What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

There is an old British-made TV series from the 1960s, Danger Man, which involves the adventures of John Drake, a secret agent.

Played by the veteran actor Patrick McGoohan (1928 – 2009), the always serious and effective John Drake fights the agents of international espionage agencies. More gritty and realistic than the more famous James Bond franchise, McGoohan is a believable character.

Quiet, convincing, speaking with the Received Pronunciation accent (what used to be called the Queen’s English), Drake is in many ways completely different from the martini-drinking, womanising, smooth-suit-wearing fictional Bond.

Filmed in black and white, it has a docudrama quality to it, even though the series producers did not intend it that way. It helps that the episodes of this series are broadcast very early in the morning, so they help me when I have periods of insomnia. McGoohan’s character, while engaging in fist fights and dangerous stunts, does not rely on whizzbang gadgetry like the more famous Bond.

One movie that is worth watching repeatedly is Steven Spielberg’s 2005 drama Munich. He examines the conduct of a secret Mossad team, sent out to avenge the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. While reputedly targeting those responsible for that attack, it becomes clear that the Mossad team, led by Avner Kaufman (played by Australian actor Eric Bana) are assassinating Palestinian figures who had nothing to do with the Munich atrocity.

Spielberg invites his audience to explore morally questionable actions – is the Mossad team, ostensibly assembled to take out the Black September group, descending into a moral quagmire? Have they become no better than the terrorists they are targeting? How do you define whom constitutes a terrorist? When does counter terrorism cross over into terrorism? What moral values motivate a group of killers who conduct themselves in the same way as the perpetrators they claim to oppose?

It is worth watching Munich frequently, because it compels us to confront the disturbing realities of our own conduct in international affairs. Washington, London and West Jerusalem like to claim that their actions are motivated by ethical considerations. For instance, the George W Bush administration stated that its global war on terror was conducted in response to the September 11 attacks.

The US President at the time wilfully ignored a crucial dimension – the survivors of the September 11 atrocity clearly stated to the Bush-Cheney administration Not in Our Name. They said that this global war on terror would itself become a terroristic venture if it was not constrained by moral or ethical standards. They opposed the transfusion of blood for oil, the latter being the main motivation of US foreign policies.

Numerous Hollywood movies have portrayed Israeli Mossad assassination teams as righteously vengeful, conducting a campaign of murder purely in retaliation for Palestinian attacks. Spielberg defies this trend, and seeks to examine the putative morality of such counter terrorism ventures, if indeed they can be deemed with that label.

The 1992 film Malcolm X by Spike Lee is worth watching over and over again. Denzel Washington does a fantastic job portraying the titular character, and all the supporting cast are admirable in their roles. Lee explores the complex issues of race, poverty, social class and religious nationalism in a sensitive and intelligent way. Malcolm X is clearly the hero of this movie, an intelligent talented man, but he is not elevated to superhuman status.

His journey is indicative of the African American experience in white majoritarian United States. Lee, while supportive of African American nationalism, is critical of the Nation of Islam and its cult-like beliefs and practices.

Interestingly, the movie depicts mainstream Islam in a positive light. Malcolm’s pilgrimage to Mecca, his interaction with Muslims from all different ethnic backgrounds, solidified his turn away from the Nation of Islam and his adoption of Sunni beliefs.

It is difficult to find a sympathetic portrayal of Muslims in the Hollywood movie industry. The stereotype of an Arab terrorist is easily available amid the avalanche of Islamophobia sweeping the Anglophone world. The overwhelming majority of Hollywood films involving Arab or Muslim characters depict them as barbaric, gun-toting killers, or belly dancers, or camel-riding sheikhs, or veiled submissives – never as people with their own lives and agency.

I hope my movie choices inspire others to take up the issues I have raised in this article.