On this day, 25 years ago, the World Trade Center buildings in New York City were the targets of a terrorist attack that shocked the nation. Tragically, 2,977 victims lost their lives in these attacks in New York City, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. In the years that followed, President George W. Bush founded the Department of Homeland Security, the United States invaded Afghanistan and 20 years of military conflict in the Middle East began. The American people needed a beacon of hope, so they turned to movie theaters.
Hollywood is a reflection of the current state of affairs in the United States, American culture and what the American people need. Most importantly, Hollywood can shift public opinion towards support or distaste for a given topic. The post-9/11 age of movies can be segmented into two lines of thinking: the American hero taking on the adversarial terrorist and the skeptical American hero fighting the establishment.
The War on Terror in the Middle East saw United States forces enter Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries that were deemed terrorist states. Public support of such action was widespread immediately after 9/11, offering a spark for this war to go on. However, kindling was still needed to ensure that Americans would continue supporting the war effort; America needed a villain on the silver screen that it could recognize from the news and an American to come save the day. The American public was equally as vengeful as it was frightened by this foreign force, presenting yet another reason to shift antagonists in Hollywood towards terrorist organizations.
In 2008, seven years after the tragedy, we witnessed the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man. In the film, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist Tony Stark uses his American ingenuity to create the Iron Man suit of armor from a box of scraps while captured by a Middle Eastern terrorist force. While the film displays some nuance in the perils of weapons manufacturing, it appropriated a traditionally Chinese-based villain group, the Ten Rings, to serve as a familiar adversary to the American public: a Middle Eastern terrorist organization.
Subsequent years displayed the heroics of American forces in the Middle East fighting terror, in films like Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper. The former serves as a gritty retelling of the Osama Bin Laden raid, allowing Americans to feel justice by watching his capture on the big screen. American Sniper glorifies the violence in the Middle East and demonizes the Iraqi people.
While initially Hollywood was working to display the heroics of the hardworking American battling foreign foes, a shift was happening to highlight the heroics of the hardworking American questioning their place in a morally gray state.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe also touched on the opposite end of the spectrum from Iron Man, showing the American flag clad supersoldier fighting against corruption in his own government in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The main security agency of the film is revealed to have been taken over by villains, with Captain America having to question his role in the security agency, his trust in the government as a whole and the ethics of eliminating threats around the world before they become unstoppable. The final plot point is a message all too familiar now, with “preventative measures” being taken to stop foreign powers from obtaining nuclear weapons, or hiding behind the guise of eliminating dangers before they become one, without considering that they may be wrong.
Films such as Green Zone and Vice also touch on the doubt of the American people in the government and involvement in the Middle East. Green Zone shows a soldier sent to destroy weapons in Iraq only to find that the intelligence supporting the mission was completely fabricated. Vice, a biopic of Dick Cheney, posits that the former Vice President pressured the United States into entering into Iraq on faulty evidence.
Hollywood has chosen its side, painting Americans as the protagonist whether it be fighting Middle Eastern terrorists or government corruption. The difference lies in which actor Hollywood gives control and power.
In the now famous line, “I am Iron Man,” Tony Stark is claiming all the power and control in his technology for himself. Similar to Stark, the protagonists of Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper are the ones in control. When fighting adversarial forces in the Middle East, the movie found it important to frame the individual as the actor in charge, not the government. By placing the individual character in the driver's seat, it paints them as heroic and encourages the audience to believe that the actions taken by the individual are all for the good of the world. Rooting for an individual in a fight against terrorism is a lot easier than rooting for a superpowered military force.
This concept is flipped with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Green Zone and Vice. Rather than paint the heroic American as the sole actor in charge, they are revealed to be a pawn in a scheme conducted by the superpower. Once more, the film finds that it is easier for an audience to root for an individual than a massive force. Each of these heroes' actions work to fight against a government which controls them, yet the government remains the ones in charge.
When that next event unfolds, Hollywood will be ready to shift again to show Americans who holds the power and who to trust. Post-9/11 was a time of great trust in the government and as polarization has only increased since that time of great unity, so has distrust in the government as displayed by films. An American may always be the protagonist in these films, yet the institutions they face have clearly shifted from foreign terrorists to the enemy within.
Brayden Rogers is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a columnist for the Arts & Culture department and can be reached at brogers@cornellsun.com.
