Just watched it last night on some channel. It had numerous references to towel-heads, lots of Arabs with knives, etc, just generally sterotypical scenes of Arabs.
The first time I saw it, didn’t think about it. Am I bedcoming too PC?
Lol. Jewel of the Nile? Go watch Blazing Saddles and report back.
Touche. I had forgotten/haven’t seen that in an even longer while.
I think the portrayal of people of the Middle East as stereotypes is maintained, if adjusted somewhat. Certainly they’re painted as the biggest enemy, not that Communism and Nazis aren’t such a big problem anymore, and therefore will be vilified in any portrayal.
Not sure if it’s right to do so, though. My fair-minded reasoning says “Racism” but my gut says “They’re popcorn movie bad guys. Get over it.”
Only if they update it and show comical scenes of the Arabs cutting peoples heads off.
There’s a huge difference between JotN and Blazing Saddles. Blazing Saddles is aggressively anti-racist (all the rascists are portrayed as buffoons while the heroes are color-blind).
I haven’t seen Jewel since soon after it came out, but a good guy referring to Arabs as “towel-heads” in a non-ironic manner would rightly be considered offensive today.
Nothing like multiple terrorist attacks worldwide and going to war to make us sensitive about everyone’s feelings.
Jewel of the Nile was a crappy, offensive and racist movie when it came out. Hopefully nobody would have the sense to want to remake it today.
Actually, the part that always galled me most was the unrealistic portrayal of the Sufis. They could have just made up some non-existent sect for the purpose.
Hey, they exercised some sensitivity when they made that movie. Responding to a complaint from an anti-discrimination group, the changed the name of the country from “Elohtar” to “Ohtar”. What more do you want?
(“Elohtar” is “Rathole” spelled backwards.)
I liked how Danny de Vito was accepted into the order and quickly fitted in.
Besides there’s the “When the going gets rough”, even if the movie is crap, just for the song, it deserved to be made.