'Source Code' Review: We Have Nothing to Fear, But Hollywood's Predictable Political Correctness

Taut thriller nearly trips over its own political correctness…

Source Code is a well-made movie with an engaging high-concept premise and — in a world where many movies don’t know how to land — a satisfying conclusion. Writer Ben Ripley tackles the (what I like to call) “screenwriter science” with the necessary balance of efficiency and logic, explaining away the sci-fi plot elements as much and as best as possible. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers an intense performance and is supported by sharp direction, cinematography, editing and F/X, and a dynamic original score by Chris Bacon.

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If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the set-up: It’s basically Groundhog Day with a terrorist attack. Gyllenhaal is an Air Force chopper pilot who last recalls flying sorties in Afghanistan but awakens to find himself trapped in what appears to be some kind of time travel pod: a device in a top secret military program that allows him to relive (repeatedly) the last 8 minutes of a doomed Chicago-bound passenger train.

You see, earlier that morning, a bomb exploded on the train, killing everyone on board, and it is believed to be the first of a series of attacks, the second of which is imminent and might involve a dirty bomb detonated somewhere in Chicago. Gyllenhaal’s mission is to identify the terrorist aboard the train so they can avert the upcoming catastrophe.

But then, just when you’re getting into it, the movie stumbles over the Hollywood Hills-sized speed bump of political correctness…

**MAJOR Spoiler Alert**

About 2/3 into the film, Gyllenhaal discovers the guilty party: It’s an angry young clean-cut, almost preppy, white American male who just wants to watch the world burn. He might as well dye his hair green and paint his face with freaky clown make-up.

Not since the movie adaptation of Sum of All Fears recast the Middle Eastern terrorists of Tom Clancy’s novel and transported the audience right out of the geopolitical nuance of the original work and smack dab in the middle of a Roger Moore-era James Bond movie (think Moonraker), has there been such baffling villain selection.

After an Israeli fighter jet carrying a nuclear warhead is shot down somewhere over the Sinai Desert in the haunting opening moments of Sum of All Fears, the sum of all our greatest fear is realized: The weapon is discovered by Middle Eastern men, dug up from the sand, and sold out of a tent at some terrorist bazaar to — who else? — a SPECTRE-esque cadre of international billionaire Neo-Nazis, of course! Huh?!?!

Even now, 9 years later, you can still hear the echo of the CRACK of the audience’s collective palm smack our collective forehead in the theater. The revelation of the terrorist’s identity in Source Code provides a similar moment of disorientation that takes you right out of the story.

In Hollywood’s attempt to not offend anybody, they offend the intelligence of the entire audience.

Jeffrey Wright, as the scientist who invented the Source Code technology, refers to the program as a “real tool in the War on Terror.” Okay, but I think it’s pretty well established that the enemies in the contemporary War on Terror are Islamist extremists.

Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to shock the audience, who would likely be expecting a Muslim terrorist; to almost call us out for our own biases and stereotyping. Perhaps. There’s even a “racial profiling” joke, made when Gyllenhaal sets his sights on a Middle Eastern-looking man as a suspect. I think it was Dennis Miller who said (and I’m paraphrasing), “When you realize that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from the same country, that’s not profiling, that’s being minimally observant.”

Our enemy is not the Muslim people or Islam, in general. There are a 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, so it’s not unfair or unreasonable to acknowledge that there are a few bad eggs. It is, however, unfair and unreasonable for Hollywood to institute a blanket casting filter that automatically eliminates Middle Easterners from the rogues gallery of potential movie bad guys.

Prior to 9/11, it seemed it was acceptable to present Islamic terrorism as a threat in Hollywood movies. Despite protests from Arab-American organizations, films such as James Cameron’s True Lies (1994), Stuart Baird’s Executive Decision (1996) and Ed Zwick’s The Siege (1998) portrayed Muslim terrorist villains respectively as broad comedic bumblers, straight action heavies, and even three dimensional characters with complex motives.

But, for some reason, following the deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil, carried out by Islamic extremists of Middle Eastern origin, Hollywood execs started tiptoeing around the elephant in the room. Out of sensitivity to whom? Terrorists? It shouldn’t be offensive to all Muslims if Source Code had an Islamic terrorist as its villain anymore than The Godfather should be considered an affront to all Italians.

Truth is, most War on Terror-inspired movies have failed at the box office. Yes, people love a good “ripped-from-the-headlines” yarn, especially on the small screen, but if we’re going to make the investment of time, money, gas and mileage to venture out for a night at the theater, Americans tend to want a dash of good ol’ fashioned jingoism, as well. I know that’s a major economic concern for studios these days: Will an overtly patriotic film sell internationally? Why not, as long as it’s a classic good-triumphs-over-evil story?

Consider this: True Lies was banned in 54 Arab and Muslim countries, but still wound up one of the 1994’s top worldwide box office draws and sequel and TV spinoff rumors still get the blogosphere abuzz.

Hey Sly, maybe it’s time to send Rambo back to Afghanistan?

Fortunately, Source Code has deeper, more life-affirming ambitions than simply being a War on Terror thriller, and it mostly achieves them. To the filmmakers’ credit, it recovers gracefully from its politically correct stumble to ultimately ask the compelling question, “What would you do if you knew you had less than a minute to live?” And I confess, I was misty-eyed when Gyllenhaal’s character answers that question himself at the end.

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