Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Source Code and Terrorism

I recently saw the move 'Source Code'. It's not bad - overacted in places (including the head scientist guy, who was badly miscast), but overall it was interesting.

One thing I found hilarious though is how wedded Hollywood is to particular ideas about terrorism. Some minor plot spoilers below the jump...


So, get ready for this, because I know it's going to shock you.

The terrorist in the movie isn't a Muslim! He's not even from the Middle East. Shocking, I know. As if to hammer this home, the main character initially pursues a suspicious looking brown-skinned guy, who is of course innocent. Evil, profiling racist!

Can you guess who the real terrorist is?

The obvious guess is a Neo-Nazi. Hollywood is going to keep banging that drum decades after the last Nazi has been buried. But that's not right in this case.Who else could it possibly be?

That's right, he a tea party type! The whitest-looking guy you could imagine. As if this wasn't emphasised enough, his name is 'Derek Frost', just to hammer home the subtle imagery of frosty white the snowman. The case he's carrying the bomb in is covered in pictures of the American flag. The news reports about him indicate he had made 'anti-government statements'.

I find myself wondering if this is what Hollywood actually thinks are the real terrorist threats are in the US, or if this is just their way of pandering to what they perceive as box-office opinion. I think it's probably the former, given how many left-wing anti-American war movies they made that made about $15 each (Rendition, Good Shepherd, etc. etc.)

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