Sunday, October 30, 2005

This will make me more unpopular with Arabs/Muslims in the US. But it is ok. Don't vote for me when I run for president of...the world, no less. It is about time that we in the Arab world stop thinking of Mustafa Aqqad as a "great director." He is not. This is a joke, really. When I was a kid, I saw his movie, the Message (about the rise of Islam), and I was led to believe that it was a great movie. Later in life, I saw it. And I could not believe it. Kids with camcorders can put better movies together. He has no understanding of the historical issues, and has not captured the dimensions of Muhammad, as a historical figure. And it is so clumsily and disjointedly put together. I am so eager to one day, and in a systematic way, systematic my potato, refute Arab myths about Arabs. The list is way too long. Aqqad is, unlike his image in the Arab world, unknown in the US, and made some money from PRODUCING some silly and sleazy sexist slasher movies, like the Halloween series (from 1 to 34). He then goes to the Arab world, and talks unendingly about "Jewish control of Hollywood" and tell governments that he is able to penetrate through that control if...only millions of dollars are given to him to "direct" important movies. I remember during the O.J. Simpson scandal, the LA Times was interviewing OJ's neighbors in Brentwood, and interviewed `Aqqad and he was identified as "a neighbor who says that he is a Hollywood producer." I remember that I loved that, because I needed to send it to all Arab leaders. But if people in the Arab world can be led to believe that the October '73 war was victory, they can also be led to believe that `Aqqad is a "great director" and that the Message is a "great movie." And it can be said by some that his movie on `Umar Al-Mukhtar plagiarized scenes and cinematic ideas from Lawrence of Arabia. (Oh, on another myth: Lebanon was NEVER independent, and never enjoyed sovereignty).