New Mideast movies focus on Muslims' points of view
Bill Muller
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
From Three Kings to Jarhead, Hollywood movies about the Middle East have mostly examined the American experience.
It makes sense, especially when you can hire such stars as George Clooney to play a rule-breaking U.S. military officer (Three Kings) and Jake Gyllenhaal to play a green Marine sniper during the Persian Gulf War (Jarhead).
Recently, however, studios are buying or making movies about the "other side" of the conflict, with stories about Muslims.
The films include Syriana, about a fictional Arab nation entangled in big-oil politics; Paradise Now, about two Palestinian suicide bombers and Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which stars Albert Brooks as a comedian assigned by the U.S. government to discover what Muslims find funny.
Along the same lines is Munich, a Steven Spielberg movie (opening Dec. 23) about the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics, during which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists.
Syriana director Stephen Gaghan, while finding nothing similar between his film and say, Paradise Now, suggests that Hollywood is responding to a cultural shift.
"The war in Iraq is not going well, the war on terror is not going well, no one feels good about it," says Gaghan, an Oscar winner for his Traffic screenplay. "People feel bad in the country. And what you have with Hollywood is . . . a giant culture out there that follows the American culture.
"Basically, Washington and LA are so similar in that America leads and we follow. I always joke that the most prescient, deep thinker in Hollywood is exactly six weeks ahead of the culture."
Gaghan spent two years traveling to research his film, which stars an ensemble cast including Clooney (as a CIA operative), Matt Damon (as a U.S. financial adviser hired by an Arab royal family), Amanda Peet (as his wife), Jeffrey Wright (as a lawyer investigating a merger) and Chris Cooper (as a crooked oil company executive).
"I went out and I met all the players . . . who were involved in exactly what is dramatized," Gaghan says.
"I didn't set out with a point of view, other than I thought that something really important was going on in the world, that I have small children and the stakes have gotten high and that I was worried, and then just tried to dramatize what my take-away was."
Though Paradise Now is a foreign film being distributed here by Warner Independent and Syriana is a Hollywood movie produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, they have one thing in common: Both attempt to explain the motivations of suicide bombers.
Paradise Now is about two Palestinian men recruited to strap bombs to their bodies and set them off in Tel Aviv. In Syriana, one of the story lines involves laid-off Pakistani workers who are courted by an extremist group and given a stolen U.S. missile to use on a suicide mission.
Gaghan says understanding the motivations of Muslims can provide keys to peace.
"It's really important that we do everything we can to try to stop just a blanket demonization," Gaghan says. "Words like evildoers, axis of evil, it cuts off communication. You start saying you're on a crusade, no one in the Middle East is going to listen to you. These are complicated times, and we've got to find a way to reach out to these people because it's going to come home."
Gaghan says most Americans have a distorted view of life in the Middle East.
"We take what literally is one one-thousandth of a percentage point of the experience of being alive in the Middle East and expand it in our news coverage to 99 percent of the coverage," he says. "So if you're sitting over here in America, why would you think anything different? All you see are these wild-eyed crazy people."
With the recent films, Hollywood is not so enlightened as just chasing another American trend.
"I just think it's a time of engagement," he says. "Because there's something real and scary going on out in the world, it forces a different type of engagement, and I think, ultimately, Hollywood swings around and says, 'Hey there's something interesting going on. We should try to tackle that.' "
But Gaghan isn't exactly optimistic about peace with the Middle East: "I don't know if you're going to get the genie back in the bottle."
Reach Muller at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (602) 444-8651.
It makes sense, especially when you can hire such stars as George Clooney to play a rule-breaking U.S. military officer (Three Kings) and Jake Gyllenhaal to play a green Marine sniper during the Persian Gulf War (Jarhead).
Recently, however, studios are buying or making movies about the "other side" of the conflict, with stories about Muslims.
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The films include Syriana, about a fictional Arab nation entangled in big-oil politics; Paradise Now, about two Palestinian suicide bombers and Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which stars Albert Brooks as a comedian assigned by the U.S. government to discover what Muslims find funny.
Along the same lines is Munich, a Steven Spielberg movie (opening Dec. 23) about the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics, during which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists.
Syriana director Stephen Gaghan, while finding nothing similar between his film and say, Paradise Now, suggests that Hollywood is responding to a cultural shift.
"The war in Iraq is not going well, the war on terror is not going well, no one feels good about it," says Gaghan, an Oscar winner for his Traffic screenplay. "People feel bad in the country. And what you have with Hollywood is . . . a giant culture out there that follows the American culture.
"Basically, Washington and LA are so similar in that America leads and we follow. I always joke that the most prescient, deep thinker in Hollywood is exactly six weeks ahead of the culture."
Gaghan spent two years traveling to research his film, which stars an ensemble cast including Clooney (as a CIA operative), Matt Damon (as a U.S. financial adviser hired by an Arab royal family), Amanda Peet (as his wife), Jeffrey Wright (as a lawyer investigating a merger) and Chris Cooper (as a crooked oil company executive).
"I went out and I met all the players . . . who were involved in exactly what is dramatized," Gaghan says.
"I didn't set out with a point of view, other than I thought that something really important was going on in the world, that I have small children and the stakes have gotten high and that I was worried, and then just tried to dramatize what my take-away was."
Though Paradise Now is a foreign film being distributed here by Warner Independent and Syriana is a Hollywood movie produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, they have one thing in common: Both attempt to explain the motivations of suicide bombers.
Paradise Now is about two Palestinian men recruited to strap bombs to their bodies and set them off in Tel Aviv. In Syriana, one of the story lines involves laid-off Pakistani workers who are courted by an extremist group and given a stolen U.S. missile to use on a suicide mission.
Gaghan says understanding the motivations of Muslims can provide keys to peace.
"It's really important that we do everything we can to try to stop just a blanket demonization," Gaghan says. "Words like evildoers, axis of evil, it cuts off communication. You start saying you're on a crusade, no one in the Middle East is going to listen to you. These are complicated times, and we've got to find a way to reach out to these people because it's going to come home."
Gaghan says most Americans have a distorted view of life in the Middle East.
"We take what literally is one one-thousandth of a percentage point of the experience of being alive in the Middle East and expand it in our news coverage to 99 percent of the coverage," he says. "So if you're sitting over here in America, why would you think anything different? All you see are these wild-eyed crazy people."
With the recent films, Hollywood is not so enlightened as just chasing another American trend.
"I just think it's a time of engagement," he says. "Because there's something real and scary going on out in the world, it forces a different type of engagement, and I think, ultimately, Hollywood swings around and says, 'Hey there's something interesting going on. We should try to tackle that.' "
But Gaghan isn't exactly optimistic about peace with the Middle East: "I don't know if you're going to get the genie back in the bottle."
Reach Muller at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (602) 444-8651.
Salaam (Peace be upon you), Andrea (Saleema)
"To God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Whether you show what is in your own selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it. Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills, for God is Able to do all things." (Qur'an 2:284).
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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