The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict In The Film Death Before Dishonor

As the world progresses, developments occur that have a profound significance on the entire nature in which society functions. One such event is the growth of the film industry that has prompted restructuring of the way we view certain groups of people. Hollywood can be seen not only as a major driving force behind cultural, political, and social change, but also as an enforcer of preconceived notions and an outlet of misrepresentation. Among the various groups of people illustrated on the silver screen, Arabs are perhaps one of the most misunderstood and stereotyped groups of Hollywood. This multi-billion dollar industry produces a wide range of movies that heavily influence the way we perceive this group, and most importantly, the way in

Since the founding of Israel, the U.S. government has undoubtedly pledged its allegiance to the nation and unfortunately this support for Israel has created American hostility towards Palestinians. Under any circumstances, we never see images showing the struggles of Palestinian as disenfranchised refugees living in occupied territory, instead images repeatedly depict all Palestinians as evil terrorists. In the film Death Before Dishonor (1987), Palestinians are shown as heartless humans when a terrorist is brutally murdering an Israeli family in cold blood. In another scene, shot from the marine's point of view, the terrorist is shown happily torturing an American marine with a power drill. Washington’s policy makers failed to support the millions of Palestinians who have been made refugees, and live lives of poverty and squalor

The transition of images are clearly shown through the films Samson Against the Sheik (1962), where the sheik is initially portrayed as a dangerous kidnapper infatuated with western women, then to a wealthy buffoon in Cannonball Run 2 (1981), with millions of dollars oil money and diversified investments in U.S. corporations. Repeated images of the wealthy sheik is present in Rollover (1981), where he is determined to take over the world, Indiana Jones (1989), and the Last Crusade (1989), which shows the fantastically rich sheik who wants to translate his wealth into prestige as valued by the