Riding Camels Since...

Skyfall. It was in cinemas until a couple of weeks ago. Most critics liked it, it scored 8.1 in IMDB, I really liked it. The theater we saw Skyfall in was full, even though it was its third week. I'll bet most of the people in that theater went to Skyfall because they thought that it took place in Istanbul; this was one of the reasons we went to see it as well. What did we find? Five minutes of chasing scenes in narrow streets filled with street vendors, with the sound of Ezan, the Muslim call of prayer, in the back the whole time. Disappointed.

Taken 2. Was in cinemas until a month ago or so. A sequel to the movie Taken, taking part mostly in Istanbul, unlike Skyfall. However, I don't know how they achieved this, but the producers of Taken 2 had managed to portray Istanbul more "stereotyped" than the producers of Skyfall, even though they had two hours to do something with it. Again, we went to the movie because we found out that it took place in Istanbul, and we had time to kill. What did we find? Chasing scenes in narrow streets with women in chadors, street vendors, the same mosque shown over and over again, and again, "a man singing" (in Liam Neeson's words); Ezan, in the background the whole time. Again, disappointed.

I mean, it would take a lot of effort to show so little of Istanbul and its beauties in two hours when the whole movie takes place there. The Bosphorus was shown once, for literally two seconds. None of the historical artifacts where shown, even the chase scene inside the Grand Bazaar was crowded and showed very little of the beautiful place.

This orientalist view Hollywood producers have about Muslim countries unfortunately is transferred to the whole world through movies like Taken 2 and Skyfall. Skyfall was the better of the two, at least one chase scene took place on a highway. Anyway, if I was a person in living America, Brazil or Singapore who has never been to Turkey and I had watched both of these movies, going to Istanbul wouldn't seem so alluring to me.

It is this stereotyping that not only Hollywood producers have, but that other people also have, of Muslim countries or the countries of the Middle East that creates a misinformed, prejudiced public; it is this stereotyping that created children who ask their Turkish friend  they met in MUN whether they ride camels in Turkey.

 

Case and point. The setting for a scene in Skyfall.