Civil Society Under Siege: Terrorism and Government Response to Terrorism in 'The Siege'

This article is written by Helena Vanhala in Spring 2008.
The article comments on the view that villains in American "action and adventure" films, particularly 'The Siege' from 1998 have a racial stereotype of Muslims. The film is even criticised for reinforcing American views of Muslims and Islam being a religion of terrorism.

The article sets out to talk about...

• How the film reinforces these views
• How this affected audiences

This article mentions how in many "action adventure" films from the 1980s and 1990s have a very stereotypical and some what racist view of Arabs and Muslims. The article even goes as far as implying these films may have even influenced the views of the President during the time of the 9/11 attacks, George W Bush. This is done by placing both a quote from General William Dereveaux (played by Bruce Willis) from 'The Siege' and a quote from George W Bush after the 9/11 attacks.

General William Dereveaux 1998 - "Make no mistake, we will hunt down the enemy, we will
find the enemy and we will kill the enemy."

George W Bush Sept 11, 2001 - "Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and 

punish those responsible for these cowardly attacks."

The article mentions how the opening of the film has many similarities to two events, one being the Beirut attack on Marine barracks in 1983 and a fuel truck bombing outside a U.S. Housing facility in Saudi Arabia.