HOLLYWOOD NOT REACTING TO THE DEMANDS OF THE TIMES: CAN WE SEE THE REMAKE OF ‘THE SHEIK’ AND ‘THE SON OF SHEIK’.
…WHO WILL BE THE NEW RUDOLF VALENTINO? AND HOW MUSLIM FILMMAKERS AND ARTISTES ARE NOT WELCOME.
By Mansor Puteh
The Sixties were a trying time for America especially when the Blacks in the country started to feel agitated because of neglect and for being sidelined by White America many of whom still saw them as slaves and second-class citizens of the country, to the point that they were willing to get physical, with the militancy that they had started to show, Hollywood and the media in the country started to react.
They were described as ‘Blacks’ because of the color of their skin, which was supposed to be not pretty. And there were also ‘Blacks’ because they were said to be casting dark shadows on America, the promised land of many White Immigrants from Europe and trusting America into the Dark Age.
Black was not Beautiful then. Yet, White was still not pure; it was White which was tainted by the stains from the killings that they had done on the many Native Americans of the First Nation and others, who come their way.
But the Blacks were not to be cowed so easily; they started to stand up and demanded that they were counted. They refused to budge and sat on the seat in the bus, and went to toilets meant for the Whites Only.
This was America the Apartheid state, for which South Africa later took a step further by proclaiming it as their National Policy and part of their White Constitution.
One by one rose the Black Civil Rights Leaders who shouted on top of their voices raising their concerns for their own community, who were suppressed, depressed and locked in the ghettos with no prospect of any future.
Their voices started from the Deep South where Racial Segregation was most fierce and moving northwards until they finally made it to Washington Park not too far away from the White House.
And among the others, Hollywood also heard them clearly. And one by one Black actors and directors were accepted by them. This is despite the fact that there were already many Black entertainers who sang, danced and played music so much better than the White ones. They ruled the Jazz World.
And the White Folks learnt a lot from the shouting which they knew could grow louder and those who were in the civil rights movement could become militant. That made White America shiver.
They simply had to do something because they did not want America to be turned upside down by dissent from Black-Americans who were now referred in the more politically correct description of African-American population.
They did not want the African-Americans to feel more marginalized than they had ever been.
There were still some of them who were vocal who could speak for long hours at the microphone and who had been drumming up support from fellow African-Americans like them. And the size of the crowds which had converged around them had also grown larger by the day as their shouting getting louder.
White America and their intelligence agencies were becoming anxious and they had to do something. Fighting back was not an intelligent option. This could make the situation worse than it was then.
They had to accommodate. How?
How to tame Black America before they put the whole of America back to its Dark Age?
And one by one we start to see Hollywood films incorporating the lost tribe of America, the Afro-Americans, many of whose ancestors had come to the country much earlier than the other Americans whose ancestors had come from Europe.
Remember the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) which terrorized America in the 1960s, which climax in their kidnapping Patricia Hearst in San Francisco.
It was such a dramatic act which had caused a lot of consternation amongst the American intelligence and intelligentsia.
But not many White folks in the country blamed the Blacks for whatever that they had done and were bent on doing still.
America bent backwards and immediately accommodated them and their demands which were not totally outrageous, which was to be accepted into the one big American family which they rightly belong if not for the color of their skin, which made them look alien by the others with fairer skins.
And Hollywood was the first to start the ball rolling and started to have many characters in their major films comprising of the Blacks. And later still more and more Black directors came into the picture.So now we have many Black actors appearing in White films as heroes or the protagonists who save America and all of them there.
The Chinese film directors and actors from China and Hong Kong and some from Taiwan were also started to be accepted by Hollywood. This is despite the fact that China being a Communist state, which also have a large nuclear arsenal and the ICBMs.
Yet, Hollywood had to bend and accept the Chinese for what they are.
And recently, Hollywood has also started to accept and receive with open arms – the INDIANS.
These Indians from India are slowly being encouraged to become part of the Hollywood activity, and it won’t be long before some of the more prominent directors from Mumbai get to direct films for major Hollywood studios.
Unfortunately, this may not be the case with the Muslims.
And despite being put in a spot by the aggressors in America and the west, and they are starting to become agitated, Hollywood still puts a deaf ear to their plight.
The Blacks in America were hardly ten percent of the population of the country, but they were well spread, so the potential for them to cause untold mischief and even grief to the White Folks was immense.
They had already begun to show their true colors. And they had achieved what they had set out to do.
Yet, with so many more Muslims in the world and many millions in America, some of whom do not have Muslim or Arab or even Arab-sounding names, surely the descendants of the same White Folks who had to deal with the ancestors of the same Black Folks in America ought to know better.
They don’t. They are still bent on using brute force to quash whatever dissent that some of the Muslim Folks in some countries in the world where America had its fingers in.
And in recent times we are seeing how some Muslim Folks in America who are American citizens and whose ancestors had also come to America to give birth to them, are expressing not only their dissent but also their anger at the American system and especially the White Folks.
Yet, the White Folks are pretending not to hear them; they are still busy with their own thoughts and looking elsewhere.
At the same time, Hollywood is giving scant attention because they think the Muslim World market is not as huge as the Chinese market, so they do not need to accommodate the Muslim filmmakers by offering them jobs so they can start to produce films that can bring the people together. It is also a way to dampen dissent and contain anxieties and anger.
Hollywood does not know what they are facing. They could not bear not being able to break into the lucrative and huge Chinese markets, but are willing to forget about the much bigger and more lucrative Muslim World markets.
They are still doing this even when they realize how one by one their studios and other film companies are going bust.
When will they finally realize that they cannot ignore the Muslim World markets anymore, when their major studios go bust and are offered US$1 to anyone who wants to buy them?
This can happen. And if it does it will be too late for the studio executives to feel sorry for themselves. It is too late.
By Mansor Puteh
The Sixties were a trying time for America especially when the Blacks in the country started to feel agitated because of neglect and for being sidelined by White America many of whom still saw them as slaves and second-class citizens of the country, to the point that they were willing to get physical, with the militancy that they had started to show, Hollywood and the media in the country started to react.
They were described as ‘Blacks’ because of the color of their skin, which was supposed to be not pretty. And there were also ‘Blacks’ because they were said to be casting dark shadows on America, the promised land of many White Immigrants from Europe and trusting America into the Dark Age.
Black was not Beautiful then. Yet, White was still not pure; it was White which was tainted by the stains from the killings that they had done on the many Native Americans of the First Nation and others, who come their way.
But the Blacks were not to be cowed so easily; they started to stand up and demanded that they were counted. They refused to budge and sat on the seat in the bus, and went to toilets meant for the Whites Only.
This was America the Apartheid state, for which South Africa later took a step further by proclaiming it as their National Policy and part of their White Constitution.
One by one rose the Black Civil Rights Leaders who shouted on top of their voices raising their concerns for their own community, who were suppressed, depressed and locked in the ghettos with no prospect of any future.
Their voices started from the Deep South where Racial Segregation was most fierce and moving northwards until they finally made it to Washington Park not too far away from the White House.
And among the others, Hollywood also heard them clearly. And one by one Black actors and directors were accepted by them. This is despite the fact that there were already many Black entertainers who sang, danced and played music so much better than the White ones. They ruled the Jazz World.
And the White Folks learnt a lot from the shouting which they knew could grow louder and those who were in the civil rights movement could become militant. That made White America shiver.
They simply had to do something because they did not want America to be turned upside down by dissent from Black-Americans who were now referred in the more politically correct description of African-American population.
They did not want the African-Americans to feel more marginalized than they had ever been.
There were still some of them who were vocal who could speak for long hours at the microphone and who had been drumming up support from fellow African-Americans like them. And the size of the crowds which had converged around them had also grown larger by the day as their shouting getting louder.
White America and their intelligence agencies were becoming anxious and they had to do something. Fighting back was not an intelligent option. This could make the situation worse than it was then.
They had to accommodate. How?
How to tame Black America before they put the whole of America back to its Dark Age?
And one by one we start to see Hollywood films incorporating the lost tribe of America, the Afro-Americans, many of whose ancestors had come to the country much earlier than the other Americans whose ancestors had come from Europe.
Remember the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) which terrorized America in the 1960s, which climax in their kidnapping Patricia Hearst in San Francisco.
It was such a dramatic act which had caused a lot of consternation amongst the American intelligence and intelligentsia.
But not many White folks in the country blamed the Blacks for whatever that they had done and were bent on doing still.
America bent backwards and immediately accommodated them and their demands which were not totally outrageous, which was to be accepted into the one big American family which they rightly belong if not for the color of their skin, which made them look alien by the others with fairer skins.
And Hollywood was the first to start the ball rolling and started to have many characters in their major films comprising of the Blacks. And later still more and more Black directors came into the picture.So now we have many Black actors appearing in White films as heroes or the protagonists who save America and all of them there.
The Chinese film directors and actors from China and Hong Kong and some from Taiwan were also started to be accepted by Hollywood. This is despite the fact that China being a Communist state, which also have a large nuclear arsenal and the ICBMs.
Yet, Hollywood had to bend and accept the Chinese for what they are.
And recently, Hollywood has also started to accept and receive with open arms – the INDIANS.
These Indians from India are slowly being encouraged to become part of the Hollywood activity, and it won’t be long before some of the more prominent directors from Mumbai get to direct films for major Hollywood studios.
Unfortunately, this may not be the case with the Muslims.
And despite being put in a spot by the aggressors in America and the west, and they are starting to become agitated, Hollywood still puts a deaf ear to their plight.
The Blacks in America were hardly ten percent of the population of the country, but they were well spread, so the potential for them to cause untold mischief and even grief to the White Folks was immense.
They had already begun to show their true colors. And they had achieved what they had set out to do.
Yet, with so many more Muslims in the world and many millions in America, some of whom do not have Muslim or Arab or even Arab-sounding names, surely the descendants of the same White Folks who had to deal with the ancestors of the same Black Folks in America ought to know better.
They don’t. They are still bent on using brute force to quash whatever dissent that some of the Muslim Folks in some countries in the world where America had its fingers in.
And in recent times we are seeing how some Muslim Folks in America who are American citizens and whose ancestors had also come to America to give birth to them, are expressing not only their dissent but also their anger at the American system and especially the White Folks.
Yet, the White Folks are pretending not to hear them; they are still busy with their own thoughts and looking elsewhere.
At the same time, Hollywood is giving scant attention because they think the Muslim World market is not as huge as the Chinese market, so they do not need to accommodate the Muslim filmmakers by offering them jobs so they can start to produce films that can bring the people together. It is also a way to dampen dissent and contain anxieties and anger.
Hollywood does not know what they are facing. They could not bear not being able to break into the lucrative and huge Chinese markets, but are willing to forget about the much bigger and more lucrative Muslim World markets.
They are still doing this even when they realize how one by one their studios and other film companies are going bust.
When will they finally realize that they cannot ignore the Muslim World markets anymore, when their major studios go bust and are offered US$1 to anyone who wants to buy them?
This can happen. And if it does it will be too late for the studio executives to feel sorry for themselves. It is too late.
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