[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk2CPzIgBRo[/youtube]
Someone ought to write a college paper about the reaction to terrorism in cinema post-Oklahoma City and then post-9/11.  Watching the god-awful terrorism thriller Arlington Road (circa 1999) the palpable fear of the enemy next door is funny now.  The combination of the tech revolution and Islamic terrorism has all but obliterated every single theme set up in Arlington Road.  There are no cell phones, so a pivotal plot point turns on someone leaving a message on an answering machine from a payphone.  By this time, many people were already regularly using email, but in Arlington Road there is no other way to communicate except via a cordless phone at home or a pay phone.
These are the things that stand out in the film but there is plenty more in it to comment on.¬† Tim Robbins is at a scenery-chewing all-time high. Jeff Bridges is, as usual, believable as a liberal college professor whose wife has been murdered by “them” and whose son is now in their charge.¬† Robbins and his terrorist pals are toting bombs hither and thither, to the FBI headquarters, this and that.¬† It’s fear at a level ten.¬† But oh, if we only knew then what we know now, ten years later.
The thing is, though, is you love bad thrillers as I do you will relish every ugly minute of Arlington Road.
