film makers of this documentary were influential to convince people on how the Bakhtiyari
tribe lived freely off the land.
The film Peoples of the Wind was similar to the Grass film, both showed the nomadic
tribes traveling to better land to live better. The tribe migrates together regardless of neighboring
conflicts. The movie shows how disputes amongst neighbors can sometimes lead to death in
9
Cooper, Merian C., Ernest B. Schoedsack, and Merian C. Cooper. Grass. New York: G.P. Putnam's
Sons, 1925.
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severe case. Producer, David Koff and director, Anthony Howarth , both influence the viewers
of the film to adopt their perspective by illustrating the hardship and struggle the Bakhtiyari
overcame without complaining to live a better life. However, People of the Wind were created
fifty years after Grass still portrayed the same main points. Both film showed how difficult it
was for the Bakhtiyari tribe to cross the river, and how innovative they were to create sheep skin
floats to get the animals and people across.
The tribe faced difficulty during the industrial age to keep everyone in their tribe; it
became harder to teach children traditions. So some tribes decided to seek education while the
others moved to find jobs to support their families. The traditional way of living off the land
slowly started fading into living off machinery and living in houses rather than in tents.
The film I choose to analyze is Aladdin, a fictional Disney movie that came out in 1992,
about a Middle Eastern royal princess falling in love with a street thief with no class. Rewatching Aladdin as an adult was completely different as a child, the little details were
overlooked. The movie begins with a “big nosed, middle eastern dressed” merchant who is
swaying you to buy his products, one of them being a hookah. The merchant starts singing
“Arabian Nights”. The song itself gives the description that the Middle East is filled with people
that are barbaric, extremist, and uncivilized. The lyrics from “Arabian Nights”, gives the
audience a skewed depiction of how the West sees the Middle East.
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“Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home
Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where they cut off your ear
If they don't like your face
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home”10
Just the first few minutes of Aladdin influences the audience to believe that the Middle
Eastern man is conniving and cannot be trusted. As far as appearance, most characters that were
depicted as being Middle Eastern had stereotypical features such as the typical “big nose, dark
skin complexion, and scruffy beards”. Aladdin’s features differed from this stereotypical Middle
Eastern person; his skin complexion was lighter, angular nose, soft features, and no accent which
depict the typical western person rather than a Middle Eastern. The same goes for Jasmine, she
resembles a Westerner than she does a Middle-Eastern other than her long black hair. However,
her father and Jaffar both represent your stereotypical Arab man.
Jaffar has a long beard, a turban, and a heavy Middle Eastern accent. Jasmine’s father
also has an accent, turban, and white beard. One of most evil characters in the film is Jaffar, a
manipulative, power hungry and evil man. Jaffar tries to convince Jasmine’s dad to get her
married to him since he is a royalty. Jasmine’s father agrees to get her an arranged marriage to
10
"ALADDIN - Arabian Nights Lyrics." ALADDIN - Arabian Nights Lyrics. Accessed April 22, 2014.
http://www.lyrics007.com/Aladdin%2520Lyrics/Arabian%2520Nights%2520Lyrics.html.
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Jaffar but Princess Jasmine refuses. This scene orientalizes the cultures of the Middle East and
their traditions of arranged marriages.
The other characters in the film, such as the guards are also represented negatively with
their missing teeth, scruffy beards, long swords, and turbans. The guards were seen as the
dummies that could not follow orders correctly. In one scene Princess Jasmine sneaks out and
goes to the market for the first time, not knowing she has to pay for fruit, she grabs an apple to
give to a poor child. A few moments later the owner of the shop witnesses her stealing the apple
and grabs her arm, and takes out his sword then gets ready to cut her hand off. Aladdin tricks the
“dumb” shop owner and saves Jasmine’s life. The film directors and producers; Ron Clements
and John Musker, won many awards along with earning the most successful film of 1992,
earning over $217 million in the United States and over $504 million worldwide.11
The film also gained a lot of controversy, especially from the American-Arab AntiDiscrimination Committee.12 The ADC ultimately made the producers change the lyrics of the
Arabian Nights from, “where they cut off your ear, if they don’t like your face”, to “Where it’s
flat and immense, and the heat is intense”13.
Aladdin orientalizes the image of the land being savage by showing the audience what
they do to people who steal in the Middle East. The clothing of Jasmine goes against the cultural
11
"Aladdin." IMDb. Accessed April 23, 2014. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103639/.
"Arab Stereotypes and American Educators." - American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee ‫ال لج نة‬
‫ال تم ي يز ل م كاف حة ال عرب ية األم ري ك ية‬. Accessed April 22, 2014. http://www.adc.org/education/arabstereotypes-and-american-educators/.
13
"Disney Changed the Words to the Song ‘Arabian Nights’." PaulHobsoncom RSS. Accessed April 22,
2014. http://www.paulhobson.com/wordpress/2010/04/disney-changed-the-words-to-the-song-arabiannights/.
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and religious belief of the people in the Middle East. Woman are to be dressed modestly at all
times, unlike Jasmine that’s showing her shoulders, midriff, and body through her tightly fitted
outfit. In 1992, the year the film was released, “there were 79 international terrorist incidents in
the Middle East during 1992, the same number of incidents that occurred the previous year”14.
The issue of global terrorism was becoming more of an issue around the Aladdin movie.
It surprised me that a Disney movie would discriminate against the Middle East through a
children’s movie. I caught myself re-watching parts of the movie to catch if I had over-looked
any scenes. Box office films such as Aladdin imprint negative connotations of Arabs and the
Middle East to its audience. While analyzing the film, Aladdin was seen as the rescuer or in
other words hero of Princess Jasmine and arch nemeses of Jaffar. Some argue that Aladdin
represented the West and Jaffar represented the Middle East.
While reading other analysis of orientalism and the movie Aladdin, I came across many
different points of view. Some analyses were irrational while some made you think completely
out of the box and want to re-watch the film.
Orientalism is expressed by Said and Bernstein and exemplified in the films such as;
People of the wind, Grass, and Aladdin. The time period in each movie influence what the
director wants the audience to believe on the Middle East. The directors of the films are not of
the Middle Eastern decent, so the Western influence is still prominent in Aladdin, People of the
14
"1992 Global Terrorism: Middle East Overview." 1992 Global Terrorism: Middle East Overview.
Accessed April 23, 2014. http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror_92/mideast.html.
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Wind, and Grass. Each film gave me different historical context and influences on the Middle
East.
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