CINEMATIC TERROR CINEMATIC TERROR A GLOBAL HISTORY OF TERRORISM ON FILM Tony Shaw Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc NEW YORK (cid:127) LONDON (cid:127) NEW DELHI (cid:127) SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc 1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square New York London NY 10018 WC1B 3DP USA UK www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2015 © Tony Shaw, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Whilst every effort has been made to locate copyright holders the publishers would be grateful to hear from any person(s) not here acknowledged. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shaw, Tony, 1965- Cinematic terror : a global history of terrorism on film / Tony Shaw. pages cm Summary: “The first history of cinema’s treatment of terrorism from the birth of film to today”– Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-4411-0708-4 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-4411-9620-0 (paperback) 1. Terrorism in motion pictures. 2. Political violence in motion pictures. 3. Motion pictures–Political aspects. I. Title. PN1995.9.T46S53 2014 791.43'6556–dc23 2014021550 ISBN: HB: 978-1-4411-0708-4 PB: 978-1-4411-9620-0 ePub: 978-1-4411-5809-3 ePDF: 978-1-4411-9315-5 Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. For Shirley and Isaac CONTENTS Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 Silent Revolutionaries 9 2 Agents of Suspense 24 3 Symbols of Resistance 43 4 Epic Freedom Fighters 62 5 Newsreel Guerrillas 82 6 Docu-death Squads 102 7 Schlock and Awe 123 8 Avant-garde Narcissists 144 9 Serial Killers 163 10 Bollywood’s Communalists 185 11 Biopics for Peace 203 12 Networked Jihadists 224 13 Suicide Victims in Close-up 244 14 YouTube Monsters 265 Conclusion 282 Bibliography 288 Select Filmography 304 Film Index 307 General Index 310 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank three institutions for helping me put this project together. The Leverhulme Trust gave me thinking time via a Research Fellowship. The British Academy provided financial support, especially for overseas research trips. The Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles – where I was a visiting professor in 2012 – gave me access to fantastic resources and people. The following archivists, scholars and friends deserve particular thanks: Nathan Abrams, Dave Bannerman, John Bell, James Chapman, Nick Cull, Jonny Davies, Nirit Eidelman, Jo Fox, Aaron Gerow, Rebecca Grant, Barbara Hall, Ifan Hughes, Pete Kind, Avishai Kfir, Andre Kozovoi, Helen Monribot, Brigitte Nacos, Holger Nehring, Leon Nikitenko, Bianca Oertel, Steven Peacock, Meir Russo, Ray Ryan, Giles Scott- Smith, Owen White, Hugh Wilford and Denise Youngblood. Rob Cavanagh, Fabrizio Fenghi, Kevin Long and Nick Kupensky were wonderful research assistants. Once again, MUFC and MRFC taught me the importance of looking to the future (and the weekend game) rather than to the past. As always, Shirley and Isaac helped me to see that life’s real ‘high points’ are found beyond the back-garden study. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material and film stills in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity. Die Hard (1988). Twentieth Century Fox/Photofest. Die Hard 4.0 (2007). Twentieth Century Fox/Photofest. Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995). Twentieth Century Fox/Photofest. Die Harder (1990). Twentieth Century Fox/Photofest. Exodus (1960). United Artists/Photofest. Michael Collins (1996). Warner Bros./Geffen Pictures/Photofest. Operation Thunderbolt (1977). G. S. Films/Photofest. Sabotage (1936). Gaumont British/Photofest. State of Siege (1973). Reggane Films/Unidis/Euro International Films/Dieter Geissler Filmproduktion/Photofest. The Battle of Algiers (1966). Igor Film/Casbah Film/Photofest. The Delta Force (1986). Golan-Globus Productions/Photofest. The Third Generation (1979). Filmverlag der Autoren/Photofest. INTRODUCTION Theo van Gogh wasn’t famous just for being the great-grandnephew of painter Vincent. For two decades, the libertarian film-maker and writer revelled in being Holland’s king of provocation and insult. Lüger, van Gogh’s debut film made in 1982, caused a riot by depicting a psychopath shoving a pistol into a woman’s vagina and two kittens spinning in a washing machine. Off-screen, van Gogh was equally inflammatory, offending people with Holocaust-tinged jokes about Jewish celebrities and, after the onset of the West’s ‘war on terror’ in September 2001, incurring the wrath of Dutch Muslims via politically incorrect rants about multiculturalism on his website, the Healthy Smoker. In 2004, van Gogh used his latest film, May 6th, to excoriate the Muslim extremists (or ‘goatfuckers’) that he believed had incited the recent murder of the flamboyant right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn. Van Gogh didn’t live to see May 6th released. In August 2004, van Gogh’s short film Submission triggered uproar in Muslim circles when it was shown on Dutch public television. Submission showed a semi-naked Muslim woman, tattooed with Koranic verses, recounting how she had been forced into an arranged marriage, abused by her husband, raped by her uncle and then brutally punished for adultery. On the morning of 2 November 2004, a Dutch Moroccan Muslim, Mohammed Bouyeri, shot van Gogh off his bicycle on a busy Amsterdam Street, calmly slit the film-maker’s throat with a curved machete and pinned a letter to his chest with a knife. Bouyeri’s letter railed against the ‘infidel fundamentalists’ who were ‘terrorizing Islam’ through films like Submission, called for a holy war against the unbelievers and ended with a warning that Europe and the United States would soon ‘meet with disaster’.1 The death of Theo van Gogh has to be the most shocking illustration of the ways in which film-makers have become embroiled in today’s so-called Global Age of Terror. The Dutchman’s slaughter not only demonstrates the risks that film-makers and journalists run in confronting the subjects of terrorism and religion during a period of extreme political polarization. It also highlights the importance so many societies around the world attach to film as a medium of entertainment, education and persuasion. The international outcry, and deaths, caused by subsequent films 1Ronald Rovers, ‘The Silencing of Theo van Gogh’, Salon.com, 24 November 2004, http://www.salon. com/2004/11/24/vangogh_2/ (17 December 2013); Ian Buruma, Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (London: Penguin, 2006). Submission was 11 minutes long and written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch politician. May 6th also went by the title 06/05.