Terrorism, Culture, and the Presidential Election

The film "The Kingdom" which opened recently across the country is yet another salvo in the cultural war that accompanies this election season. The premise of the film is that "terrorists" attack a Saudi Arabian compound for Western workers, most of whom appear to be from the United States in that they speak English. While they play baseball they are mowed down. This happens in the first minutes of the film so I'm not giving anything away.

There is some tension in US governing circles as to how to respond, but an energetic FBI agent threatens the Saudi ambassador and amazingly gets entre to the Kingdom to track down the killers. There is no doubt in the context of the movie as to whether "terrorists" are bad people. There is no investigation in the motivations and wellsprings of anger that lead to the actions that motivate the film. One is left to believe that the issue is bad people trying to kill good people who must be really rough and nasty to protect themselves.

Normally I like a movie like this. Lots of action. A plot that keeps moving right along. Lots of guns and things exploding. Pretty much my kind of film. Except in this case the film was released during the election period. I have to ask why now? Unfortunately, I am not prone to believe in coincidence.

The film is completely confused politically. The Saudi kingdom is in real life a brutal monarchy determined maintain its control over the main natural resource under its control: oil. While a friendship develops between a Saudi policeman and a US FBI agent in this film, the basis of the friendship is a common aspiration to get the bad guys