ADC Update: More Coverage of Top-Grossing Racist Film “Rules of Engagement” “Rules of Engagement,” which is probably the most vicious anti-Arab racist film ever made by a major Hollywood studio, continues to top the box office charts.  In its second week of release, it again topped the all-important weekend charts bringing in $10.9 million according to its producer, Paramount Pictures.  Meanwhile, protests have taken place in several cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, and critical reaction continues to pan the film as racist trash.  Please see expanded list of attacks on the film’s racism by movie critics below, and in particular note Stewart Klawans’ excellent review in the Nation, which can be read online at <http://www.TheNation.com/issue/000501/0501klawans.shtml . ADC’s analysis of the film can be read on our website at <http://www.adc.org/action/2000/11aprilb2000.htm. The director of “Rules of Engagement,” William Friedkin, is reportedly negotiating for rights to make a film _base_d on “O Jerusalem,” a novel about the 1948 war in Palestine. FROM THE YEMEN TIMES: <http://www.yementimes.com/00/iss16/front.htm#1 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT , IRRESPONSIBLE MOVIE DEGRADING YEMENIS; SHAME! It is unanimously agreed by all the Yemeni viewers that the latest Paramount movie, Rules of engagement is a shame on Hollywood, and will continue to be considered a monstrous movie production for years to come. The movie, starring Tommi Lee Jones and Samuel L. J has explicitly degraded Yemenis, and brought disrepute to Yemen as a country of armed terrorists too dangerous to deal with without using heavy weapons and artillery fire.  Here is a quote taken from the producers about how it portrays Yemenis as dangerous terrorists: When the Embassy of the USA in Yemen is surrounded by a large crowd of demonstrators, Col. Terry Childers, USMC, is ordered to lead a squadron of Marines to bolster security at the embassy. He has orders to evacuate the ambassador and his family if the situation turns violent. A few short hours after Childers launches his mission, the ambassador's safety is secured, but three of Childers' men are dead, along with more than the 80 Yemeni men, women and children killed by Marine gunfire. Childers now faces a court-martial for violating the rules of engagement by killing unarmed civilians. He denies the charge, contending the protesters were armed and had opened fire on the Embassy. But it appears that the government has made the colonel the fall guy for an ugly diplomatic crisis: the men who could have testified on his behalf have been killed in action, one of the witnesses seems to be lying, and the President's National Security Adviser destroys evidence that might help Childers' case. Childers refuses to go down quietly and turns to his longtime friend, Hays Hodges, to defend him. Several entertainment reporters smell a racist mood in the way the story has unfolded. The film portrays Yemenis as a people who call for Jihad and indulge in killing of Americans and foreigners wherever they find them. It is expected that strong protest to the movie would continue and intensify. AFP COVERAGE OF YEMENI AND ARAB-AMERICAN RESPONSE TO “RULES”: Agence France Presse Yemeni paper cries shame at Hollywood movie SANAA, April 17