Abstract
Chapter 10 features an analysis of the current Other as crimefighter, a Muslim or Middle Eastern character, with a profile of the 2018 Hulu series, The Looming Tower, about the turf war between the CIA and FBI prior to 9/11 and the key role of Agent Ali Soufan. The chapter also looks at the slew of films and TV shows that still showcase the white male crimefighter hero, including more Die Hard sequels, Tom Cruise films, and a reboot of the Tom Clancy hero, Jack Ryan. The chapter ends with a closer look at Captain America, the American everyman transformed into a superhero and the nation’s defender since the 1940s, also made over to be relevant to modern times, including going rogue in the 2016 film, Captain America: Civil War.
What do you do for them [the CIA]?
Sandrine Arnaud, a French police captain
I’m an analyst.
Jack Ryan, CIA officer
I think you have everyone fooled. I think you are a wolf. A wolf who plays at being a sheep.
Arnaud
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Notes
- 1.
Mark Hughes, “‘Fate of the Furious’ Makes Vin Diesel a $6 Million Man in 2017,” Forbes, April 26, 2017.
- 2.
Anita Busch, “Vin Diesel, The H Collective Acquire ‘xXx’ Franchise Rights Before Fourth Installment,” Deadline Hollywood, April 17, 2018.
- 3.
Unlike the lucrative earnings for the original film, the sequel barely earned back its production costs of $60 million, according to imdb.com, even after accounting for overseas box office receipts, which usually produce reliable profits for action films.
- 4.
Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence, Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003), 635–636, Kindle.
- 5.
Rolf Halse, “Counter-Stereotypical Images of Muslim Characters in the Television Series 24: A Difference that Makes No Difference?” Critical Studies in Television, 10, no. 1 (Spring 2015), 54–72.
- 6.
Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11 (New York University Press, 2012).
- 7.
Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (New York: Routledge, 1994), 200–201.
- 8.
The Lebanese American entertainer and philanthropist, Danny Thomas, was a devout Catholic.
- 9.
- 10.
Kyle Blaine and Julia Horowitz, “How the Trump Administration Chose the 7 Countries in the Immigration Executive Order,” CNN, January 30, 2017. Also see Uri Freidman, “What Exactly is Trump’s Travel Ban Supposed to Stop,” The Atlantic, February 9, 2017. The ban did not include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, drawing intense criticism about Trump’s apparent conflicts of interest, as he has business dealings with these countries. See David G. Post, “Was Trump Executive Order an Impeachable Offense,” Washington Post, January 30, 2017.
- 11.
The Siege, DVD, directed by Edward Zwick (20th Century Fox, 2000).
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Patrick McGilligan, Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012).
- 15.
FBI, Season 1, episode 1, “Pilot,” directed by Niels Arden Opleb, aired on September 25, 2018. CBS.
- 16.
FBI, Season 1, episode 2, “Green Birds,” directed by Nick Gomez, aired on October 2, 2018. CBS.
- 17.
Zeeko Zaki, “I’m a Muslim American and I Play the Hero in a TV Show. Here’s What My Experience Has Taught Me About How We can Change Hollywood,” Time, October 16, 2018.
- 18.
Hulu like Netflix has expanded into producing content rather than just being a repository for recycled shows. See Chuck Tryon, “TV Got Better: Netflix’s Original Programming Strategies for Binge Viewing,” Media Industries, 2, no. 2 (2015).
- 19.
Mike Hale, “Review: The Looming Tower Looks at 9/11, but Misses the Big Picture,” The New York Times, February 27, 2018. See also Liam Matthews, “Who’s Who on The Looming Tower,” tvguide.com, March 1, 2018. See also, Gregory Ellwood, “Peter Sarsgaard on the Possibilities of The Looming Tower Season Two,” June 21, 2018. Available online at https://theplaylist.net/peter-sarsgaard-looming-tower-20180621/.
- 20.
Jane Mayer, “The Unidentified Queen of Torture,” The New Yorker, December 18, 2014. Also see https://theintercept.com/2014/12/19/senior-cia-officer-center-torture-scandals-alfreda-bikowsky/. Other CIA sources responded to the Senate 2014 report implicating Alfreda Frances Bikowsky (her identity classified at the time), one vouching for her al Qaeda expertise, while another officer argued, “She should be put on trial and put in jail for what she has done.” Matthew Cole, “Bin Laden Expert Accused of Shaping CIA Deception on Torture Program,” NBC News, December 18, 2014. Her identity now seems to be common knowledge as her name is listed as having inspired Marsh in the TV Guide character summaries: https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-looming-tower-character-guide/.
- 21.
Mayer, ibid. Cole, ibid. Also see Jennifer O’Mahony, “The CIA, Zero Dark Thirty and Me: A Female Agent on Life Under Cover,” The Telegraph, June 5, 2013. Bikowsky is also reportedly the inspiration for both Maya in Zero Dark Thirty and Mathison in Homeland. Several accounts refer to the Scheuer’s Alec station (named after his son), employing 27 people—most of them women—as “Scheuer’s Harem” or “the Manson Family.” See also: See Mark Bowden, The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012).
- 22.
Lawrence Wright, “The Agent: Did the CIA Stop an FBI Detective from Preventing 9/11?” The New Yorker, July 10, 2006.
- 23.
Danielle Turchiano, “‘The Looming Tower’ Boss on the Importance of the Muslim-American Hero of the Story,” Variety, February 22, 2018.
- 24.
Debra Birnbaum, “Looming Tower: Showrunner Dan Futterman Breaks Down ‘Shocking’ Finale,” Variety, April 18, 2018.
- 25.
Soufan says he remains baffled by the CIA’s failure to share information before 9/11 but also the costs of engineered intelligence by some officers to help the Bush administration make the case for the Iraq War. “Look at all the blood that we lost in Iraq,” Soufan laments. “Look at how the Iraq War helped al Qaeda both with recruits and financially. It’s tragic.” See Frontline, Season 29, episode 20, “The Interrogator,” aired on September 13, 2011, PBS.
- 26.
Sophie Gilbert, “The Gripping History of The Looming Tower,” The Atlantic, March 2, 2018. Also see Mike Hale, “Review: The Looming Tower Looks at 9/11, but Misses the Big Picture,” The New York Times, February 27, 2018.
- 27.
Joe Otterson, “’NYPD Blue’ Sequel Pilot Casts Fabien Frankel in Lead Role,” Variety, January 17, 2019.
- 28.
The series of hit shows with CSI in the title, as in Crime Scene Investigation, showcased the role of forensics in solving crimes, and not central to this book’s focus. Its first spin-off, CSI: Miami, after its 2002 debut, produced a decade of shows that made the shades-wearing Lt. Horacio Caine a TV icon, portrayed by David Caruso, the former star of NYPD Blue.
- 29.
As quoted on show’s official website, available at: https://www.cbs.com/shows/ncis-new-orleans/about/.
- 30.
NCIS: New Orleans, Season 3, episode 19, “Quid Pro Quo,” directed by Alex Zakrzewski, aired on March 28, 2017, CBS.
- 31.
It is reminiscent of Edward Conlon’s opus about being a Harvard-educated cop from a multigenerational Irish police family who joins the NYPD. The difference between Blue Bloods and Conlon’s book, Blue Blood, is the latter’s often distressing and jarring portrait of a cop’s daily life, especially one pitted against theory and family folklore—and amid the backdrop of a city devastated by the attacks of 9/11.
- 32.
Margaret Talbot, “Stealing Life: The Crusader Behind ‘The Wire,’” The New Yorker, October 22, 2007.
- 33.
Laura Miller and Rebecca Traister, “The Best TV Show of All Time,” Salon, September 15, 2007.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
“‘Southland’ Canceled: TNT Decides Not to Pick Up Cop Drama for Season 6,” Huffington Post, updated story from July 10, 2013. Available online.
- 36.
Above quotes from “Season 1, Episode 0, Bosch: Behind the Scenes.”
- 37.
Joanna Robinson, “How 24: Legacy Grapples with Trump’s Travel Ban,” Vanity Fair, February 5, 2017.
- 38.
Joe Otterson, “24 Prequel Series in the Works at Fox,” Variety, July 30, 2018.
- 39.
A Good Day to Die Hard, directed by John Moore (20th Century Fox, 2013), Amazon Prime.
- 40.
Nick Romano, “New Die Hard Movie Officially Titled McClane,” Entertainment Weekly, September 3, 2018.
- 41.
John Lanchester, “How Jack Reacher was Built,” The New Yorker, November 14, 2016.
- 42.
Manohla Dargis, “Review: Tom Cruise Has a Familiar Furrow in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” The New York Times, October 20, 2016.
- 43.
Lanchester, The New Yorker.
- 44.
The second film failed to enjoy the success of the first, especially with both Child and fans of the novels increasingly disapproving of Cruise’s depiction of a character described as six-foot-five, as the actor only stands five-foot-seven; interestingly, that did not affect the first film’s box office success.
- 45.
Mariah Haas, “Tom Cruises Announces Two New ‘Mission: Impossible’ Films in the Works,” Fox News, January 14, 2019.
- 46.
Sophie Gilbert, “Jack Ryan: Reaganite Hero,” The Atlantic, August 31, 2018.
- 47.
Maane Khatchatourian, “Chris Pine Deeply Regrets Not Getting ‘Jack Ryan’ Right,” Variety, December 27, 2014.
- 48.
Pine’s Ryan’s was also afflicted with PTSD, along with being more politically aware of the agency’s controversial past. Pine imagined his Ryan as a “questioning man,” aware of “what happened in the CIA with … water boarding and torture.” Eric Kelsey, “Clancy’s Cold War Hero Jack Ryan Gets Film Reboot with Familiar Foe,” reuters.com, January 17, 2014. See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jackryan/clancys-cold-war-hero-jack-ryan-gets-film-reboot-with-familiar-foe-idUSBREA0G1Q620140117.
- 49.
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Season 1, episode 3, “Black 22,” directed by Patricia Rigger, Amazon Prime.
- 50.
This ignores the vast differences among American identifies, with some ethnicities absorbed into the mainstream, rendering obsolete the need for a hyphenated identity other than for the sake of cultural pride, as may be the case for Italian Americans. Other ethnicities and racial identities, though, have not been accepted as normatively American, and a hyphenated difference is often assigned to them to mark them as the Other. See Matthew Frye Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 7. Also see Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States (New York: Routledge, 2014).
- 51.
- 52.
Gilbert, “Jack Ryan,” August 31, 2018.
- 53.
Sonia Saraiya, “Jack Ryan is a Patriotic Nightmare,” Vanity Fair, August 31, 2018.
- 54.
Marouf A. Hasian, Jr., “Military Orientalism at the Cineplex: A Postcolonial Reading of Zero Dark Thirty,” Critical Studies in Communication, 31, no. 5 (2014), 466.
- 55.
Ibid., 474.
- 56.
The agency is known as SHIELD, originally the Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division; it was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate; and more recently, Extreme Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
- 57.
Captain America: Civil War, DVD, directed by Joe Russo (Marvel, 2016).
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Ibid.
- 61.
Charles T. Call, David Crow, and James Ron, “Is the UN a Friend or a Foe?” The Brookings Institution, October 3, 2017. Available online at brookings.edu.
- 62.
J. Richard Stevens, Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence: The Evolution of a National Icon (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2015), 3.
- 63.
Jewett and Lawrence, 445, Kindle.
- 64.
Ibid., 466–467.
- 65.
Ibid., 463.
- 66.
Ibid., 501–502.
- 67.
Anthony Giddens, The Nation-State and Violence: Volume 2 of a Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 121.
- 68.
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1996).
- 69.
Carl Boggs and Tom Pollard, The Hollywood War Machine: U.S. Militarism and Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 2007), 2.
- 70.
Clyde Prescowitz, Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 6.
- 71.
Patrick Radden Keefe, “How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success,” The New Yorker, December 27, 2008.
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Yaquinto, M. (2019). Policing the World: The Last (White) American Standing. In: Policing the World on Screen. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24805-5_10
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