The New Aladdin Movie: Not a Whole New World

Hollywood is known for its history of frankly racist policies causing this problem of accurate representation in the movie industry. Similar to the video we watched in class on Tuesday, people who were previously conquered by empire need to be put back into art. They need to be given their voice back. One such failing of this was in the casting decisions that were made for the upcoming movie of Aladdin. The movie itself is completely exoticizes the middle east with inaccurate costuming, songs, and it is mostly a  white person’s “ notion of the Middle East” that just does not do the actual place justice. The movie itself has caused some major controversy in its casting of two of the three leading characters. Middle Eastern actors are plentiful in this country, so finding people who actually comply to the ethnicities of these character should not seem like such an arduous task. Yet, Hollywood has once again failed to recognize that people who are not the conquerors of empire in this country have a voice too.

Princess Jasmine is supposedly this Middle Eastern Princess who lives somewhat of a naive life in the bubble of her palace with her father. The biggest problem with their casting is that they chose Naomi Scott to play her. Naomi Scott does not have even an ounce of Middle Eastern blood in her. She is half white and half Indian. Jasmine is not a character that is intended to be represented through the lens of someone who is not that ethnicity. Furthermore, Jasmine is meant to give voice to people of Middle Eastern descent, and she cannot do this if she herself is not Middle Eastern. Many girls in this country garner their sense of racial equality through “seeing people like them” portrayed in the media. Having this opportunity stripped from them is truly a shame. Furthermore, this relates to the theme of the struggle of putting people who were previously conquered back into the mainstream media. By placing someone of half white descent, this gives the power back to the conquerors, not the conquered.

Furthermore, the director of the first film and the new one is also not of Middle Eastern descent. This shys away from the cultural sensitivity that the director of this movie should have. Directors have control over many things: how they shoot their shots, and approval of costumes and set design. But more importantly, they lead the actors in the direction of emotion to go to. In one perspective, I can understand how progressive it is to have a critically acclaimed director such as Guy Ritchie in a movie with people of color. Typically movies with the portrayal of people of color have been rare and dismissed. Hollywood is moving forward in this manner. However, this is particularly problematic to think about in the sense of Aladdin. The lead character, Aladdin, is portrayed by someone who is Middle Eastern. There is something special about someone portraying a character that is of their heritage. The performance just seems more real, and we get the honest truth of the character’s circumstances. To have that taken away from someone who does not understand this truth is saddening.  This is also potentially a big problem because a director who is not Middle Eastern cannot tell someone who is how to play a character of their own heritage. In this manner, previous notions that we explored in our learning of the Inca Empire come into play. This is seen through the white man “civilizing” the native starting to come into play. The director is the person who controls all aspects of the movie, while the actors do what they are required to. In a way, the director is changing the way the actors act to conform to his traditions of what acting should be.

Moreover, these types of inaccuracies in media are something that I can see in my own life. In almost all portrayals of an Indian person, they are told to have some sort of accent that is culturally insensitive, and does not fit into the correct adaptation. As Dr. Chaturvedi mentioned in lecture, the only media that has been released about Indian people is in Bollywood. However, their is not a movie made in America that has an all Indian cast, or mentions a significant event in Indian history. I think that this brings up an important point in the movie making industry. Everyone has a unique story to share that is influenced by their background. But stripping someone from the opportunity to tell that story, especially taking that opportunity and giving it to someone who’s story has been told over and over again is a chance that we are missing to see real art.