Documentary Review Of Person Of Interest (2004) Movie Review Examples

Documentary Review of Person of Interest (2004)
The Persons of Interest is an educative politically oriented documentary that explores the plight of the Arabs and Muslim Americans in a biased mainstream society. The perception towards the individuals of these cultures changed considerably especially after the 9/11 tragic experience. The movie highlights the stereotypic attitude assumed by the mainstream American community that subjects the Arabs and Muslim Americans to serious discriminations. The producer of the film attempts to challenge some of these stereotypic assumptions by showing how they are often misinformed. The US government assumed a generalized position towards individuals of the Arabic and Muslim backgrounds, viewing them as persons of ill motive who needed to be monitored accordingly. The paper review the film, Persons of Interest by focusing on the problems that Arabs and Muslim Americans faced after 9/11 and how the government and the mainstream American society treated them.
The documentary gives an account of various instances in which the Arabs and Muslim Americans are wrongly accused and mishandled by the authority following the biased attitude that the government developed towards this group. For example, a Buffalo Burger King employee suspects a senior citizen who was visiting from California. In consequence, the Police arrest this “suspect” in a rental car that they claim is stolen. He is retained in custody for a month, but it is surprising to learn that this person was wrongly accused. Furthermore, the authority arrests a civil engineer at his home in New Jersey following his position of refusing to discuss his political views regarding the Mideast authorities. This is in the view that the authority interpreted his position to mean that he might have been a sympathizer of the terrorists. In another case, a Pakistan-born American citizen is arrested following inadequate grounds and held in custody for 100 days. The authority accuses the victim of having a fight-simulation video game, Islamic texts, Pakistan currency, and a ticket stub to the World Trade Center. These highlights some of the many incidents accounted in the documentary in which individuals of Arabic or Islamic backgrounds became victims of misinformed accusations that attempted to fix them as terrorists. This is happened because of the authority’s stereotypic assumption upon individuals of the Arabic or Muslim backgrounds.
The film, the Persons of Interest provides an account of the challenges that Arab and Muslim American faced under the campaign staged by the United States justice department that focused on Muslim and Arab immigrants. This especially happened after the 9/11 event and the campaign targeted combating terrorism. However, despite the justifiable need for combating the terrorism, some of the actions assumed by the authority failed to conform to just guidelines particularly the ones granted to the American citizens. The film highlighted that Arabs and Muslim Americans suffered problems such as arbitrary arrests, confinement and severe detention under the U.S authority. Surprisingly, this often happened without any legal representation or engagement with the suspect’s family. Most innocent Arabs and Muslim Americans also were subjects to mandatory deportation and imposed imprisonment. These practices present a scorn to the basic American principles such as the presumption of innocence. The most ruthless treatment upon citizens of Arabic and Muslim backgrounds are witnessed in some tormenting incidents in which the Corps murdered suspects by opening fire to them. For example, Ronnie Middleton who was a witness against the charges put forth upon Hector Alvarez is shot dead. In this incident, Carter has a feeling that Castillo, the local storeowner could most probably have witnessed the crime; however, he is worried that he might be seen talking with the Cops. Arab and Muslims American citizens lived in fear and distress as the authority deprived them their freedom and right of fair representation. In particular, the documentary shows that the US government mistreated innocent members of the Arabic and Islamic community following a racialized identification of these people as “terrorists.”
The producer of the film utilized bare room, and mainly static camera to give a highlight of various encounters with different detainees and their families to describe how the authority heartlessly treated Arabs and Muslim American citizens. The stories and experiences provided by the victims bring out poignancy and disbelieving outrage. In essence, the experiences accounted by the victims present a massive assault on fundamental civil liberties. It is disturbing to learn how the authority covered their unjust actions by releasing selective stories of the arrested individuals. The government declined to justify their actions to the public and in other cases refused to be held responsible of the suffering that victims underwent under American system of justice. The Cops and other administrators in the US justice system exploited individuals of Arabic and Muslim cultures since they viewed them as terrorists. The national security officials identified individuals of these groups to be related with violent crimes and terrorist actions. In this context, the authority assumed and imposed ruthless policies that resulted to excessive exploitation and discrimination of members of the Arabic and Islamic community.