Khan!
What the hell is wrong with Kirk Honeycutt? Here's his review of My Name Is Khan in The Hollywood Reporter. Haven't seen it yet, but it's one of those typically overstuffed Bollywood films--in this case, about the travails of a Muslim man in love with a Hindu women in San Francisco, and he's got Asperger's Syndrome, and also has to deal with American suspicions in a post-9/11 world, as well as imprisonment and hurricanes.
Honeycutt's review is positive, but he has some problems:
...it's a pity that the non-Indian press are discouraged from shouting out the news about a film that delves compellingly into Americans' anti-Muslim hysteria.
Is there anti-Muslim feeling in America? Yes. Is it hysteria? Probably not, but I'd at least say the answer isn't so obvious that it should be assumed in a film review. Honeycutt goes on:
The film pictures Americans as unable to tell the differences between Muslims and Hindus or Arabs and Indians. Which is not exactly wrong, when it comes to certain redneck elements, but locating these hatreds in left-leaning San Francisco demonstrates a certain lack of comprehension on the filmmakers' part as well. Perhaps they just liked the idea of cable cars in their movie.
So he doesn't mind America being portrayed as full of crazed bigots (indeed, it's a good thing), so long as viewers understand stupid conservatives are the hateful ones, not enlightened liberals.
Who's the real bigot here?
(I'm reminded of the much worse ranting of Michael Moore after 9/11, when he wondered why Muslims attacked a city that didn't vote for Bush?)
PS Honeycutt explains how the films plays out this theme:
The movie then become a pilgrimage of redemption where the hero must fulfill his wife's demand to tell the country and the U.S. president that even though his name is Muslim he is not a terrorist.
This concept apparently gets Honeycutt's approval, but it doesn't recommend the film to me. After 9/11, President Bush went out of his way to state, more than once, that America has no problem with Islam and that we must not treat Muslims any differently. So it seems like this guy would have better things to do than follow around the President to get out a message that the President is already broadcasting.
Actually, there's already been a great movie dealing with the effects of 9/11 on people who look Asian--Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:22 AM
2 Comments:
I've got a great concept for a movie. An American travels around Asia to send out the message America is not at war with Islam.
I wonder: Where does Honeycutt think it's better? Does he think that religious minorities in Muslim countries today are treated better than Muslims in the United States? Is he unaware of the violence in India perpetrated by radical Muslims and by Sikhs against Hindus, by radical Hindus against secular leaders, and most recently by radical Hindus against Christians? Does he think that Muslims are well-liked in the Netherlands or in France?
I suspect that a well-done survey would show that Muslims feel accepted in the United States more than in just about any other non-Muslim country.
But this isn't just America at a random time in history. This is America in the middle of two wars, fought against two enemies (the Taliban and Al-Qaeda) who publicly state that the reason for the war is religion, and who call on fellow Muslims to join them in a holy war. What country in history, when attacked by another religious group in a self-proclaimed holy war, has responded with less prejudice than America has since 2001?
The actions of Woodrow Wilson against Bolsheviks, the actions of FDR and Governor Earl Warren against the ethnic Japanese (legal immigrants and American citizens), and the actions of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations against Communists were based on indefensible overgeneralizations, while G.W. Bush repeated over and over that the violent Muslims were a miniscule group that failed to understant true Islam. And yet Wilson, FDR, Warren, Truman, and even Eisenhower remain liberal heroes today.
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