The Orient in Film: Hollywood and Disney's Depiction of the East

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The Orient in Film 2
Depiction of the Orient in Film
Hollywood
Hollywood’s depiction of the Orient is premise on the presence of mysticism and a sense of
wonder. Hollywood films have depicted the Orient mainly in Iran, Egypt and Israel. Such films
as “Aladdin” The Thief of Bagdad” are steeped in adventure and fantasy. The Hollywood films
are often a corruption of popular stories where the directors add and remove certain details to
advance the theme of mystery. Edward Said proposed that the dominant image of the Orient is a
creation of the west for their predetermined ends. In this regard, he opines that the way the
Orient is revealed in film is a picture of how the Western World views the countries of the East
(Said 1978. Pp 55). However, there are challenges in defining where the boundaries of the Orient
lie. This difficulty is testament of the fantasy premise where the West generalizes the ideas of the
Orient in an amorphous manner. Many of the creators of film have little knowledge of the
historical past of the Orient and in this respect; they rely on their self-created images.
Hollywood and the Orient In “The Thief Of Bagdad”
The Thief of Baghdad is a Hollywood movie that represents the mysticism and wonder of the
orient. Like all other oriental movies, this movie explores the themes of love, magic and fantasy
among others. The theme of the supernormal world is seen in the use of magic and other tricks
by the characters in order to control their destinies or that of others.
Prince Taj is convinced that he has to win the hand of Yasmine after the death of his father but
encounters challenges along the way. However on arrival at Baghdad, he befriends Hassan who
is both a magician and a thief. However, Taj’s Wazir, Jaudur, had stolen his royal seal and makes

The Orient in Film 3
his way to the palace; he comes in on a flying carpet. Although Taj had already made an
impression of Jasmine, Jaudur accuses him of being an imposter and presents himself as the
king. The king is inclined to believe Jaudur but before he can give his daughter away, he is
reminded of a dream in which it was predicted that the marriage of her daughter would bring in a
lot of wealth. He therefore sends all the suitors away for three moons with an assignment to bring
an object of the most value in the world.
Mysticism is revealed in the first instance where Jaudur comes in a flying carpet and in the
instance where Taj is protected from harm because his soul is hidden in a secret place. The
Orient is often depicted as a place where mystic exists despite the advances in modernity. In
addition the theme of the savage has been explored where Jaudur plots to murder Taj in order to
gain an advantage in over Yasmine.
The theme of mysticism is explored in several instances. First there is the all-seeing eye that
gives guidance to Taj and enables Yasmine to identify Taj’s location in the desert after attack by
Jaudur’s men. The use of flying carpet and the flying horse also invokes mystery as the camps
representing Jaudur and Taj fight in the air. Taj also has an encounter in the sand where he
identifies a bottle. He opens the bottle only to realize that it contained a genie which tries to kill
him. He however convinces it to get back to the bottle through trickery. In the story, magic plays
a great role in the development of the plot. However, the author succeeds in convincing the
public that the orient is guided by mystery and savagery, themes that dominate Hollywood’s
portrayal of the East.

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The primary consumers of Hollywood films are ignorant Westerners who have no interest in
precise representation of facts but entertainment (Ramji, R., 2016. Pp 102). The creation of
fantasy in the films drives curious movie enthusiasts to explore the country and fulfill their
hunger for information.
The challenge with this depiction is that it is set to represent the opinions of the film maker who
has little regard for how local citizens live. Iraqi films are replete with flying horses and mystical
carpets and create an unreal reality for entertainment purposes. However, consumers of the films
may take the discourse more seriously and develop a wrong perception of the orient.
It is obvious that the Christian heritage that the U.S. shares with Israel informs the more rational
depiction of the Israeli orient. The films regarding Israel are distinctively devoid of the mystic
theme that dominates other Hollywood films of the East.
The reality of the Orient is that it bears a troubled political past that is hardly captured in film.
Egypt, for instance, bears a political past where the country was colonized by the British. Britain
transformed the country from a primitive history to a modern hub of civilization (Kee, 2016. Pp
14). As one of the early centers of civilization, Egypt enjoyed meaningful trade that saw the
country gain wealth over time. However, Hollywood fails to recognize this history and instead
creates a mystical reality in film that portrays the country as steeped in ancient traditions.
The failure to capture the modern realities of the East in film may be attributed to a marketing
decision in categorization of cinema in Hollywood. It is the tradition of Hollywood to categorize
movies in order to make it easy for the target market to make a purchase. Consequently, there
may be fears that changing the dominant storyline for oriental movies may not augur well for