The Idea of Orientalism Portrayed in James Cameron's Avatar

Many Indians in the early 19 century where looked as less or lower than the white man mainly because of the concepts of Indian in the early century stating" This concept of a separate Indian/white culture, or a "racial pluralism," was central to the films of American movie pioneer, David Wark (D. W.) Griffith. Angela Aleiss. Making the White Man's Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies (Kindle Locations 161-162). Kindle Edition. " Author Angela Alesis in Making the White Man's Indian uses refences, clear writing style, and great author agenda in supporting her topic on how the early 19th century through today did not correctly model what an Indian represented.

Pocahontas is a Walt Disney Pictures animation released in 1995 following the Disney Princess franchise. The movie is about Pocahontas, a native American lady whose home is invaded by Englishmen who wishes to exploit the land’s resources and to “civilize” the people living there. However, one of the Englishmen, John Smith, fell in love with Pocahontas. This essay studies the stereotypes of native American and them being essentialized in the media as being savages, sexism and also over romanticization, as represented in the movie.

Literary Analysis of Aladdin Disney’s Aladdin is a film that attempts to stereotype and westernize Arab culture. Using racially inaccurate stereotypes, an inaccurate depiction of The Middle East, as well as countless cultural generalizations, Aladdin creates a setting of “exotic orientalism” and Islamaphobia. “[Aladdin depicts…] the Arab world as backwards and irrational, the film’s distorted ethnic representations fuel the western world’s fear of alternity and perpetuates dangerous stereotypes.” (Heydt).

The effectiveness of media in perpetuating and maintaining racial definitions is apparent through the consistent presence of such ideas in popular films such as Disney’s Pocahontas (1995) and James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). Despite over a decade difference in release, there are similarities between the two in terms of the racial labels applied to Native Americans as a race and how they are portrayed as a result. The producers behind Pocahontas claimed that the film is much more than a love story and is about maintaining an open mind in order to appreciate different cultures. By creating an animated picture about a

In 1899, the term “white man’s burden” was coined by Rudyard Kipling to depict the social responsibility that white men believed they had towards blacks. Although the term is out of date, the meaning behind it has not left society, as the “white messiah” has come to replace it. Although the connotation of the term is no exactly the same, the basic meaning behind “white messiah” is that a white male protagonist will save a desperate group of people from the evils that superior, white society has placed on them. The “white messiah” figure can be seen in the film, “Avatar”, directed by James Cameron. Even though Avatar deviates from the typical “white messiah” formula occasionally, according to Mitu Sengupta in her article, “Race Relations Light Years From Earth,” one can conclude that the entertainment industry is still perpetuating racial inequalities and racism. By analyzing “Avatar” and the concept of the “white messiah”, one can argue racism still exists in the American society and whites feel guilty about the racial inequalities. Even though they have this guilt, whites will not change if it means that they must give up their “white privilege.”

The animated classical Disney movie Aladdin has became one of the most successful movies since it was released in 1992. This movie may seem to be fairy-tale based and entertaining for children since they are the main target audience of Disney, but with a deeper look into its details this is not the reality of it. The ideas that children are exposed to from watching this movie help create and structure their mindsets as well as reinforcing unrealistic images of the Arabian world. In addition, Aladdin is a great illustrative tool in reflecting the concept of Orientalism, a term coined by Edward Said, which emphasizes on representing the Orient with certain clichés and characteristics that are misleading about the true nature of reality (Said, 1978). With that been said, this review paper will be focusing on the main characters and the way they are

Disney’s Aladdin is a fit example of misrepresentation of diverse cultures from a Westernized perspective. Disney is famous for lending representations of world from a Western viewpoint. According to Edward Said, orientalism is a way of expressing Arab peoples and Islamic cultures as compared to Western or European society (Palestine Diary). Said’s explains orientalism is the framework that we use to

Avatar is still a white-man-saves-the-day film and it is occasionally guilty of some same style of stereotyping that it tries to rally against. It depicts the Na’vi as noble savages and portrays the military as ruthless and single-minded group hell bent on genocide. Much like the Na'vi are ever-noble, almost all of the ex-military guns-for-hire are depicted as wholly evil. It hurts the film that the good/bad is so black-and-white.

The chosen item is in the 1992 Disney film, Aladdin. After watching the movie, there are many disturbing stereotypes of Middle Eastern people. I wanted to choose this film because I was disturbed how Disney was portraying middle eastern people and their culture to children. I do want to criticize Disney for depicting the Middle Eastern culture and people with some stereotypes, and this essay will inform readers why Disney’s depiction was false. There will be many mentions and detail analysis of what Disney has done to make the film stereotypical.

Christopher Columbus, Jacques Cartier and Henry Hudson, all famous European explorers and settlers who helped establish colonization in Canada. Without the Colonial Era one would think Canada would not exist but in fact Canada did exist and was inhabited by native nations. So at what cost does colonization have? Just the mere destruction of a prosperous indigenous population. The famous Canadian director James Cameron and his talented team, set out to bring their perspective on the sensitive social issue of colonialism using the movie Avatar as the focal point. Avatar presents a painfully accurate take on how and why colonialism occurs, in conjunction with the impacts on aboriginal societies. Colonization results in the exploitation and extermination of indigenous communities which are brought to light by the producer’s of the movie Avatar over several audience outreach methods, including a dvd cover, posters and a trailer.

I want to research whether portrayals of Orientalism in the media are used to retroactively justify decisions such as imperialism or the Vietnam War. I chose this topic because I found Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism very thought-provoking and wondered if it can apply to contemporary society. In addition to that, I have not seen a lot of contemporary analysis on Orientalism of Southeast Asia. My initial inspiration was when I watched the film No Escape, which seemed blatantly racist and problematic. I narrowed and refined my topic by further researching the concepts of Orientalism and otherness, and considered how they could be applied to this film. Sources that have been key in defining my research topic include scholar articles on Orientalism

In the 21st century, movies present a platform for ideas and themes to be conveyed through a screen. Themes of change, environmental crisis, love, and death are all only a few of the most common themes that circulate through the Hollywood film industry. According to Annalee Newitz in her essay “When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like Avatar?”, a recurring theme she’s noticed is the theme of white guilt. In her essay, Newitz depicts the movie Avatar as nothing more than a colorful rehash of this (apparently) common white guilt scenario. This is where the main white protagonist leaves the oppressive (white) side to join the oppressed native side upon seeing the error of his ways. Some Americans, including Newitz, believe that movies

Throughout the movie, The Notebook, there were many different aspects that corresponded with the material learned throughout the semester. There were times were you were able to pin point why each problem was faced based on different character backgrounds. As began to watch the movie, you start to understand the culture aspects of each individual by the way they talk and present themselves, which caused many situations to arise. Also, these many situations arise throughout the movie that affected the outcome of decisions made: biological, psychological, and social/environment. However, diversity played a magnificent role from the beginning to the end. So, therefore, throughout this paper you will have a better understanding of the analysis of this film, which should provide information about the movie.

The misrepresentation of minorities is frequent in Hollywood films and Arabs are one of the many minority groups Hollywood misrepresent. Arabs are portrayed negatively in films for long time even before 9/11. The Arabs characters are portrayed with always having accent, wearing traditional attire, untrustworthy, aggressive and almost always associated with terrorism. The continuously falsification could lead to stereotypes, misjudgment, and damage to Arabic culture.

Each country has a different culture. That culture will thrive on any of its citizens and in use in their daily life. Sometimes, about the culture of the country also appears in the story of a movie. One of them is the last Samurai movie. It published in 2003. This movie is about an American epic historical war film. Nathan Algren as the main character portrays a formerly retired officer of the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment, who is personal and emotional conflicts bring him into contact with samurai warriors in the wake of the Meiji Restoration in 19th Century Japan. So, this essay will discuss about the analysis of the Last Samurai using a theory. Because in this film moot about the two cultures, which are Japan and the United States. Then the analysis of the film is going to use an attribute theory of Hybridity in multiculturalism. Hybridity is a theory from Homi. K. Bhabha. Here is the analysis about the Last Samurai movie, according to the Hybridity theory.