Babel With a hint of Rendition The films Babel (2006) and Rendition (2007) show how paranoia regarding foreigners and terrorism affect innocent lives. There has been a sort of hysteria regarding terrorism in America and unfortunately the faces that have been attached to it are brown. These films are especially relevant to the happenings in America right now with leaders such as Donald Trump expressing Islamophobic views. In Babel, there are different storylines and each of them is tied together with the gun that starts it all. The tour bus shooting is immediately broadcasted in America as having been a terrorist attack. This assumption wrecks havoc in the characters’ lives. The use of the gun as a way to connect all the characters appeared …show more content…
It is ironic that the nation that is immediately labelled as having terrorists on American television and around the world is one where the people are accommodating to the injured tourist. On the other hand there are the tourists, those from first world country whom the supposed terrorists are always after. It is ironic that these tourists are the “innocent victims” yet they are completely unaccommodating to the couple, complaining about the heat when someone is shot and quite possibly dying. The movie demonstrates a demonization of those who are foreign to the west. This demonization of foreigners is first seen in Richard’s neurotic wife who is quite condescending to the waiter as she makes her demands and throws out ice cubes in her husband’s drink for fear of contamination. Her actions signal to the audience that she thinks she is better than the people and the place she is currently in. Although the scene of her neuroticism is quite short, it was borderline irritating to the point where her being shot evoked a sense of justice or karma. Richard later displays the same kind of condescension when she calls his kids’ babysitter telling her she cannot leave for her own son’s wedding saying he will pay for a more expensive wedding. It is quite self-righteous that he would expect an entire wedding to be called off for his …show more content…
For example in Babel where the police willingly shoot at children because a precious American was injured. Although the kids did shoot at the bus, there is a certain savagery to the way in which Ahmed was shot down in such an inhumane way. American lives are placed on a pedestal where injuring one adult who survived is equivalent to the life of an innocent child. No questions asked, no investigation, a life lost on the basis of an assumption. This paranoia about terrorist is determined by skin colour, if it is brown it qualifies, whether it is man, woman, or child is of no