Rules of Engagement

Rules of Engagement (2000)

Jack Shaheen states:

Of all the Department of Defense films, the one that will stand the test of time as being the most racist is Rules of Engagement. The film was written by former Secretary of the Navy James Webb. The action takes place in Yemen, a real country in the Middle East. There are violent demonstrations at the American embassy, and the Marines, led by Samuel L. Jackson, they’re called in to evacuate the American employees. And as they try to do so, the Marines open fire on the crowd and kill scores of Yemeni, including women and children. And in the investigation that follows, Tommy Lee Jones, the lawyer who represents the Samuel L. Jackson character, goes to Yemen to investigate. The movie leads us to believe what seems obvious, that the Marines committed this atrocity.

TRANSLATOR: [clip from Rules of Engagement] Armed American Marines, they were shooting at his people. They were just trying to defend themselves.

JACK SHAHEEN: During his investigation, Jones’s character sees a little girl with only one leg. He follows her, comes upon a hospital ward full of civilian victims. He finds an audiotape by the bed of one of the victims. And when the tape gets translated in court, we immediately begin changing our minds about who is responsible for this massacre.

INTERPRETED TAPE: [clip from Rules of Engagement] To kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is duty of every Muslim who is everywhere.

JACK SHAHEEN: We discover that the Yemeni civilians aren’t so innocent after all. It turns out they fired on the Marines first. And in a moment that will live in Hollywood infamy, we suddenly learn that the little girl we’ve been sympathizing with, the very girl whose humanity and innocence may have broken down our stereotypes, well, she’s no better than those other Yemeni terrorists. As a result, when Samuel L. Jackson delivers the key line --

COL. TERRY L. CHILDERS: [clip from Rules of Engagement] Waste the motherf*****s!

JACK SHAHEEN: -- we’re now on his side. Why does this matter? Because in the end, the massacre of even women and children has been justified and applauded. It’s a slaughter, yes, but it’s a righteous slaughter.
…
The humanity is not there. And if we cannot see the Arab humanity, what’s left? If we feel nothing, if we feel that Arabs are not like us or not like anyone else, then let's kill them all. Then they deserve to die, right? Islamophobia now is a part of our psyche. Words such as “Arab” and “Muslim” are perceived as threatening words. And if the words are threatening, what about the images that we see in the cinema and on our television screens?
We are at war with Iraq. We went to war in March of 2003. But didn't our entrance to the war, wasn’t that made a lot easier primarily because for more than a century we had been vilifying all things Arab?

Principals

• William Friedkin Director
• James Webb Writer: story
• Stephen Gaghan Writer: screenplay