According to German film theorist Siegfried Kracauer “films are the mirror of the prevailing society.” Through films viewers can understand the culture and sentiments of the people during the time of the film’s creation. Film directors study popular trends in their society and have those trends reflected back in their films to gain viewers and economic profit by providing something the audience can relate to. The preservation and study of films allow for the observation of the political attitudes of the people at the time of the film’s release. The study allows researchers to examine how an idea or perception of something can change over the course of several years. United States cinema has been able to record how American involvement in the
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Besides the Pearl Harbor attack by imperial Japan during WWII, there had not been any foreign attacks on US soil for a few decades (Riegler). The terrorist attacks occurring in Europe during the 1960s and 1970s were a source of morbid curiosity among Americans. These, along with rising tensions with oil suppliers in the Middle East, fueled the American imagination. In Black Sunday, Dahlia Iyad, an Arabian female terrorist associated with the PLO, plots to commit a terrorist attack during the Super Bowl (Riegler). Dahlia shares several of Leila’s physical traits but is portrayed as menacing toward the United States. This Leila Khaled was portrayed as having a disregard for human life and using her sexuality to appear harmless to men. Thus, the seductive but mainly harmless Arab woman of early cinema was given a more dangerous trait to her …show more content…
During Leila Khaled’s escapades the state of Iran was facing political turmoil that eventually became intertwined with American politics (“Iranian”). Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh had become immensely popular among Iranians and was planning to nationalize the oil reserves of Iran (“Iranian”). However, the nationalization of oil reserves would result in high oil prices for the United States. The CIA assassinated Mossadegh to keep the oil prices low and power was consolidated with Iran’s king, the Shah, who supported US policies
Besides the Pearl Harbor attack by imperial Japan during WWII, there had not been any foreign attacks on US soil for a few decades (Riegler). The terrorist attacks occurring in Europe during the 1960s and 1970s were a source of morbid curiosity among Americans. These, along with rising tensions with oil suppliers in the Middle East, fueled the American imagination. In Black Sunday, Dahlia Iyad, an Arabian female terrorist associated with the PLO, plots to commit a terrorist attack during the Super Bowl (Riegler). Dahlia shares several of Leila’s physical traits but is portrayed as menacing toward the United States. This Leila Khaled was portrayed as having a disregard for human life and using her sexuality to appear harmless to men. Thus, the seductive but mainly harmless Arab woman of early cinema was given a more dangerous trait to her …show more content…
During Leila Khaled’s escapades the state of Iran was facing political turmoil that eventually became intertwined with American politics (“Iranian”). Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh had become immensely popular among Iranians and was planning to nationalize the oil reserves of Iran (“Iranian”). However, the nationalization of oil reserves would result in high oil prices for the United States. The CIA assassinated Mossadegh to keep the oil prices low and power was consolidated with Iran’s king, the Shah, who supported US policies