THE NATURALIZATION OF “GOOD” VIOLENCE IN RECENT FILMS ABOUT THE WAR ON TERROR

Abstract

This thesis undertakes a narrative analysis of three recent films about the war on terror: Olympus Has Fallen (2013), American Sniper (2014) and London Has Fallen (2016) to study how these movies produce meaning with regard to the worldwide fight against terrorism and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Drawing on Barthes theory of semiotics and Foucaults notion of Subjectification and Knowledge/power, this research explores the construction of the terrorist character and the Arab enemy in fictional narratives and how those meanings produce a body of knowledge which defines the imaginary space to think and talk about such phenomena. This thesis also addresses the discursive practices used to legitimize and naturalize procedures such as the torture of terrorists and the killing of children and women at the hands of U.S. soldiers or American secret agents. Finally, this thesis explores the ways in which these filmic productions have begun to implicate audience members in the perpetration of symbolic violence by constructing specific locations for the viewer, through which the message makes more sense.