I have to admit, I had an inkling of what I was getting into when I bought tickets to “Olympus has Fallen.”
As we walked up to the screening room in Beirut’s ABC mall, I asked the usher: “Is this the movie about the terrorists?”
He nodded and smiled. “Is Lebanon in it,” I added.
“No, thank God. We’re not in this one. They just mention something about the Middle East.”
The usher was right. Hollywood has taken aim at the North Koreans this time. And how ironic that like the shamelessly propagandistic Argo Olympus is being screened just in time to ratchet up American fears as the US government enters into (or initiates?) yet another crisis with its enemies.
What a useless bloodbath this film would be. There must have been at least 100 murders on screen, some even more brutal then the blood lusting that is Game of Thrones, brought to us by the execs at HBO.
Of course the desensitization–some may say dehumanization–of the audience’s collective psyche is a small price to pay for the filmmakers. What do they care about dignity and morality anyway. They can just throw in a few “God Bless America” lines and call it a day:
But just when you thought it was all over– that the mind-numbing patriotism had run its course and the Middle East had miraculously escaped the cross hairs of Hollywood this this time– you would be wrong.
You see America gets attacked during the climax of this movie (that is clear from the trailers) and then in the next breath–the fake news announcer says the Middle East is “jubilant” in celebration.
Much of the Beirut audience laughed out loud. We knew our moment was coming. With stereotypes and anti-Arab narratives, Hollywood never upsets.
