American Hero Movie

this day and age, media is as prevalent as the air we breathe. And like the air that fills our lungs, the influence and message of media silently fills our brain. Film, a type of media, is one of the carriers of these messages. Movies are a big source of entertainment. The film industry spends billions of dollars every year, and generates an even larger profit. In 2014, the U.S film industry generated a revenue of approximately 564 billion U.S dollars . 707 films were produced in the U.S in 2014. A portion of these 707 movies produced traveled into theatres, televisions, cyberspace, supermarkets, and even onto airplanes. This constant accessibility eases the ability of escaping from reality to a fantastic story. It’s a way to submerge one’s
To many Americans, this is a heart wrenching story. Kyle’s love for his country and his willingness to lay his life and mental health on the line evokes a sense of patriotism. Unfortunately, to Arab Americans and Arabs in general, this is just another story in which all Arabs are painted with the same terrorist brush. These aggressions towards Arabs perpetuates violence, racism and islamophobia in the real world; It also supports the idea of a just imperialistic takeover of Iraq. This insight on Arabs and their “morals” present a fragmented view (Saeed 2007) to the film viewers. Behind the heroism and patriotism presented, lies a prejudice, racist and harmful
It is through this stereotyping that the representation of Arabs in media often land in the dark, malicious, villainous, and terrorist column. In research done by Karin Gwinn Wilkins, as a result of the films they saw, non-Arab Americans often viewed Arabs as dirty and bad. A majority of the non-Arab American participants of the research viewed these negative stereotypical traits as realistic, justified, and inevitable (Gwinn Wilkson 2008). One participant stated “It’s just one of those things like it just, it’s put into your mind and after a while you get uneasy if somebody like implies that they’re Arab or Muslim or anything else…” This statement, while does not represent the viewpoint everyone, is fairly harmonious with the negative portrayal of Arabs and their treatment as real life