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Sun. Oct. 14, 2001
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Art & Culture > Movie &Theatre > Archive
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Emmy Award-Winning Drama Tries to Help America Cope
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Wednesday evening, NBC's Emmy award-winning drama The West Wing, tackled some of the complex issues surrounding the nation's current crisis in a special episode of the series that preempted what was to be the premier of the show's third season. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, NBC's entertainment president Jeff Zucker said of the special: "Obviously it's fictional, and it can never deal with the severity that the current administration is dealing with. But given that it takes place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it's not far fetched to believe 'West Wing' could deal with this issue."
The episode, entitled "Isaac and Ishmael," was written by the show's producer Aaron Sorkin and held in close confidence prior to its airing. As the historical significance of title suggests, contrasting perspectives on America's response to terrorism were explored.
Sorkin chose not to deal directly with the events of September 11, opting instead to leave the actual attacks as a foregone conclusion, thus creating a self-contained storyline that might have been just as applicable outside of the context of current events. However, with foreknowledge of the intent behind this episode, audiences could not help but read into the text of the episode the tension engendered by the September 11 attacks.
"Isaac and Ishmael" opens at the offices of the FBI, where two agents are cross-referencing a Muslim name against some computer records. When a match is found for a particular alias, one of the agents immediately places an emergency phone call to the White House calling for a "Crash", or lockdown, of the building due to the existence of some imminent credible threat to national security.
Meanwhile, at the White House, Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) - Deputy White House Chief of Staff - is trying to head home early, when he is reluctantly dragged into a meeting with a group of high school students. It is while speaking with them that the "Crash" order comes through, and Secret Service agents hustle Lyman and the students into an adjacent cafeteria for their safety while the threat is investigated.
Once on lockdown, with little else to do but talk, Lyman begins to explore the issue of terrorism and perceptions of Islam and Muslims with the students. As the episode progresses, various other members of the White House staff find their way to the cafeteria and end up adding their two cents on the topic. It is this conversation that forms the main plot of the episode.
The subplot centers on the search for the individual identified by the FBI as a potential terrorist; only the name of this individual, Rakeem Ali, matches that of an employee in the White House itself, thus adding an extra element of urgency to things. When the Secret Service does catch up with Ali, a man of distinctive Arab features, he is smoking a cigarette in an empty room of the Old Executive Office Building. With guns drawn, the agents take Ali into custody for interrogation.
From this point onwards, Sorkin uses the two contrasting venues - an office turned into an interrogation room and a cafeteria transformed into a classroom - to illustrate the contrasting types of discourse and debate that currently surround America's new "War on Terrorism".
In the classroom, high-minded principles of freedom and understanding are tempered by more hawkish views of staff members that prefer safety to freedom. Stories from Muslim history are brought into play, with some detail even being given to the birth of the Assassins as an explanation for the origins of terrorism. It is also at this venue that the story of Isaac and Ishmael is brought up by the First Lady to explain both the similarities and differences between Muslim and Western culture.
In the interrogation room, the tone isn't quite so intellectual, as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) takes turns with Secret Service Agents at grilling Ali. The questions are blunt, and they play largely on stereotypes and sweeping assumptions that can be drawn from some of the most innocuous facts of a person's life. Ali is questioned about his father's contributions to a charity, his own choice of study at MIT, the phone wiring found in his bag and his personal political beliefs with reference to U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world.
In the end, it is found that the person flagged for the FBI alert, is not the Rakeem Ali who works in the White House, but a different Rakeem Ali, who is picked up by law enforcement overseas.
What Sorkin has done with this special episode, is highlight the broad range of discourse taking place in the nation at this very moment. Instead of trying to stand firmly on one side of any debate, Sorkin, uses his characters to show the good, the bad and the ugly, the misinformed, the afraid and even the nonchalant surrounding this crisis. Phrases as absurd as "Kill them all!" come out of characters' mouths; while such sobering statements as "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - courtesy of Ben Franklin - come out of the mouths of others.
By taking this approach, Sorkin subtly shows how, in the aftermath of the attacks, some responses have been blatantly excessive, while others have merited spirited debate. For example, the ordeal of Rakeem Ali is not something Americans see acted out in the news each day. These sorts of things take place behind closed doors. And to seen Ali falsely accused and then vindicated brings into focus the issue of just how we deal with profiling and detention and broader concerns over civil rights and civil liberties in the aftermath of September 11.
However, with reference to the question of why terrorism exists and why America has been targeted, Sorkin left things more up in the air. For instance he allows his characters to display the misunderstandings of Islam that exists presently and he allows hawkish views to creep into the conversation.
There may be Muslims who viewed The West Wing Wednesday night and felt a little uncomfortable. Indeed, some of the facts put forth were misrepresented or slightly inaccurate and some of sentiments expressed were disturbing. But at the same time, many of the more general conclusions implied by the plotline pointed towards the need to be more tolerant, educated and understanding.
Could the episode have been better? Possibly. Had "Isaac and Ishmael" been written from a wholly Muslim perspective, many aspects of the story would have fundamentally changed. However, given that it was written from an entirely American take on the crisis, it was a decent attempt to use a dramatic venue to help explore the turmoil of thought and feeling much of America faces, Muslims included.
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