A Political Satire...With Strings Attached

There are a few things I would never expect in a college-level classroom...and one of them would be watching Team America: World Police, and then critiquing and analyzing the potential "connections" it may have concerning our American culture.  Now after watching it, thanks to our professor Wexler, I have come to realize that this silly little puppet movie may actually have some meaning behind it.  At first, we took a look at the beginning of the film, where the middle eastern terrorists were planning to bomb Paris, only to be thwarted by Team America, our heroes. The terrorists were portrayed as the embodiment of the middle eastern stereotype: white robes, turbans, and beards covering half their face. One could argue that this film depicts Muslims from a subjective standpoint, and that in our post-911 society, it may be common to view them in this way.  The way this film depicts America, however, is no exception. Even the film's title is based off of criticism from other nations, viewing the US as one trying to "Police the world."  The beginning of the film clearly demonstrates how Team America were more destructive than helping--knocking down the Eiffel Tower to kill just one terrorist. One could also argue that there are ties between this and Barker concerning social identity, specifically meaning: how others view us, or how we now view Muslims. Of course, I could be wrong, and this is just a silly movie with marionettes.  But we cannot deny that the satire is eminent.