Postcolonialism

The stills suggest a definite difference between Arab and European identities, to be sure. I think this is obvious. They are different cultures, they have different traditional garb and different building structures. To say that one is represented more poorly than the other is somewhat biased in itself, I think. The hyperbolized aggressiveness of "Arabs" in Raiders of the Lost Ark is of course a negative representation of Arab identity, but to take the stills out of context, if one has never seen either of those films, leaves us with two pictures that are not necessarily misrepresenting either cultural identities. We are only conditioned, by our superpower political system, to perceive the appearance of Arabs in films or whatever as negative, less refined, dirty (though it pains me to use any of those judgments even in observation) whathaveyou. I almost feel as if this question is bating the reader to perpetuate this awful distinction based on colonial tactics, but to answer it anyway...
I don't believe that in current films that represent Arab identity share a lot of the same constructions, merely in the fact that film has progressed, and no longer do we rely on caricatures and stereotyped archetypes to define a character. Not in the films I watch, at least. A good example that I can think of is the Darjeeling Limited, a Wes Anderson film where three American brothers travel to India to supposedly reach some sort of enlightenment. In this film Arab identity is not an issue. It is clear that we are no longer simply trying to lump people of middle-eastern origin into one "Arab identity". Disregarding the fact that our president can barely tell the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. In this film, everyone acts under the same social constructs, regardless of origin. Everyone uses the same dry but thoughtful dialogue, because its clear that there are only cultural differences-and even those don't extend to how humans really feel inside. Though they have extremely different physical appearances, Hollywood has been of late good to remind the world that the difference between Arab identity and western identity, at least psychologically speaking, doesn't not necessarily trivialize or deify one or the other anymore.