Evolving Transnational Cinematic Perspectives of Terrorism

This article describes the attributes of transnational cinema in general and of transnational terrorism cinema in particular and then presents a survey of representative films since the 1970s about terrorism from the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, as well as films from South America and India. The survey shows that, due to the forces of globalization and international terrorism, a transnational, albeit U.S.-European-dominated, cinematic discourse of terrorism is evolving. The discourse is due to the willingness of filmmakers, especially European filmmakers, to challenge their own nations’ public perceptions and cultural discourses of terrorism and the willingness of audiences to consider those challenges.