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Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Radio joined us again to talk about the  the portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood.  We talk about the documentary Reel Bad Arabs, which details much of the stereotyping of Arabs in popular movies, and also the film True Lies as an example of these trends.  We look at some of the limits in the analysis offered by Reel Bad Arabs, the military involvement in making True Lies, and the careers of the actors who played the two main Arab characters in the film – Art Malik, who seems to specialise in playing terrorists, and Grant Heslov who won an Oscar for producing Argo.

Sources:

True Lies

Reel Bad Arabs

Planet of the Arabs

DOD film list

Alex Jones tries to explain how ‘the Arabs run Hollywood’

True Lies on IMDB

Art Malik Wiki

Grant Heslov Wiki

Ben Affleck meltdown at the Oscars