Blog Post-
Leo Rechetniak
Make Films not War
1)
This article on frontpagemag relays the
top ten American movies banned in the Middle-East. Its super
interesting because movies that we consider to be awesome or normal,
might be banned in Middle-Eastern countries for having questionable
content or depicting values/images contrasting to their norms.
“Cultural
advisor Javad Shamaghdari told
the
Hollywood reps exactly what Iran wanted: “We will believe Obama’s
policy of change when we see change in Hollywood too.” It's
fascinating that their perception of us and our policies are
influenced so heavily by out movies. Most interesting are some of the
reasons why these films were banned, and highlight the stark contrast
of views, values, and ideas between our culture and theirs.
One
movie, with an already notorious reputation, called Not
Without My Daughter,
and is based on the book as well as one more “Salman Rushdie's
infamously blasphemous The
Satanic Verse. It
depicts an escape of an American citizen and her daughter from Iran,
and was banned for embarrassing the mullahs and for exposing
oppression and harsh reality of life. The
Matrix Reloaded,
one of the U.S.'s most popular movies of all time, was banned in
Egypt in 2003 by a 15 member censorship committee. It was banned for
having alternative concepts of divinity and free will, as well as the
violence. Some Egyptian movie critics claimed it “promoted
Zionism”.
Alaxander,
a film depicting the life of Alexander the Great, in which Alexander
demolishes the Persian army, under rule by Darius III, and destroyed
the royal palace, ending the Persian empire. Another Persian related
movie, 300, super popular in the states and very violent, shows the
famous Spartan force killing waves of Persians, who are “depicted
as being decadent, arrogant, and imperialistic”, which
interestingly enough are “the same charges Ahmadinejad and the
mullahs” accuse the United States of. In their eyes, that movie was
released to humiliate them. They seem rather self-conscious about the
whole Persia thing, and incredibly defensive and proud of their
heritage. It reminds of paranoid people in high-school who always
thought people were talking about or laughing at them. Quite sad,
really, as 300 is an imaginative look at a historical event, and its
worth mentioning its incredibly unrealistic.
Sex
and the City 2 was banned simply because “the theme of the film
does not fit in with cultural values”. These are only a few movies
from what I imagine to be a very large list of banned movies, books,
and likely music. I believe censorship goes against a fundamental
human right, so its crazy to me, but they live in such a different
world its almost understandable. And just because the movies are
banned
“that
doesn’t mean that such movies don’t circulate underground; in
very Westernized Iran, for example, the mullahs do their best to keep
a lid on the populace’s preference for American cultural decadence,
but pirated DVDs are eagerly consumed by viewers privately. “
People will always find a way to find and watch banned content, and
they have all throughout history. Technology is making any kind of
ban on media pretty much worthless.
No comments:
Post a Comment