Are there any positive non-white characters in the film?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — True Lies
HarveyManfredSinJohn — 10 years ago(September 24, 2015 02:10 PM)
The villains, even the apolitical, money-grubbing, femme fatale character, are all non-white, one of the few black characters in the film is the pathetic whimpering hostage in the hotel sequence, and even Arnold's sidekick, 'Faisal', is played by a Jewish actor rather than an Arab one.
It's almost as if James Cameron was purposefully going out of his way to offend. -
IceboxMovies — 9 years ago(May 11, 2016 04:04 PM)
The villains, even the apolitical, money-grubbing, femme fatale character, are all non-white
Not true. It's hard to tell because of how dark it is, but I'm pretty sure that those Swiss guards patroling outside in the snow at the beginning of the movie were all white.
Also, the Bill Paxton character is a hilariously pathetic white "anti-hero".
Anyway I don't think the film's portrait of Arabs is racist or xenophobic. Cameron does indicate to us that Aziz and his followers have been driven to terrorism because innocent Arab women and children have been murdered in previous U.S. wars; Aziz makes this clear during the recording of his terrorist video. And the terrorists are also granted their humanity by way of humor, as in the "Battery, Aziz!" moment, or when the guys driving the truck on the severed bridge are chuckling to each other until the eagle lands on the hood.
The movie is certainly politically-incorrect, but it's not deliberately offensive. -
Reapervai — 9 years ago(December 15, 2016 02:05 AM)
That's totally wrong.
Why should only white people be bad guys?
I mean they didn't kill 100 million Native Americans over the course of 500 years.
They didn't ravage an entire continent (The Americas) and destroy hundreds of different cultures.
They did not enslave 100 million blacks over the course of 400 years and treat them as animals.
They did not occupy foreign nations such as Australia and South Africa, bringing disease, torture, murder and exploitation to the native residents.
This was all done by muslims.
Leave white people alone!!!