Semiotic analysis of representations of terrorism in Hollywood, both before and after 9/11

This article is an attempt to analyze the image of Arab Terrorists before and after 9/11 in Hollywood movies. Since 90’s, Muslims have been the main subject of the movies with a terrorism theme, so regard to the 9/11 as one of the most important days in terrorist attacks in history of the United States, two movies before and after that which based on Islamist terrorist attacks have been selected and analyzed.
Therefore, by applying constructionist approach in Representation theory of Stuart Hall as the main theoretical framework and references to Said’s notion of orientalism and using John Fiske’s semiotic analysis in three levels of reality codes, representation and ideology, The Siege (1998) and Body of Lies (2008) movies have been analyzed and evaluated.
The result of the paper showed that while terrorists have been shown as poor people, ignorant and deluded of their religion before 9/11, after that terrorists are radical people who commit terrorism acts deliberately and are fully aware of the consequences of their actions. In addition, after 9/11 positive Arab characters who are anti-terrorism are depicted. In this period, America and its heroes cannot solve the problem of terrorism alone so they have to get help from anti -terrorism Arabs.