Essay.13. To what extent is Edward Said's orientalism still relevant to the representation of Eastern culture in Western media? In this essay I will examine Edward Said's theory of Orientalism in Western media, particularly cinema. Orientalism is a way of seeing the people and culture of the Middle East through Western vision. The West has been dominant and powerful in building the image of the East. This essay argues that the Western film industry has reinforced cultural stereotypes that the East is seen as threatening and inferior. In this essay I examine the American action thriller The Siege (1998) which provides violent and terrorist portrayals of Arabs and Muslims, a British comedy drama East is East (1999) based on the negative portrayal of the Muslim man with strong religious beliefs and a American action drama Kingdom of heaven (2005), the film which deals with a sensitive topic about religious conflict between Muslims and Christians. However, it has been argued, this gives a fair view of these religions which have both good and bad members of each society. The analysis of these films refers to Edward Said's theory of orientalism (1991) and confirms the idea that the East is barbaric, mysterious, exotic and impotent. All of the selected films that I will analyze contain negative stereotypes about Islam and Arabs/Muslims. They also have examples of Islamophobic speech. According to Said (1991) Orientalism is "the system of thought by which dominant economic, social, cultural and political powers establish spheres of 'knowledge' and 'truth' and it is through such discursive practices that religions, races, cultures and classes are represented” (Aneli, SR et al, 2007: 23). It tries to be...... middle of paper......questionable experiences (Said, E., 1991: 1). I agree with Schimm (2010) that elements of colonialist narrative are present in this film. The land is represented as belonging to Balian who emphasizes that he wants to improve it. The people who live on this land are also represented as belonging to he (Schlimm, M.R., 2010). However, they are happy and grateful for what the colonizer has done. There is the discourse of Said's orientalism that the Westerner is capable of doing more and better for the people. compared to the Oriental (Schlimm, MR, 2010). The West is more intellectual, stronger and more skilled than the East is represented. According to Schimm (2010), the film became attractive to audiences due to its message of religious tolerance. Scenes of religious diversity distracted audiences from embodied colonialism and orientalism (Schlimm, M. R.., 2010).