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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
Hidalgo |
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Caraj |
09/30/04 at 04:11:03 |
Has anyone seen the movie Hidalgo (sp?) and if so how did you feel they portrayed the Muslims in it? The modesty, hijab, customs, life, etc? |
09/30/04 at 04:11:40 |
Caraj |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Ember |
09/30/04 at 09:39:14 |
[slm] Yes, I watched it. More for the horse and Viggo Mortensen ;) I was glad that they did not make the two protogonists start any 'relationship' because that would not be halal for the muslim girl and I liked that they respected that. The hijab was not worn properly. Half her hair was shown. But I even saw this on Law & Order recently, where the "muslim" woman has all her hair open when the cops question her at home but when she comes to court she has one of those fashionable scarves tied around her which shows off the front portion of her hair ::) Sheesh. As for the way the life of the Muslims was portrayed, I have little to say. It was a movie about racing horses in the desert. Thus many of the typical alpha males present. Plus, they have little time to present the 'muslim' or more appropriately "arab" life when they concentrated on his perceverence. If not for the beautiful horses and the excellent horse that VM rode the movie itself was rather slow. |
Re: Hidalgo |
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jannah |
09/30/04 at 14:00:28 |
[wlm] I didn't see it but I saw the previews and it seemed so degrading towards Muslims and Arab culture. Like this American going to show up in the desert and beat dem backwards Ayrabs... the movie might not be about that.. but that's how they were portraying it in the commercials back then.. b/c it was around the time when the US invaded Iraq and the nationalism etc was very high. Ember that's cool that they even portrayed a muslim woman.. i hope she didn't turn out to be the murderer ;) |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Ember |
09/30/04 at 14:43:28 |
[slm] It was not intended to be degrading, I think. But it does show that when you are new at a place, yolu get picked on and people are suspicious of you. As for the muslim woman, she was portrayed as the nice one, while the western woman was the more conniving one filled with avarice. :) |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Caraj |
09/30/04 at 15:27:07 |
Jannah, you may want to talk to others who seen it or see it yourself. I found nothing degrading about it. 1) It was nice to hear Inshallah :) I like the sound of it, something about it touches my heart. It is like remembering Allah in all you do and wish OH and the true Muslim/Arab hospitality. 2) As Ember mentioned and this I found very appealing, the rescuer/actor did not fall in love with nor started a relationship with the Muslim daughter, this I found to be what would be accurate in real life. (Or one would hope so) 3) I did not see where any degrading was done and it showed 2 cultures respecting one anothers ways. 4) OH YEAH!!!!!!!!! The horses :) BTW hehe have I mentioned I I currently have a job attending to over 50 or 60 Arabian horses, and the stallions (sigh) I'll have to get some pics on the pc and send then to whoever wants to see them. I am the caretaker here and get a salary and a home on the ranch to have fun :D and the babiessssssssssss ahhhhhhhhhhhh the little ones are so wonderful to work for. And plenty of time off to sew for my business (anyway getting carried away.......Love them horses) Anyway, I was wondering who seen it and what they thought, I was impressed, but wondered how others viewed the way it was made. I was even impressed the main charactor did not even get into a relationship with the villianis (sp) No sex, cursing and weird stuff and had horses 8) MY KIND OF MOVIE ;) Oh and the Muslim woman was a nice respectable young daughter (about 16 to 20 ish) and the bad woman Ember I don't think was a Western, she was a Brit wasn't she??? Lady Davenport. |
09/30/04 at 15:32:57 |
Caraj |
Re: Hidalgo |
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jannah |
09/30/04 at 17:27:27 |
phew..... glad to hear that.. maybe if its not that bad then i'll see it ;) [wlm] |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Stephanie |
09/30/04 at 19:08:14 |
[slm] My husband is Arabic and I'm pretty familiar with the culture; of course, we're also both Muslims. I don't think there was anything intentionally degrading about it, but it's not the best. First of all the word infidel was really getting thrown around a lot. It's the typical blond hair blue eyed white guy overcoming the hateful Arabs and making them love and respect him. There were a couple things in it that made us laugh like when the "sheik" refused to shake hands with the "infidel" because then he would lose his magic fortune telling powers. I mean how unIslamic. And we REALLY got a good laugh when the daughter was crying to him about she was going to get married off to the bad guy and be his ninth wife. HAAHAAA. :o I agree that atleast there was no relationship between the daughter and him, but I didn't think her behavior was that great either. Like when she was caught alone in his tent and when she just couldn't wait to take her niqab off for him so he "could see her for what she really was." Instead of respecting these Islamic ways it showed it from a Western way and made it seem ridiculous, like the poor little Muslim girl, how could they treat her so badly? So while the movie wasn't really degrading it definitely was stereotypical. As for the Law and order episode I saw the end of that one. It actually did bring out some good points about how Americans would react if their country was being invaded and their people humiliated. BUT yes, she was the murderer: a revenge murder against a female American soldier who tortured and killed her brother at Abu Ghraib. As for the scarf thing, I've seen quite a few Muslimah's wear their scarf like that and at least she was wearing one. [wlm] :-) |
09/30/04 at 19:59:12 |
Stephanie |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Stephanie |
09/30/04 at 20:33:12 |
[slm] BTW sis Azzizah, when sis Ember says Western, I think she's referring to Europe , Australia, the Americas etc. as in the term the Western world. Not bang bang shoot em up wild wild west, west coast United States. :P :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* [wlm] Your sister in Islam :-) |
Re: Hidalgo |
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bhaloo |
09/30/04 at 21:00:27 |
[slm] I did find things in it offensive such as: 1). The fortune telling business is not part of Islam. 2). How the daughter was being forced to marry this one arab guy if he wins the race. 3). How the father was not happy that he had a daughter and how he preferred to have sons. 4). The king refused to shake hands with the cowboy because he would lose his fortune telling capabilities. ::) 5). The guy was going to be sentenced to death because he was alone with the girl and the father thought something bad had happened. 6). It showed arabs/muslims as being very mean/harsh people. Supposedly this story is based on a true story. |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Stephanie |
09/30/04 at 21:23:45 |
[slm] Actually some historians think it was all a big hoax and that this man Frank Hopkins was just a really great story teller. Also this great race through Arabia is the stuff of legends and no one can prove it ever actually took place. I was just doing a search and I dug up this satirical interview about the movie. Also, this site looks pretty cool, check out the archivesl: http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May_2004/0405066.html [wlm] :-) |
Re: Hidalgo |
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bhaloo |
09/30/04 at 23:09:40 |
[slm] Here's a list of a bunch of articles showing that that it was all a hoax and quite a few of the articles point to how the movie degrades Arabs. http://www.thelongridersguild.com/hopkins.htm |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Caraj |
10/01/04 at 00:36:40 |
[quote author=bhaloo link=board=kabob;num=1096528264;start=0#8 date=09/30/04 at 21:00:27][slm] I did find things in it offensive such as: 1). The fortune telling business is not part of Islam. 2). How the daughter was being forced to marry this one arab guy if he wins the race. 3). How the father was not happy that he had a daughter and how he preferred to have sons. 4). The king refused to shake hands with the cowboy because he would lose his fortune telling capabilities. ::) 5). The guy was going to be sentenced to death because he was alone with the girl and the father thought something bad had happened. 6). It showed arabs/muslims as being very mean/harsh people. Supposedly this story is based on a true story. [/quote] I guess it must be how one sees things, not to be arguementative with Bhaloo, but 1) and 4) toward the end he went to shake the cowboys hand and the cowboy said, What about your being able to see the future? (Not fortune telling) The shiek replied, Had I been able to tell the future I would of bet on the painted horse......Thus showing he did not have these powers. 2) and 3) This was back over 100 years ago, many things happened like this a century ago. 5) This has happened in many cultures not just Muslim cultures. 6) I did not see it as showing Arabs/Muslims as being mean or harsh, heck, many people are cautious or stay distant when a new comer arrives. I quess it is just how one looks at it. I too have heard 1) This was a hoax 2) It came from his diary Who knows, I mainly watched it cause of the horses and the race and I must admit cause of the Arab/Muslim setting. ShareIslam, okie dokie ;) I just always assumed Western refered to Americans ;D Also I hope I don't seem to be argueing Bhaloos points, I am beginning to see it is one prespective as I seen it portray Arabs as any other folks, some nice, some not so nice. If it degraded anyone it would of been the Davenports / Brits, cause it showed her as a cheating and kiniving (sp) (in race and marriage) little scuz ball. I was waiting for any Davenport decendants to say something as Davenports did Import/Export Arabian horses from the Middle East. |
10/01/04 at 00:40:44 |
Caraj |
Re: Hidalgo |
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jannah |
10/01/04 at 00:42:48 |
[wlm] azizah i think u are very educated on islam.. so u might see the movie in a different perspective than someone who knows nothing about islam, and who then watches it and starts thinking these things are part of the religion.. perhaps thats why some muslims are worried about the impression others will get.. but true those things may have happenned, theres all kindsa things that went on in the past and currently that sure aren't very 'islamic'... |
Re: Hidalgo |
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workingmuslimah |
10/05/04 at 09:16:13 |
I decided I want to watch it and take it with a large grain of salt... Mostly I want to see the horses! Does anyone know if/when it is coming out on video/DVD? Family member brought back a pirated copy from the jolly old Middle East this summer but the quality is worse than lousy. ::) |
Re: Hidalgo |
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bhaloo |
10/05/04 at 10:01:04 |
[slm] It came out last month. [quote author=workingmuslimah link=board=kabob;num=1096528264;start=10#13 date=10/05/04 at 09:16:13]I decided I want to watch it and take it with a large grain of salt... Mostly I want to see the horses! Does anyone know if/when it is coming out on video/DVD? Family member brought back a pirated copy from the jolly old Middle East this summer but the quality is worse than lousy. ::)[/quote] |
Re: Hidalgo |
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dhikr83 |
10/08/04 at 11:43:54 |
salaams Im sorry, but that movie was GAY! i like viggo mortensen, and thats why i watched it. but Not only did it absolutely SUCK (it put me to sleep at times) but the whole arab muslim thing- playing up the violence and that fortune tellin crap. that was a buncha garbage. they made it seem like arabs/muslims were dumb and unsophisticated while all the white/british/american ppl were the civilized ones.... if u can help it. DONT WATCH THIS MOVIE. unless u need to take a nap;) ~razia |
Re: Hidalgo |
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safa |
10/10/04 at 03:11:23 |
Quoting from one of those reviews, the movie does smell like a stable. In case the point hasn't already been driven home, DON'T WATCH THE MOVIE. Of course, the "true" story was a hoax. Can you imagine a horse of any other breed beating Arabians at a race on their own home turf? And the horse Hidalgo looks lousy & malnourished. Its as though the film makers didn't invest in anything; all they did was count on the anti-Arab feelings in vogue now. And remind me never to watch any movie with the slightest muslim/arab reference with non-muslim company. I am tired of giving them explainations. I personally think they actually enjoy watching me squirm. And why is it that the fact that the hoax is actually a hoax never known to the masses? I mean the kind of crap i had to get when Princess and Forbidden Love were circulating all over the girls' hostel. Tell them its a hoax, and they go... isn't that convenient??? Like it's the perfect excuse. Its just that this is how well they are brainwashed. And what's worse is, they say, well, Muslim women are just as ill-treated as Hindu women are. Ya right... I am sorry i veered off the topic. Just needed to vent. Ya and if you missed it earlier, HIDALGO SUCKS!! safa P.S. Is the niqaabi uncovering her face for her non-muslim beau an absolute must in movies where niqaabis are portrayed?? Thats how it is in idiotic Indian movies too. |
10/10/04 at 03:24:26 |
safa |
Re: Hidalgo |
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Caraj |
10/10/04 at 03:42:55 |
The man was not a beau. Never was portrayed as such at anytime during the movie. Neither made any such advances toward one another. The fortune telling stuff, in the end the man said (in not so many words) He could not foresee the future. 'Had I been able to foresee the future I would of bet on the painted horse' Violence??? Heck that over the centuries could be taken of any race in any country. As to brits/whites civilized??? To me it portrayed them as cheating, stuck-up (and the Brit lady who was married a hussy who was willing to sleep with someone other than her husband) To me it showed Arabs/Muslims to be kind people. Are we talking about the same movie ??? |
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