Representation of Terrorism and Ethnicity in SPOOKS

Scenes 31 and 32 -

Ahmed holds Danny and Fiona hostage - Ahmed is represented in a negative way.

How are the binary opposites conveyed to the audience?

Danny and Fiona:

The CU's on Fiona make us feel sorry for her, she is breaking down, in floods of tears, she seems admirable and brave in the face of danger. "I love you," She is human, she knows what's important in life, she values other people in this world.

Danny is so brave, he dies because he stood up to evil. Extreme good against extreme bad, and in this incident extreme evil won. He is extremely moralled, and how can he be so controlled and so brave in such a situation, the audience really admires him and this heightens the sympathy and impact of his death as he is almost a martyr for his cause. He brings to the attention that all humans are equal, and that it depends on where you are born as to what your situation is, and it's the choices you make as a person which makes you who you are.

Ahmed: - .. 'you will never win'

He is represented as a heartless soulless character as he is not moved by Fiona's despair, his expression remains stony when he simply says "choose". He seems to be weakened by Danny's talk momentarily (he moves the gun away from Fiona's head), he has got a heart? he is human deep down? No, this just heightens his evil as he had no intention in letting them go. He shoots Danny despite his talk on morals and humanity, he has lost his humanity, but he doesn't care - he shot Danny because Danny's stronger than him, and he feels threatened by this and doesn't understand it.

Music, Camera Work, and Editing in underlining these representations...

Music:

The music heightens the tense atmosphere - the drums almost representing a quickening heartbeat. The sustained notes on the strings also create a tense suspenseful mood. The drums slow right down when Danny is talking, when he pauses in his sentence there is a quick rhythm on the drums and to me, it's almost as if the drums are agreeing with Danny, the music is on his side too. The music then becomes very discrete so as not to draw attention away from Danny, the audience must hear what he is saying to feel sympathy and admiration.

CameraWork:

The shots of Fiona are ECU's and this definitely heightens her despair and trauma. Her face is covered in tears, she is meant to be perceived as the 'goodie.'

Danny is greatly admired because he is always shot in CU, and this highlights his defiance and his bravery. He is not cowering and whimpering like Fiona, he is so brave and so strong that he is not afraid to stand up to these people he despises so much . The gun against Fiona's head is shown in all his shots as well - the framing reminds the audience of what he is fighting against.

The camera is not still, it always moving and this brings the audience into the action, as though we are viewing the scene through the eyes of a person breathing heavily, who is witnessing the scene. It really heightens the realism of the scene. The camera also focuses lots on the gun and then moves to Ahmed's face, the audience is reminded of the gun and then drawn to his face to see his reaction to Danny's powerful words, the audience sees him weakening.

Editing:

The editing is slow paced, and really focuses on the expressions of the characters and this enables the audience to understand what is happening better. I think it's much more effective for the editing to be slow paced as it fits in with the suspenseful mood created by the mood and the action. It also allows the viewer to deduce how the character feels, for example when Danny is talking there is a cut to Ahmed, we see his reaction to the words, he looks down, he is being weakened by them.

What techniques engage the audience emotionally?

There are lots of CU's, this make the audience feel sympathy for the characters. The camera movement brings the viewer into the scene and makes them feel as though they are there. The acting is realistic and convincing, especially the despair from Fiona.

What view of terrorism emerges from these scenes?

That it is a threat to anyone, anyone can be affected and that it is ruthless, but ultimately 'they can never win'. Terrorism is being portrayed negatively, and Danny scorns the reasons for terrorism , it could have been him with the gun, but it's the choices YOU make that makes you who you are, humanity and compassion wins all.

What do you understand by Arab, Islamic, Muslim, Middle Eastern?

Muslim and Islam are references to religion. Traditionally, people of an Arab or middle-eastern background follow Islam or are Muslim. It connotes images of hot sandy plains and chequered scarfs, praying to Mecca, etc. Very stereotypical images as i don't understand their culture or religion very well.

What are the same categories for describing British people?

I'm not sure, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish - different parts of the UK. Also Catholics/Protestants. Though this really isn't relevant in today's society. You can get labelled a Brit, a Southerner/Northerner etc.

Britain is very ethnically diverse, there is a lot of prejudiced labels that are not socially acceptable today. People can be labelled by where they come from, their reliegeon etc unecessarily.

Al Qauda

An Islamic extremist movement, attack Western countries, most notoriously September 11th. They aim to end foreign influence in Muslim countries, and are very against the Western way of life and Western civilisation, techniques include suicide bombings.

Representations of Iraqi people on the Internet:

Article One - small extract - Iraq is dangerous:

As the "war on terrorism" continues, some Islamic charitable organizations have been targeted and shut down by the U.S. government under accusations of terrorist ties. The U.S. Treasury Dept. maintains a list of banned organizations. To ensure that your contribution reaches its intended recipients, steer clear of questionable groups and contribute through reputable, international organizations.

Article Two - small extract - Iraq is vulnerable, needs help

Saddam employs thousands of secret police and informers throughout the country to turn Iraqis against each other, even within families. On TV, we watched Saddam reward fathers with large cash prizes for turning in sons who had deserted the army.
Even children are not spared. When I attended fourth grade in 1981, my teacher called me to the front of the class and asked: "Do your parents say anything bad about the government?" The whole class was staring at me. Stunned and scared, I answered, "No." But when one of my classmates said in passing that Iran was not so bad, she disappeared the next day, along with her family.

Article three- Iraq can make it on her own, Obama's speech to withdraw troops

Obama: As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal. in carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments.

Iraq is represented differently by different people. Charities see it as a vulnerable place needing help, whereas politically America views Iraq as a dangerous threat.

Representation of Ahmed and Khatera

The episode of spooks does not mention religeon, they want revenge, revenge for the loss of their families in the Iraqi war. People have to be very careful about Tv/film topics etc, and this one is especially contraversial. They could be seen to promote Muslim extremism, or they could be seen to be racist and labelling all Muslims as terrorists. Getting the balance is very difficult, it's a sensitive issue.

In this episode of Spooks there is another Asian agent on the mi5 team and this is EXTREMELY significant because it prevents people from thinking that they are presenting the message that all middle eastern people are terrorists and can't be trusted. The young Asian is a comic, good looking character and portrays a very different image to the terrorists.

Danny, the main most admirable character is black. This is also significant, as it represents multi culturalism is British society today. Also, the tv production company cannot risk to be seen as racist, and therefore must hire people of all differnt ethnic backgrounds.

Narrative in Tv Drama

A couple wake up and go downstairs to breakfast. They do not realise they are being watched by terrorists. Fiona and Danny go to work and get taken hostage - the main intention of the terrorists is the kill the PM. Adam then gets called and has to do what the terrorists say for fear of losing his wife - tries to save Fiona but cannot as is being watched by the woman who has bombs sewn up inside of her. Extremely tense moment - husband has to choose between wife & Danny, Danny gets shot anyway for being principled and standing up for what he believes in. Another extremely tense moment - will the woman release the gases and kill everyone? Or will she tell the husband where they're being held hostage? She does the right things and Fiona is saved and the terrorist shot.

Narrative Conventions:

Beginning - couple happy, in love, it's her birthday - Equilibrium.
Middle - Dilemma - Fiona and Danny held hostage by extremist terrorists wanting their revenge. Main focus is trying to free them - feel a connection to the characters, they're in love, audience wish to see them back together.
Ending - Equilibrium is restored, but things will never be how they were - Danny died, the trauma of the experience etc.

Most stories end happily to please the audience. Tv is generally watched for enjoyment and watching greatly moving stories with sad endings can be distressing . Although sad endings are good once in a while, especially in One off true story dramas (such as A Weekend in Switzerland), happy endings are much preferred on the whole as they have the feel good factor, provide relief for the audience who really feel for the characters and meet audience expectations. Much tv is watched for escapism, a release from everyday life and for relaxation. Ending a tv drama on a distressing note reminds the viewer of the harshness of reality, and does not improve their mood or allow them to escapre their reality.

It's important to establish the standard way of living, the equilibrium, before the disruption, because this allows the viewer to understand what is being threatened by the dilema. In Spooks, the viewer understands that the couple are deeply in love, they're young, they have so much to live for and all this is put in jeopardy by the terrorists. Dramatic Irony is used, the viewer knows something the characters do not, they're being watched from the outside, and this heightens the tension and suspence as the audience is hooked to find out what will happen next.

The audience is automatically encouraged to take sides, this young couple are young in love, members of the mi5 secretly fighting crime, the audience feels sympathy for them, they have done nothing wrong. This is binary opposition, good against bad.
However, in this episode of spooks this is somewhat blurred, because the terrorists blame the couple for Western activity in the East, though this is not directly thier fault. Also, the woman terrorist is not bad, she has been drawn into the situation and can't seem to find a way out of it. So although, primarily it's good between bad, it's more complicated due to the intentions and situation of the characters.