Hollywood: The Depiction Of Terrorism In Hollywood Movies

Terrorism can be defined as the use of criminal violence to try to force a government to change. It can also be defined as the use of criminal violence that groups or individuals use to seek revenge and cause heartache amongst those that they want to hurt/threaten. Most terrorist groups prefer to target people for a more dramatic response and celebrate when the media broadcasts their violent acts on television and throughout the news. Lately, more and more deadly terrorist acts have been captured on film and broadcasted in all parts of the world. Sixty years ago recordings of terroristic acts didn’t spread through the world as quickly as they do now because technology wasn’t as advance. That is just one of the

In America, violence has always been an integral part of national culture. Crime and bloodshed, euphemized through use of “action” (this has a source) plots, are glorified both on and off screen. The more disturbing the act of violence, the more enthralled the public seems. The most prolific of crimes, those committed by infamous serial killers, inspire the most attention. As said by Jeff Lindsay, creator of the book series that inspired the wildly-popular television program, Dexter, “We’re sickened and disgusted, but we need to know. And the more we know about the scene, the more we really are horrified” (“Sympathy for the Devils”). Violence, especially committed by this special class of felons, is enthralling. News reports play a role in this strange attraction, as it is through the news that people even have knowledge of such killers, but the evolution in the “serial killer genre” (Lindsay, “Sympathy for the Devils”) of film and television helps to desensitize people to the gruesome murders that are committed. This begs the question of whether this disturbing trend should be stopped, lest the American “culture of violence” (this has a source) continues to grow stronger. Through news reports, film, and television, criminals are constantly romanticized through use of sympathetic characterization and gratuitous depictions of their crimes, which lends to peoples’ incr

Foreign and domestic policies are not linear, rather the policies are connected in a circle, with each policy reinforcing the values of another. Domestic American terrorism in the prison and detention systems and governmental reforms are influenced by the mobilization and ethnocentrism abroad. The militarization internationally is justified by the domestic handling of the same cultural issues within the United State borders. The United States has strangely used a near Catch-22 to handle dilemmas. The United States has allowed perspective to become reality, whether with oneself or regarding issues abroad, specifically in the Middle East. Terrorism is the use or threat of fear for political or economical gain. An internal characteristic of terrorism is how dependent it is of perspective, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. To understand “terrorism,” a focus must be applied to the history, what drove an organization to commit such acts. Respectively, the Middle East has been a hotbed for the key word “terrorism,” especially because of 9/11. Subsequently, Muslims have been stigmatized by the United States as terrorists. The consequences spawned because of 9/11 require a look to the past to understand the present.

Today one does not even have to wait for a movie to be released. Simply click the “ON” button on a remote and suddenly, thousands of news and television shows are available for one to enjoy. Muslims are also the target of prejudice in these news broadcasts and programs. One such television program released was a drama titled “24.” Issues and Controversies reports: “The show, which deals with a counterterrorism unit based in Los Angeles, featured a group of Muslim terrorist characters who were plotting to detonate nuclear weapons in the U.S. At the end of one episode, the terrorists successfully detonated a small bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, killing about 12,000 people” (“Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment”). This fictional show wrongly spreads the stereotypical image of Muslims and their clichéd image of the fundamentalists on 9/11. By adding the title and image of “Muslim” to the phrase “terrorist” the program wrongly advertised that potentially every Muslim could be a terrorist. This stereotypical image is similarly expressed in news broadcasts through the use of terrorism news. By increasingly using terrorism and Muslims in top

Many Americans do not understand the implication and role of terrorism in the modern world. Terrorism is not a something that can be measured or held in hand. It is a theoretical idea that has many different meanings to many different people (Aziz, 2014). U.S. Citizens in general need to understand the full effect of modern terrorism. Blinded by media coverage and dramatized by slow-motion video replay of terrorist attacks,

Relationships always start off good and usually we hope they stay that way, but that is not always the case. Men and woman soon find themselves in abusive relationships filled with pain and regret. Movies and T.V shows give us vast examples of abusive relationships such as intimate terrorism.

Throughout the last couple decades, terrorism has become a prominent issue. With the emergence of major terrorist groups stirring up trouble, such as in the Middle East, many people live in fear of these emerging threats. Throughout Vietnam’s long history, there have been many cases of terrorism. During the Vietnam War, the US and other western nations committed many atrocious acts of terror against the Vietnamese population. In 1968, one of the worst acts of terrorism, the My Lai Massacre, occurred in Vietnam. This atrocious act was committed by the US. According to one American soldier during the Vietnam War, “In the ambushes we killed anything or anybody and a lot of those were VC.” The soldier continued on to say, “We used claymores on any people, on a boat that passed… snipers were the worst killers who were responsible for at least 600 murders per month…” After the Vietnam war, a new terrorist group emerged from the old South Vietnamese group, called the Free Vietnam Revolutionary Group whose primary goal was to target Vietnamese embassies. However, high levels of security allowed Vietnamese ambassadors to survive and prevented casualty occurrences. In 2015, terrorism or terror-related activities were the 6th and 7th top Google searches in Vietnam, indicating the general population’s concern on the effects of terrorism. Vietnam realizes the impact of terrorism and the threat it poses to the world.

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

Interestingly, it seems when discussing terrorism in cinema, filmmakers more often than not make films about terrorism that has happened in their own country. Hollywood cinema noticeably has an absence of terrorism, whereas European films in contrast have far more.

At first glance, it seems that the differences between Israel and the United States of America run deeper than water. Despite its size, Israel is constantly the target of hate and criticism. As a country with a strong Army, Israel has to constantly defend itself and justify its actions to the world. The USA, who has always been an ally to Israel, is at the top of the social food chain, reigning over the world. The two nations, although different, exhibit the same political and ideological shifts in views and beliefs. Films are a strong medium to explore and demonstrate the evolution of a society's identity. The films act as a sort of mirror through which a society can explore its mythologies, ideas, and identity. The mirror reflects the social

Hitchcock briefly returned to England to persuade his mother to come to the safety of America as the whole nation feared a Nazi attack. Alma had just brought over her own mother and sister. As Wanger wanted to add the future bombardment of England in the film a final scene was hastily written and filmed and a few days after the scene, the real Bombing in Britain began. American filmmakers dared to show their pro-British sympathies eventhough America was a neutral country at the time. Michael Balcon, one of the British producers resented those British citizens working in Hollywood at a time when Britain was short-handed at the time of a national emergency. He was perhaps jealous of Hitchcock working in Hollywood. The rift between them

The history of terrorism can be traced back as far as the French revolution. Some of these acts of terrorism only seem as distant reminders of our past, but at the same time, are not a far cry from today’s brutal acts; and although these acts seem distant, it doesn’t also mean they are no longer in the thoughts of individuals in today’s time.

Moving on, zombies and the lower class have an interesting future ahead. According to the essay “The Media in the Movies” zombies make their interactions primarily through pop culture and media. Media is becoming the way of life around most of the world. Nearly everything is now digital and accessible via an electronic device. This electronic domination can go both ways for zombies as their initial appeal method of movies may take a hit because less people are heading to movie theaters and are watching movies and television shows via streaming websites such as Netflix. According to “MPPA.org” there has been a steep decline of about five percent in movie theater attendance. This can potentially hurt the zombie appeal because movies are a huge display point for zombies and having a decline in movie theater attendance mean less people are watching the zombie brand. On the flip side, it is beginning to look like zombies are no longer relying on items such as movies but instead focus on television shows in hopes of expanding the brand. Numerous zombie incorporated television shows such as “The Walking Dead” have rapidly gained popularity as these shows are becoming much watch TV for many people. In the midst of all this it seems as zombies aren’t being hurt but rather changing. Which is similar to the lower class as it will continue to evolve as well. In the current United States economic system, the middle class is shrinking and soon there will only be a lower and an

The thesis of this paper is that the attacks of 9/11 were the catalysts of a world culture of terrorism that is used by propaganda and censorship to blur the politics of globalization and technology, and restructure a totalitarian society. This paper will argue that the businesses of “the U.S. media shill factory” (Borjesson, 2004, p.165), the plottings of the “brand based” (Klein, 2000, P.421) corporations, and the multi-national oil giants influence sectors of government by using deliberate strategies of censorship and propaganda to discredit government effectiveness, alienate populations, and seize control.