Funny thing is ,I'm Lebanese and I have never seen anything that Hollywood likes to pretend we are 😭 😭 we don't have camels, deserts OR the "bustling markets of Arabia "😂
@@perpisdich3386yeah I’m pretty sure they’re basing off of other middle eastern countries besides Lebanon, though. This is not to say that what they’re writing isn’t romanticized, just that what they are portraying might be slightly true if they’re basing it off of surrounding regions.
@@pinacoladaofficial oh yeah, and then there's a random half buried skeleton of a farm animal, like a cow, in the sand, with only the skull and ribs sticking out
“Wow we’ve never seen a foreigner here in this sprawling city that’s still suffering from the devastating effects of European colonialism, centuries on.”
There’s tons of fruit and vegetables there, all very fresh despite being surrounded by miles of empty desert, and shipments of such produce amounts and variety costing more than a poor village could afford if they collectively saved for months on end.
And when the protagonist is trying to hide from hired thugs/assassins/secret agents who are still wearing crisp business suits in the middle of a marketplace, he steals a random cloak either off off somebody's back or from one of the market stalls and he slips silently into the crowd before anyone can call him out
He gets kidnapped in Act 3 until the hot, light brunette badass trades her own life for his. Next, MC finds out the boy is the nephew of the foreign merchant/computer wizard, even though merchant/comp wizard and the kid have no scenes together. Then, the kid sneaks MC past the guards (and MC straight up kills them all one after another), and he faces off the villain and saves her and all three escape as a pseudo-nuclear family.
The damndest thing about that is that unironically happened to my family when we lived in Xinjiang. Traveled through a village and they were like "holy shit, you're foreign, hang on, we got this we'll fix you right up". Roast lamb, the village dance gang, the whole deal. It sounds super cringe and made-up but that's just one of those weird things that actually happened and we weren't even rich or anything. I think my parents insisted on paying for everything they could but the whole dinner was something that was happening _to_ us whether we liked it or not
@@MrGriefCreep you're right, I meant that the pyramids are more accessible than the desert further west. I mean, if you look at google maps, theres like restaurants, roads and golf courses near the pyramids
as an egyptian myself i can confirm. i’ve rarely been to a desert in egypt. even during road trips where it seems “deserted” it’s usually farm lands and trees lol
I love the fact the protagonists always get lost on the way to the pyramids when in real life they are literally right next to the city of Cairo. You have to photograph them from a specific angle to NOT get the city just over there in the picture
@@danolantern6030 return the stone... return the stone... return the stone... return the stone... return the stone... return the stone... return the stone... return the stone...
Sometimes it isn't necessarily stereotypical. But the clothes are traditional clothes from an Arab country and the king dons it so the movie producers will show how "exotic" or "different" he is.
@@Lv-nq9qz "Ah I see, you are my American friends! Come Come, let us-as the English say-party!" Led off by some belly dancers and guards with no shirts. 😂😂😂😂
@@mrlofi333because you're a Hollywood producer and have not even a tenuous grasp on reality? Im old enough to remember when Chris Tucker pretending Jackie Chan was harder to understand than he is was peak Hollywood comedy
You forgot the 2008 color scheme where they somehow make everything yellow-ish brown. Also only ever showing the desert despite the rich geography of the region.
so true. Like the middle east and many countries there also has woods and snow on ice -capped mountains and green pastures, fertile valleys with rivers . It's like going to America and only showing the desert part lol. Although the middle east does have alot of desert like Sahara desert or the Empty Quarter desert in Arabian peninsula it's not all like that. They make it look like everywhere is dusty and sand everywhere you go ,every place you go dirt poor too like slum or ghetto or run down village. Ive been to the middle-east so I know from experience the reality. I've visited a few countries. Memories I'll cherish for life. I'll be forever restless because of it. Met and made friends with different beautiful people , beautiful inside and out. Most people are happy and content wether they are wealthy or not. I'm not Arabs (I also know that the middle east is made up of different ethnicities not all same race or Arab) either. Another thing I've found is Arabs are good looking. I know from personal experience. But you only ever see in 99% of movies from Hollywood or American shows the kinda unattractive, like as if theyre deliberately made them look like bad scary guys or unkempt and unhygienic. While there are places/people like that over there,same can be found everywhere ,places/people like that. It's like visiting a big city and only showing a bad run down neighbourhood. There's good and bad everywhere you go. They just make it seem it's everywhere and nearly everybody like that. The middle east (most of it) is truly blessed with natural wild beauty,very rich in history and culture, and the food amazing.
Plot set in: "Iraq" Filmed in: Iran People: Random noises in no language at all White people main characters: "Arabicanese is such a beautiful language, I studied it in university"
@@cam4636As an Iraqi, we do share alot of cultural similarities with Iran, (and the rest of the Arabic countries obviously) But the languages are completely different. I discovered that there are a couple of villages in Iran that speak Arabic and an in Iraqi dialect...I was like why is their Iraqi dialect a little weird, are they Kurds (which you would expect the majority of Kurdistan knows Arabic) but it turns out some of them can speak our dialect. but you can spot them cause it's not perfect 😅
Random children pickpocketing the protagonists, leading them to a chase which reveals the villain and show what's behind all that shit that happens there.
@@danilodesouza6461the child stumbled upon a group of street gangsters and now he's in trouble, the protagonist was about to help but then some random girl swoop in to save the kid and now she's unlockable as love interest.
Sometimes there’s just a perfect storm of internet magic that grants us all the ability to watch a bunch of strangers dunk on the tropes of hollywood orientalism together
@@unknown-fq9swThere’s a good video by an Iranian dude about orientalism in music, understandably he’s annoyed at how there’s no effort done to represent the various cultures orientalism is done to properly and instead just some stupid mismatched bunch of instruments that sound “eastern” to western ears Farya Faraji is the channel. I can’t link the video itself or I will get smote.
@@unknown-fq9sw I believe the channel they're talking about is called Farya Faraji, it's a more recent video so you'll be able to find it. It's called 'Orientalism: Desert Level Music vs Actual Middle-Eastern Music'. It's pretty good. RU-vid will delete links so I can't put it here.
@@unknown-fq9sw If my earlier comment got deleted: It’s the video “Orientalism: Desert Level Music vs Actual Middle-Eastern Music” by the channel Farya Faraji.
Middle East, India, North Africa (typically Egypt), Arabia and even Turkey, lmao. Hollywood can’t seem to rid themselves of the Orientalist perspective.
Western portrayals of Turkey have to be the stupidest ones of all. It's a very Europeanised country, probably the most Europeanised of all Muslim majority countries, and in movies it makes it look like it's underdeveloped.
@@destructionandcreation Depends where in India. If it's the Northern Himalayan regions, India resembles switzerland more. But if it's the Western desert region, then I can see why India is mistaken for Arabia. Camels and sand etc.
And then the seller catches one of them while the others escape but then mc steps in and stands up for the kid which displays how much of a good person he is
@@a_rtyom and then child offers mc to rest a night in their already overcrowded home as a gesture of gratitude. MC learns from child's heavily pregnant mother/elderly grandparent that things used to better around here, but the newest warlord leeches money and resources off the poor folk and imprisons all the capable men, and this is why child was forced into petty thievery.
@@tameriz1280 and then MC offers to help and in the process discovers that said warlord was actually the enemy he's been looking for. So MC, Arab guy who welcomed him, kid, and comic relief character set off to find him. During the journey MC notices some masked bandit-like figure appearing at times- which could either be an ally or a foe.
you forgot the one guy in the bazzar selling plates and shouting to the tourists how they are "genuine" and "handcrafted by local artisans" in perfect english edit: I was really focusing more on the fact that they always seem to be selling plates or cutlery or glass or just, something that would be heavy or breakable that you would worry about putting in your suitcase and flying home. The english thing is everywhere, how many movies set in ancient Rome have people with british accents in it?
To be fair, the English thing is usually done for most foreign countries in movies, not just the Middle East. It’s usually easier than having to work around a language barrier. It is (typically) a suspension of disbelief thing, rather than a nonsensical stereotype.
Unrealistic, they forgot the shot of some kind of military aircraft (usually a helicopter or Osprey) flying over expanses of desert & ruined buildings.
That scene happened ten minutes into Act 1. We're now twenty minutes into Act 1, where the protagonist has escaped the dinner at the mansion and passed out in the desert.
Dont forget that for no apparent reason, there is always a crowded market with a shady merchants offering shady thing and sometimes that shady thing they sold is always an ancient artifact with super magical properties, straight up a cursed item, or a map that lead to somewhere hidden and then later it becoming a key and you are somehow the choosen one on prophecy who can use it to open a secret, or just straight up scamming you with junk that will absolutely do nothing for the entirety of the story or a junk thay accidentally become useful in unexpected situations.
I'd like to see one of these movies add in a realistic scammer. One that slaps a bracelet on your hand and goes "IS FOR FREE! FREE! VERY CHEAP! PAY ME NOW! PAY ME NOW!" and banks entirely on the tourist getting overwhelmed and panic paying them. Shit sounds fake but it actually happens.
Also: When the ancient, sacred, magical scrolls are revealed accidentally by a small cave in,during a random hike across the dune covered desert, Midday...🤭
The protagonist trips, realizes an ancient tablet is poking out the ground near where he fell; first human eyes to spot it in 2,500 years or so. He begins gently digging around it, revealing more text to the audience, which is duly translated in the next scene by a beautiful young archaeologist/language expert.
One of the saddest things is its always the same generic music when there are really cool middle eastern music traditions that have huge variety to them.
@@rulasmania not really, I'm not an expert so I don't know song names however there are many insane musicians you can look up. I really reccomend Oud music. It's a beautiful instrument
Don't forget the shot of the sun that glares the camera, the sound of some desert bird, the empty water bottle that a character tries to drink from, and the character saying "we're lost/doomed/gonna die here" because they are stranded.
And she starts flirting with the protagonist and has flowing curly brown hair. And apparently good at making poison. And at times, not free because she owes her 'pimp'. And the protagonist saves her eventually.
Half of Asia is double harmonic, half of Asia is major pentatonic. Simple geography. Then, I'm _pretty sure_ Morocco is a city in Iraq so same thing, all of North Africa gets it too.
@@player17wastakenmorocco is its own country on the northwest coast of africa If it happens to be the name of a city there too then I wouldn't know lmao
Also; İstanbul in Hollywood: Putting "yellow filter" effect on İstanbul to show it like a Middle East desert city, putting extra focus on mosques (as if they're the only thing we have), showing bellydancing women and Middle Eastern type bars (*cough, The Veil), showing broke neigbourhoods and trash-collecting folks İstanbul irl: Europanized in every conceivable way, mostly full of concrete and greens, skyscrapers every 5 meter, old trams, Taksim square, an incredible nightlife, many nightclubs and gay bars, and beaches and SEA
@@lucindayumikane8567 Same. Even though initially I hadn't been raised in turkiye(I spent most of my childhood in europe), I was originally from turkiye and born in Istanbul. And when I returned back to my homeland at an older age, I quickly noticed that cats were absolutely EVERYWHERE. From the public street parks to inside the little grocery shops, from the metro stations to even mosques! And as a cat person it became one of my favourite aspects about this cozy city! ^_^
You forgot the random kid who'll steal the protagonist's wallet and will be caught by some people who'll plan to beat him up but then the protagonist will arrive to stop them.
@@jgmr645 Genshin Impact's Sumeru soundtrack utilizes traditional instruments from the Arabian peninsula and several South Asian instruments. The composer uses the traditional music notation in the songs. It's my favorite Genshin soundtrack, and I can't recommend it enough.
This is genius. Can't wait to see the full movie. Staring Alex Siddig as Arab guy, Kevin Hart as Black guy, and Benedict Cumberbatch as inappropriately casted Arab assassin/ally guy but we all ignore he's not the right ethnicity because he's such a good actor.
The local lady who joins the protag(s) is the only one wearing “modern” clothing starts randomly going up to stands in a bazaar and finds “the one who knows whom we are looking for” Or it’s some well off blonde dude in tacky sunglasses but trying to be cool
I like how each gif repeats when a new one is added, it reminds me of 12 days of Christmas Also the way they are each twice the size of the previous one, if they were organized slightly differently, they could be arranged like the Golden ratio.
You forgot some random scene where the MC gets super dehydrated and sees vultures circling above them, before abruptly falling to the ground from passing out.
Then theres the kids that pickpocket the protagonist and stole the super important key item of the story and theres a huge chase scene that reveals the villain paid the kids to steal it. And after the whole confrontation, the protagonist pays the same kids to spy on the villain
