Wonder Woman and War Crimes
Wonder Woman 1984 had a lot of racist stuff going on and Gal Gadot made it even worse.
CW: Racism, War crimes
I watched Wonder Woman 1984 and judged on the standards of a DC superhero movie, it is pretty good. I have HBO so didn’t have to pay or promote it to see it. I haven’t seen the first one but I’d say this one was on par with DC’s Suicide Squad.
Kristen Wig and Pedro Pascal do all the heavy lifting, and there is an early scene where they are just having a great time riffing off of each other’s characters and Gadot’s Diana Prince breaks up the fun. That scene is a pretty good metaphor for the entire film. Gadot does an ok job as a dour and unflinching Wonder Woman, but her Diana Prince comes off as wooden and she spends almost the entire film in that persona. The best parts of the film, outside of every second of Kristen Wig, are the more fantastic elements such as Wonder Woman swinging from lightning or turning a jet invisible. That’s about it for positive movie elements.
Now for the negative stuff. There is a lot of cringe in the movie. The main romance plot is based on the non-consensual use of a man’s body for sex by a ghost/spirit. Also the movie has a strange message about how wishes are dangerous and to be grateful for the status quo. But I’m going to focus on my area of expertise in my critique and leave the exploration of consent in this context to others.
At Columbia I earned my graduate degree in Int’l Security Policy. I’m a scholar of Middle East politics, specializing in counterintelligence and defense policy. I worked in the oil industry for almost 20 years and my undergrad degree is in Int’l Criminal Justice — specifically war crimes, human rights and antiquities theft. I completed my ICJ final thesis on modern warcrimes using several case studies including the 2006 war on Lebanon by Israel and during Israel’s 2014 assault on occupied Gaza I wrote several articles on the Hannibal doctrine and other war crimes.
Throughout Wonder Woman 1984 Arabs and Muslims are portrayed as religious zealots, backwards tyrants and dirt poor victims. Of the two Arab/muslim coded characters who are granted wishes, one asks for the removal of “heathens” from their land and the other asks for nuclear bombs. The first, the “King of Crude” character, is an Egyptian Arab who’s wish conjures a gigantic wall that separates families and land. Shortly after meeting this character the film gets its first big fight, exceedingly dumb Arab soldiers provide the canon fodder. During this fight scene 4 Arab children cross the road playing soccer and are saved by Wonder Woman after she flies to them on a lassoed rocket propelled grenade. This last scene made my stomach churn for reasons I’ll detail below.
Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman. She served as a non-combatant in the Israeli military in 2006 during the Lebanon war and during the 2014 assault on Gaza she publicly supported the Israeli military. She also claimed that Palestinian women and children were being used as human shields as Israeli munitions killed over 500 children over 50 days. Also for the past 20 years Israel has been building an illegal separation wall between Israelis and Palestinians, placing occupied land on their side of the wall but without the Palestinians they have subjugated with apartheid policies.
Wonder Woman 1984 is thus aptly titled. Like Orwell’s 1984 it flips fact and history on its head to create a narrative that suits the powerful and casts the weak as the problem.
The Wall: In WW1984 an Arab’s wish creates a devastating sand wall that rips through homes and roadways. It deprives people of irrigation and food. But in the real world Israel has built a massive wall that snakes through occupied land and separates Palestinians from their own homes and families so that Israelis can control the water and resources for their own benefit.
The Soccer Kids: In WW 1984 Wonder Woman has her boyfriend fire an RPG towards 4 Arab kids playing soccer. She rides the rocket and scoops up the kids before they are run over by other Arabs. In the real world Gal Gadot praised the Israeli military while bombs wiped out entire families in Gaza. She called the victims human shields. The most infamous incident involved four young boys from one family, the Bakrs. They were playing soccer on a beach in Gaza when they were targeted and killed by an Israeli strike. They were photographed playing soccer moments before their deaths. As was the resulting carnage.
Wishing for Bombs: In WW84 a muslim coded character squats in a cave with an AK47 and wishes for a nuclear bomb. In the real world no terrorist group has ever acquired or used a nuclear weapon. Only one Muslim country has such weapons, two if you count India which has a huge Muslim population and no Arab country has such weapons. In the Middle East Israel is the only state with nuclear weapons and in 1973 they even postured to make use of them during the Sinai War.
In conclusion, racist tropes are repeatedly used in Wonder Woman 1984 to cast Arabs and Muslims as the source of their own troubles. Wonder Woman as played by Gal Gadot is their savior. A woman who in real life supports Apartheid, wishes to tear down a wall as Wonder Woman. In real life she served the only nuclear armed stated in the Middle East, but as Wonder Woman saves the Earth from a Nuclear War. Lastly, Gadot blamed the victims in Gaza for their own deaths, including 4 boys playing soccer on a beach — but as Wonder Woman uses a rocket to save kids playing soccer. The racism and negative stereotyping in the movie are very real and troubling. Gadot’s involvement makes them much worse. Her past racist statements and unapologetic complicity in Palestinian suffering magnifies all the movie’s deepest flaws.
I wouldn’t pay for a ticket and I certainly wouldn’t praise it without mentioning those facts.
