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WW84 is that type of white feminist movie where a white man from Jim Crow-era segregation is the best man humanity has ever known but the Arab men are fanatic bigots desiring a border wall and Latino men are wife beaters & megalomonics. I’m stunned at how racist it was.
The movie was weirdly obsessed with Arabs and Muslims. Probably worse than Iron Man 1. That was a uh... bold choice.
For reference https://twitter.com/thejoshl/status/1342680937847533568
Wait I also forgot they put this terrible loc-wig on an Indian actor and said he was a descendent of Mayans loooool. This movie was an 80 movies in the most 80 ways possible : terrible stereotyping and casting
(Hilariously the movie was co-written by Geoff Johns, an Arab American)
If it helps, the movie also was bad and tonally all over the place
Btw, I like Chris pine and his character (esp in the first one) but the contrast just made my head spin
Also just in case it’s not clear - there’s this specific trope in white liberal literature of the need for white folks to save muslim women and children from the inherent violence or patriarchy of muslim men. Covered in the work of Dr. Evelyn Alsultani and the book Reel Bad Arabs
I’m not commenting on the rest of the writing of the movie, just specifically the way race/racist tropes were deployed with regards to the men of color in the film. I had other issues with the movie but I think the racial tropes had ZERO need to be in the film.
Other scenes worth noting that invoke bad tropes:
1. A random cut to a man in mujahideen-looking garb making a heartfelt wish for nuclear weapons
2. A bunch of Arab men almost run over some Arab kids playing soccer so WW uses a missile to save them
3. A Greedy oil rich Arab emir
1. A random cut to a man in mujahideen-looking garb making a heartfelt wish for nuclear weapons
2. A bunch of Arab men almost run over some Arab kids playing soccer so WW uses a missile to save them
3. A Greedy oil rich Arab emir
Btw, if this is something you want to hear more about this, I spoke to a scholar on representations of Arabs and Muslims about Jack Ryan and terrorism on TV for my podcast, @seesomething https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/see-something-say-something/id1169261799?i=1000457954042
