Respond to the screening in 1-2 paragraphs. You may include what interested you, impacted you, or how your perspective on ME politics changed after watching the film.
10 thoughts on “Excuse Us”
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Respond to the screening in 1-2 paragraphs. You may include what interested you, impacted you, or how your perspective on ME politics changed after watching the film.
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I walked away from watching Excuse Us in total awe. And I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. I can’t say whether I liked the film or not (the constant screening had my head pounding after about half an hour), but I was amazed by a storyline, characters and images so different from anything I have ever seen on screen. Though Americans were made a fool of, so were the Iraqis, and so were the Egyptians. The film didn’t spare any group of people from ridicule.
One of the primary themes of the film was Egyptian views of the West. Egyptian men consistently bashed Western politics, however, where there may have been an opportunity to gain something from a relationship with an American, Egyptians quickly praised America in order to get on the Americans’ good side. This dual treatment of the West was illustrated by the relationship between Karmouty and the tourist John.
Another theme was Egyptian private and social life. The abuse and control of women by their fathers and husbands was exaggerated to a comic extreme. I was surprised by the willingness of Egyptian filmmakers to expose this aspect of Egyptian culture. Another aspect of Egyptian life that was comically highlighted was the role of the entire community in one’s private life. The open window through which any family affairs could be screamed to the street below, represented the impossibility of maintaining privacy in the Arab world.
As to offensive scenes, I was less upset by the shocking footage of the twin towers falling than I was by the filming of Abu Ghraib. To show actual footage of an event is one thing; to comically reenact egregious violations of war crimes (or at least the place where they were violated), crossed a line for me.
I found this film fairly humorous and interesting. I loved how everything was hyperbolic and overstated. I think its a great skill to be able to attain some sort of comedic relief from devastating situations.
There were a number of Scenes/Situations I particularly enjoyed. and I thought were powerful was firstly the difference between male and female interactions in the two different cultures. It highlighted how much we take for granted how liberal our culture is and how vastly our idea of moral differs from what Egyptians might consider moral.Secondly the scene where Wahid calls Saddam a liar and the whole room clears out in less than a minutes. I think that was somewhat indicative of the the state people lived in in Saddam Iraq. You could not just utter statements about the president and hope to get away with it. Finally the George Bush character was hilarious . I don’t really know what the director was trying to portray by setting up the confession as a fake, but it continued to show anti american sentiments.
The movie Excuse Us was an interesting, but borderline insane look at Egyptian cinema and culture. I could make a pretty legitimate argument that I’ve never seen a movie quite like this one. The questionable production quality, the silent movie era over-acting, the ridiculously contrived plot—it was a truly unique film experience.
However, there was one thing about the movie other than its oddities that I found quite interesting, and that was its self-awareness. I suppose that shouldn’t be so surprising, that Egyptians would understand and reflect on their own culture. But, specifically with regards to sexual harassment, I wasn’t expecting such a candid commentary. I was under the impression that the groping that takes place on the street and the sexual frustration of Egypt’s unmarried men wasn’t necessarily discussed. However, with the character of Wahid, the audience got a fair amount of insight into the dilemma of Egypt’s youth. The scene where he continues to grab, pinch, and try to kiss his fiancé despite her protest was slightly uncomfortable for me, but it was obviously fairly accurate. Also, the scene where Karmouty lets Wahid watch porn with him was hilarious, and a much more explicit statement about sexual needs, albeit limited to male sexual needs, than I would have expected.
I can honestly say that watching this movie felt like a huge release and I spent a good portion of the movie simply trying to come to terms with how different this film was from Hollywood’s box-office hits. More importantly, this film’s lack of censorship provided an interesting contrast to our overly censored media industry.
I think that the film underlined an idea that has come up in our readings lately: that a lot of citizens of Middle Eastern countries do not believe that their political inclusion is worth two cents, basically that politics is a phenomenon driven by interests rather than public satisfaction or high morals. While this was shocking to see in the media, it is a phenomenon that I do not think is exclusive to the Middle East.
Finally, in a very shakespearian touch, we see that the blind man, Karmouty is the only one who can really see the condition of his situation for how it really exists.
The film is certainly more frenetic than I imagined, but the enjoyment comes when laughter ushers in a sober afterthought on its political implication. Karmouty, the protagonist, is a simple man who likes to fool around with people. Yet at times he has a point in his views on the world’s politics, and his knowledge on the current events is more than what you’d expect from an average Egyptian coffeehouse owner. Karmouty’s bizarre experience Bush, Hussein and Abu Ghraib is primarily a direct consequence of his bragging, lying and fooling around, as the story shows; interestingly, at the same time, the presence of such a comical character seems to imply that today’s political situation may as well be the result of national leaders and politicians being “fooling around,” especially in their foreign policy making. In the movie, the Bush administration’s conviction in Karmouty’s words and its attempts to disguise him as a terrorist certainly exemplify such a paralleled development of “fooling around” – Karmouty fools around with everybody, and Bush fools around with the rest of the world. By creating a funny character, the movie seems to make fun of the political situation in reality.
The character I like the most is in fact Karmouty’s blind uncle, who appears only a couple of times throughout the movie. Though blind, he seems to see everything clearly, and he often makes wise and precise comments amid people’s furious conversations. I see him as an outlier in the movie, and the character gives the film a fine touch. Amid all the “fooling around”, those who have the clearest understanding of the world are usually the ones the least expected to.
I thought this was an incredible film. The constant banter, the classic deterrent–‘what would the neighbors say’–the American couple, the spot light at Abu Ghraib, the forced WMD confession–it was too perfect.
For me, the strongest narrative in ‘Excuse Us’ was the commentary on ‘interests’. The entire movie seemed to highlight how people, and consequently politics, are driven by self-interests rather than strong morals.
Take terrorism. I believe terrorism is an act of violence used to highlight or coerce a large group of people into addressing a specific set of political interests. Al Qaeda allegedly cites US support of Israel and sanctions against Iraq as two triggers for the attacks on 9/11–and thus the footage of the twin towers served as a haunting reminder of Al Qaeda’s broad tactics to secure their own interests in the global sphere.
Or start with Karmouty. Karmouty is constantly sidling up to whoever can help him settle his debt, light a houka or help find his son, even it is Saddam Hussein himself. His overzealous praise for anyone who can help him secure his interests is almost laughable. To his credit, Karmouty breaks this mold once. After testifying as a terrorist in front of Bush’s green screen, Karmouty speaks out against the American position in Iraq on public television. Despite the satirical nature of this film, I was SO relieved to hear him speak the truth in front of the American delegation. Watching the confession play out, I had the sinking feeling that this type of dirty politics is pervasive abroad (and we have NO IDEA) and it was very gratifying to hear him speak truthfully, even if his actions landed him in Abu Ghraib.
This clip also made me wonder if interpreters ever alter a conversation to forward their personal interests. Do you think this is ever a problem in international politics?
Visually, the most provocative segment of the film was the montage of Baghdad under siege. It doesn’t matter how many times I see Saddam’s statue topple–the images from the invasion are so powerful. I honestly cannot believe that this type of violence was occurring somewhere in the world while I was growing up in Vermont. Despite Karmouty’s comic relief, the real footage served as a strong reminder that this Egyptian film is founded in reality–be it the violence, the gender roles, the power of interests, or the corruption of American politicians–and it is important to consider the underlying messages with due weight.
I really enjoyed the movie as a whole. It was very interesting to see Egyptian comedy, which I have heard about in readings and in a brief discussion with my Egyptian Arabic professor, but had never seen directly until now. My Professor told me that Egyptians on average enjoy humor thoroughly, and often have well-tuned senses of humor; this was visible in many of the Egyptian jokes quoted to illustrate points in the articles on the Egyptian February revolutions in the reader, “Revolution in the Arab World.” Particularly memorable was the citing of an Egyptian woman on the street during protests who shouted something to the effect of, “If we can oust Mubarak, they’ll have enough exiled dictators in Saudi Arabia to make a soccer team!”
Similarly to many of my classmates posting before me, the scene depicting the World Trade Center was shocking for me. Not only have images of the attack become an American archetypal symbol for fear and loss, but the juxtaposing of the clip between a comical scene making light of the stereotypical ignorant American traveling abroad and Karmouty trying to slyly steal the attentions of his fiancé from him made for a confusing set of emotions. The attacks on the World Trade Center are never portrayed as anything close to comedy in the American media and cinema, and seeing them treated as such in “Excuse Us” initially made me indignant, perhaps wanting to say, “Yes, excuse you.”
As the film went on however, my mind went back to the clip of the World Trade Center, and I attempted to view its usage from the perspective of the makers of the film, or (suffering of course from over-generalization) that of a person in the Middle East. I remembered watching “Control Room,” and noticing how indignant it made Americans to see certain images and news events shown on al-Jazeera’s news broadcasts. It made me reflect on media censorship in America which, rather than coming from a government seeking to consolidate and sustain its power like authoritarian rulers of many Middle Eastern nations, comes instead from viewers too affected by certain images and topics. American media would likely never show the WTC attacks in a comedic light because of the large public outcry that would come from it, reflecting American values and identity rather than those of American media channels. I think it’s fair to say that in a similar fashion, the choice by the makers of “Excuse Us” to present the 9/11 attacks in a comedic manner reflects Egyptian identity and values. By that I don’t mean that Egyptians likely laughed when the World Trade Center was hit, but that their culture and style of humor may allow them to treat an event that was tragic 10 years ago in a more lighthearted fashion, particularly when the US reaction to the attacks was to initiate a series of wars and foreign policy measures that made it wildly unpopular throughout the Middle East. So while it was shocking to see the events of 9/11 treated this way in the film, I took that as a virtue of my American identity and values, which undoubtedly differ drastically from those of Egyptians and Middle Easterners, and tried to let those go for the rest of the film. Doing so allowed me to enjoy the humor much more and to appreciate what Egyptians find funny.
Throughout our screening of “Excuse Us” I could not help but think about the title. Becausethe Arabic title is untranslatable into English I couldn’t help but take my own artistic liberties, using the small clue “Excuse Us” as a way to access the underlying narrative of the film. It was difficult. The film was no doubt frenetic, and from Karmouty’s first dialogue you get the feeling that this will not be a subtle or quiet movie. But what spoke to me most was this freneticism, if that is even a word. The way that Karmouty spoke was reflective of the way he and his family seemed to live, or at least the men, very erratically.
The same was true of Karmouty’s often changing political affiliations (reflected in the different framed pictures in his coffee shop, first Bush, then Hussein). Karmouty supported whoever was in his best interest at whatever time regardless of who they were. In a way the movie seemed to be saying “Excuse me, for being selfish” or for making my political and personal decisions for myself which is in many ways exactly how they portrayed the American government acting, out of their own self interest. If anything “Excuse Us” showed not necessarily the differences, but the similarities between the desires and concerns of Egyptians and western cultures.
Like Margaret, the scene with the World Trade Center really struck me. When I saw it, I was immediately offended and shocked. That image is never shown lightly in American press, and is still hard to watch. It is an image that has very much defined the US today. To see it in a comic setting in a foreign film came as quite a shock and was a breech of my comfort. Just as much as seeing the towers burn, the response of the characters was equally as offensive; it made the situation look causal. I then asked myself if I was taking the use of the clip too seriously. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the Egyptians who made the film and I couldn’t tell if they did it out of irony, callousness, or naïveté. It made me think about media today and how carefully America sensors its own pictures and images to the point that we don’t see the reality, as with the former ban on photographing coffins of troops.
I do not think that the clip was used appropriately, however at the same time, I think that the US sensors its media so much that 10 years after the fact, although it was a harrowing experience, it is odd that I have only seen it a few times and still look away. I am sure there is some psychological reasoning to that, and I do also understand how powerful 9/11 is to the emotions of Americans and that writing this may offend some fellow classmates. I suppose that my main take away from this is how it made me reflect on media censorship in the US, and why the Egyptian directors thought it appropriate to include this clip. Should we hold that image so untouchable? Are there events in other countries that we in the US make light of like Excuse Us did with the fall of the WTC? After the immediate shock of seeing the Twin Towers fall in this movie, started to think about how other countries perceive that event, and how taboo it is still today for us Americans.
I thought one of the funniest parts of the movie was the contrasts of male and female relations between Egypt and America. While the main Wahid and his future bride weren’t even allowed to kiss or be in the same room together behind closed doors, the American soldier, John, and his fiancee were all over each other in public. All Wahid wanted to do was kiss his woman and her dad freaked out. John, on the other hand, was filled with joy when finding out his girlfriend was pregnant. I thought it was funny how they poked fun at American modern relationships who have kids then get married, which is so incredibly different from Middle Eastern traditions.
I was a little thrown off by their scene with the World Trade Center collapsing. I was kind of offended that they used it in a general comedic setting since it’s something that had a large impact on my personal life and I still think of as a touchy subject. I was also surprised on their portrayal of the Bush Administration, mocking the main characters confession as a terrorist to be a Hollywood set with directors, make up, and a back drop.