Muslim Terrorists in action films

[Reaganfan]

During every war, American motion pictures have shown American actor heroes (John Wayne, Schwarzenegger, Stallone) fighting the current enemy. In the 1940's, John Wayne was fighting the Japs, in the 1960's, 70's and 80's...it was the communist enemies, mostly the Soviets. How come we don't see many movies today showing Americans fighting the enemy (Islamic extremists) we are currently at war with?

The film "The Sum of All Fears" was based on a Tom Clancy novel about muslim terrorists getting hold of a nuclear weapon and getting it into the U.S. The film was in production in 2001, and after 9/11, the plot was changed from muslims to Russians. My question is...why? After 9/11...extremist muslims are even more thought of as an enemy as before....why change the plot of the film to Russians?

I never quite understood that. Doesn't it make you miss the pop culture of the latter half of the Cold War? Red Dawn? American teenagers shooting Soviet officers who invaded the U.S.A....isn't that the classic jingoism America always had in popular culture during wartime?

[MODU]

You haven't been going to the theatres lately, have you?  You had a blockbuster film with "The Kingdom," where they specifically went after Islamic terrorists... inside Saudi Arabia. (For example)

However, the war movies tend to play better after the wars are over with, since people go to the movies to escape reality.

[Reaganfan]

You haven't been going to the theatres lately, have you?  You had a blockbuster film with "The Kingdom," where they specifically went after Islamic terrorists... inside Saudi Arabia. (For example)

However, the war movies tend to play better after the wars are over with, since people go to the movies to escape reality.

Very good point. I can't wait until Rambo 4 comes out January 25th! Can you believe my cousin asked me who was playing Rambo?!?!

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Perhaps because the current War on Terrah is so absurd it really needs a satirist, not a Schwarzeneggar?

And why do you act as if you Jingoism is a good thing? Not entirely unpredictable from you Mike, but still.

[Reaganfan]

Perhaps because the current War on Terrah is so absurd it really needs a satirist, not a Schwarzeneggar?

And why do you act as if you Jingoism is a good thing? Not entirely unpredictable from you Mike, but still.

Why is loving your country a bad thing?

[Middle-aged Europe]

The film "The Sum of All Fears" was based on a Tom Clancy novel about muslim terrorists getting hold of a nuclear weapon and getting it into the U.S. The film was in production in 2001, and after 9/11, the plot was changed from muslims to Russians. My question is...why? After 9/11...extremist muslims are even more thought of as an enemy as before....why change the plot of the film to Russians?

Filming for "The Sum of All Fears" was actually completed a few months before 9/11. The movie's release was then postponed until 2002 because of the WTC attacks.

The decision to change the bad guys' identities from Islamists to Nazis (not Russians) was made long before 9/11. However, the terrorist nuking of a major U.S. city was considered to much to handle for an American audience no matter who the perpetrator was. So the movie was held back a few more months.

[Joe Republic]

Perhaps because the current War on Terrah is so absurd it really needs a satirist, not a Schwarzeneggar?

And why do you act as if you Jingoism is a good thing? Not entirely unpredictable from you Mike, but still.

Why is loving your country a bad thing?

Loving your country and jingoism are very different things.  For heaven's sake, you should know at least this much by now.

[they don't love you like i love you]

LOL@more Naso stupidity

Naso would no doubt hate The Kingdom too anyway, since it isn't a blatantly jingoistic pro-American movie.

[Silent Hunter]

LOL@more Naso stupidity

Naso would no doubt hate The Kingdom too anyway, since it isn't a blatantly jingoistic pro-American movie.

The only thing the movie has going for it is Jennifer Garner beating people up- and it's cheaper than an Alias box set.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Perhaps because the current War on Terrah is so absurd it really needs a satirist, not a Schwarzeneggar?

And why do you act as if you Jingoism is a good thing? Not entirely unpredictable from you Mike, but still.

Why is loving your country a bad thing?

Because the way 'your country' was chosen was little more than a lucky shot in the great mankind sperm race. (or Unlucky, if you live in the Third world.)

Loving 'your' country; the concept amuses me as I don't love mine. Not that Joe Republic isn't correct when he says there is a difference between Jingoism (OMG LETS GO KILL THOSE SANDNIGGAHS!11111) to patriotism.

[Colin]

Well the obvious answer to this question is that, god damn it, Russians are just such damn good bad guys. Pick a classic action movie and you will see that the bad guy is a Russian or Eastern European. The only classic action movies I can think of that didn't have Russians involved were Rambo and Die Hard. Why is this you might ask? Because with the antagonist being a Russian you get a mixture of sophistication, exoticism, and harshness. Especially post-1991 the ultranationalist Russian has become almost a stock badguy in the world of the action movie, Air Force One and The Peacemaker (though to be accurate I believe he is Serbian) come to mind.

Having said that I would not say that Muslim terrorists are at all absent from the action genre. Lets look at one of the most successful franchises in the action thriller genre of the past 8 years, 24. It has seemed that they've basically alternated between Muslims and Russians as their bad guys. They see that the Muslim terrorist is more topical but that the ultranationalist Russian is cooler and actual makes for a better typical action movie villain than the Muslim terrorist.

[afleitch]

The old Russkies are the villains in Indy 4 I think. It's only natural - having old villains, long defeated are the staple of war films.

[Joe Republic]

The old Russkies are the villains in Indy 4 I think. It's only natural - having old villains, long defeated are the staple of war films.

Indy 4 is set in 1957, so it makes far more sense to have the Soviets as the enemies than whatever the hell Naso is asking for.

[2952-0-0]

I miss the days 10 years ago when all Hollywood movies had Chinese evildoers.

[Boris]

I miss the days 10 years ago when all Hollywood movies had Chinese evildoers.

Lethal Weapon 4 ftw

[YRABNNRM]

THIS JUST IN - NASO WANTS MORE MUSLIM TERRORISTS.


WHAT A LIB-ER-AL.

[Lief 🗽]

Colin hit it on the head, I think. Soviets are more appealing bad guys than terrorists to an American audience. I certainly think they're cooler. Middle-eastern terrorists are rarely fit the evil mastermind kind of role; they're mostly just poor, ignorant militants. Russians, on the other hand, are usually intelligent, cunning, etc. It's more interesting.

[Reaganfan]

Colin hit it on the head, I think. Soviets are more appealing bad guys than terrorists to an American audience. I certainly think they're cooler. Middle-eastern terrorists are rarely fit the evil mastermind kind of role; they're mostly just poor, ignorant militants. Russians, on the other hand, are usually intelligent, cunning, etc. It's more interesting.

Colin is mistaken about Rambo, though. There was a mad Soviet in First Blood: Rambo 2 and he fought the Russians in Afghanistan in Rambo III.

[Colin]

Colin hit it on the head, I think. Soviets are more appealing bad guys than terrorists to an American audience. I certainly think they're cooler. Middle-eastern terrorists are rarely fit the evil mastermind kind of role; they're mostly just poor, ignorant militants. Russians, on the other hand, are usually intelligent, cunning, etc. It's more interesting.

Colin is mistaken about Rambo, though. There was a mad Soviet in First Blood: Rambo 2 and he fought the Russians in Afghanistan in Rambo III.

I was talking about original Rambo not the sequels.

[J. J.]

I think there a cable show depicting Islamic terrorists as the villians.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I think there a cable show depicting Islamic terrorists as the villians.

Rumor has it when J.J. is sporting a beard he sure looks like he could star as a terrorist. 

[Silent Hunter]

Not the James Bond films. In only four cases are Russians actually the main villains and in three cases, they're not actually working for the Soviet/Russian government.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Not the James Bond films. In only four cases are Russians actually the main villains and in three cases, they're not actually working for the Soviet/Russian government.

However, in the original James Bond novels, most villains were either Russian or working for "SMERSH", a Soviet intelligence agency. In the movies of the 1960ies this affiliation was then often changed to the criminal organization "SPECTRE", which had played only a minor role in the novels (the Dr. No of the novel was working with the Russians, while the movie version of Dr. No was affiliated with SPECTRE etc.).

A noteworthy semi-exception is probably the character of Goldfinger, who was allied with SMERSH in the novel, but worked for Communist China in the movie. Apparently, depicting the Chinese as bad guys was considered acceptable since the PRC wasn't diplomatically recognized by the UK at that point in history (as opposed to the Soviet Union).

[Silent Hunter]

Not the James Bond films. In only four cases are Russians actually the main villains and in three cases, they're not actually working for the Soviet/Russian government.

However, in the original James Bond novels, most villains were either Russian or working for "SMERSH", a Soviet intelligence agency. In the movies of the 1960ies this affiliation was then often changed to the criminal organization "SPECTRE", which had played only a minor role in the novels (the Dr. No of the novel was working with the Russians, while the movie version of Dr. No was affiliated with SPECTRE etc.).

A noteworthy semi-exception is probably the character of Goldfinger, who was allied with SMERSH in the novel, but worked for Communist China in the movie. Apparently, depicting the Chinese as bad guys was considered acceptable since the PRC wasn't diplomatically recognized by the UK at that point in history (as opposed to the Soviet Union).

Indeed. Good point.

[YRABNNRM]

Woah! I'm glad to see I'm no longer the only resident 007 expert here!