The Politics of Torture in the Post September 11 Context: An Analysis of Rendition

Abstract

Movies are part of the discursive social practices that reflect the conditions and structures of society. Among the broad category of movies, popular film always remains a potent cultural artifact; the most resonant and compelling capitalist art form that enables us to know about the turbulent social and political climate of the time. No national event has been more cinematic than the planes hitting the twin towers, one after the other, their fall to rubbles in an instant on September 11, 2001. The World Trade Centre had undoubtedly been the iconic image of the New York skyline which had appeared in many Hollywood movies as the backdrop. At this outset, the paper  intends to analyze the film Rendition against the background of the political zeitgeist of the time after the September 11 attack. The paper proposes to closely analyze the  cinematic narrative techniques that corroborate the emotional and ideological effects of the film. The paper follows the technique of close analysis of shots and sequences. The paper attempts to address the questions like how the dominant ideology influences films, how sequence analysis and shot analysis help in bringing out the nuances of representation and the politics of torture. The paper, in short, strives to decode the political ideology inherent in films by means of the methodology of technical analysis.