As you might guess from the title, I was not a big fan of the film Body of Lies and I regret watching it on our fifth wedding anniversary, of all times! The reason I wanted to see it was because of its depiction of the Jordanian intelligence services as well as the fact that it takes place in Jordan.
What really annoyed me about the whole charade was the director’s decision to film in Morocco and pretend it is Jordan. Who did Ridley Scott think he was fooling when he made the decision to film in Morocco and digitally insert the King Abdallah mosque in a number of shots in an attempt to make it look like Jordan? Did he expect Jordanians or people that visited the country not to notice? Or did he just not care? In addition to the fake scenery, all the extras in the movie looked North African rather than Jordanian. And in more than one instance I noticed Saudi car tags in the streets of "Jordan."
Then there was the scene where Russell Crowe is surprised that DiCaprio wants to stay in Jordan. He asks him something along the lines of "Why? Do you want to eat couscous all day?" I mean, give me a break! Jordanians don’t eat couscous. He should have said Mansaf if anything. Anyway, I’m surprised a movie so centered on Jordan with such a big budget did not employ some cultural consultants or film there. The actor who played the head of Jordanian intelligence was okay but I got irritated by his fake accent. As for the Arabic spoken during the movie, please don’t get me started. It was a mélange of North African, Egyptian, Palestinian and I don’t know what.
In a nutshell, the movie was not worth my money, especially in economic times like these. My advice: Don’t watch it.
I can understand your indignation. Not only for the glaring inconsistencies in your language, culture, cuisine and physical misrepresentations of Jordanians; I didn’t like the film because as an American it appeared to me as liberal dogma attempting to show all American intelligence agencies as manipulative, dishonest, and exploitive to our allies.
Where are you Natasha we miss ur blog
as a non- arab it is really interesting to get a perspective of the movie from a Jordanian…I can really appreciate the issues you have for the show…
I liked the movie as I would any good action movie…I am sorry to say I have no real feel for the cultural / lingual inacurracies but I agree w/ you – big buget and big stars they should have put in more realism / accuracies and to be sensitive the audiance that may be from that part of the world…which they should have known would watch the show ..
it is probably more a reflection of the typical American lack of understanding of that part of the world than a intensional snub
Blog again, blog
I agree. I wasn’t impressed with the film at all.
but let me give you a note:
the film was shot in morooco.
and i hate that part showing us as backword people .
at least we know our roots and we are proud of jordan and our intilegance dept too.
Hani, why the negativity? Are movies from where you came from considered smart?
Your comment does not represent a good cultured opinion. People from our side and your side try to close the gap between America and the Arabs, and people like you stand in the way.
Who cares? It’s a movie, besides the guy might like eating Couscous all day. I know it’s not Morocco, but Couscous is available in Jordan.
What you said is correct, I watched it in Dubai, I was in vacation there and what a wast of time?! In the cinema, my friend and I were the only Jordanians and i can swear we were the only Arabs, People in the theatre were really annoyed by us as we kept laughing the whole hour and a half. But after all I have to wonder, why would the Americans make a movie that shows them as idiots and an Arab intelligence is stronger and more organized?
I’m more curious about what you guys think about the messages in the movie about Jordan and how accurate those are more than I am about the sets and actors
Therese, maybe it is just Jordan, but it sounds like a slang term for female genitalia. :O They eat the grain, but it has a different name.