The Scholarly Film Review

A film review is an analysis and evaluation of a film.
Analysis means to break apart to understand how something works, evaluation
means to consider things like effective or ineffective or ethical or unethical.
To prepare for this review, use ideas about Hollywood cinema
and the desert from your reading of Chapter 15 of the eBook Sahara: A
Cultural History posted on Moodle and ideas about Orientalism from the videoclip
interview with Edward Said (first 10 ½ minutes).
Then you will watch the movie Hidalgo (link posed on
Moodle) and write a review for your university newspaper, which has asked
students the following questions:
What kind of image does the film Hidalgo portray
about Arabs and the desert? Is it a good movie? Would you recommend it to a
friend?
Some questions/ideas
to keep in mind and that you could answer in your review (but NOT ALL OF THEM –
just use this list to get ideas):
·
Does the film use the same
kind of attitudes and approaches to the desert (and the people who live in the
desert) that are described in Chapter 15, or is something different going on?
·
How are Arabs and Arab
culture presented in the film?
·
Is it important/interesting
that this film is based on a true story?
·
Is this film Orientalist?
Why or why not?
·
Does it matter (or help)
that some of the main actors are Arabs/from the Arab world? Why or why not?
·
Does it matter that the
main character is half Native American? How does that connect to Arab culture?
The review will be structured in the following way:
Introduction that gets your reader’s attention
Thesis Statement (at the end of the Introduction)
Summary of the film
Review of the film (following the structure outlined in the
thesis statement)
Conclusion (including whether or not this film is worth

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