In Hollywoodland it also helps if you have a character that needs little introduction. It speeds up the film and cuts the cost of production.

At the opening of Star Wars we see a small ship under attack and then overpowered. Vader enters and we know he is different and then we quickly learn that he is both evil and powerful. He is also indestructable since he can disarm you with a wave of his hand.

Vader was set-up quickly as the evil to be overcome. It is the same with stereotypes. If you think you already know the bad guy it saves time and money for the film production company and both are very important to the film world.

I don't know anyone in the film biz that is really worried about being all that PC, but at least there is a trend to historical accuracy.

But this only exists because the auds demand it. A good example of this is the film 'True Grit'. The early one depended a lot on John Wayne to be entertaining and a lot of liberties were taken with the story and the historical details. The one out now is much closer to the story and is as historical as a film can be given the fact that the Old West no longer exists to check it against.

A film in which a Mulsim is cast in a very positive role is 'Saraha' which stars Humphry Bogart. This is very likely available on NetFlixs and if you have not seen it then you should. There was a remake of this with Jim Bulishi which is OK, but I thought the Bogart one was better.