History teachers, social studies teachers, teachers, bloggers, and citizens alike must see the first four minutes of the movie The Kingdom. It is a brilliant example of sound, images, text, and video coming together to form an amazing and compelling piece showcasing history. Truly, this is synergy of multimedia to its fullest. I definitely recommend you show The Kingdom’s Credits in any history class. It will just take 5 minutes and will leave students with a far greater understanding of Saudi Arabia and East/West conflict while still actively engaging them.
Dan has a great post about this up on his blog.
The clip is a good synopsis, but it puts too much emphasis on oil. Oil is one one of the reasons behind the US-Saudi relationship. There’s no doubt it is important, but it is not the most important.
During WWII, protecting Saudi oilfields was the driving factor, as were British efforts in Iraq and Iran.
During the Cold War, however, it was Saudi Arabia’s geographic location and its strong anti-communist policies that drove the relationship. That anti-Soviet antipathy also provided the motivations behind US-Saudi efforts in Afghanistan. Geography permitted the use of U2 airplanes taking off from Saudi airfields for observation missions in Central Asia.
After the fall of the the USSR, religion and geography continued to play extremely important roles. The US military relies on overflight permissions from the Saudi government to support missions east of the Gulf. This is not only for moving personnel and materiel, but most critically, for refueling purposes.
Proximity to Iran now provides its own dimensions, both pro and con.
Most critically, though, if the US can gain official Saudi support for its policies, those policies become a much easier sell to the Muslim populations of the world.
These factors are simply not addressed in ‘The Kingdom’, as good a film as it may be.
For reference, I recommend Thicker than Oil, by Rachel Bronson. Less modestly, I’ll point you to my blog on US-Saudi relations, Crossroads Arabia. I write the blog from the perspective of a former American Foreign Service Officer, with two tours in Saudi Arabia (1981-83, 2001-03).
(Incidentally, I’m just out of the frame of the clip showing Secretary of State Powell walking through the ruins of the Vinnell compound following the 2003 bombing.)
Thanks for reminding us that not everything in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia is about oil. The Cold War was certainly a strong influence upon US-Saudi relations during its time.
With the present focus on energy and oil, it is very easy to forget how important the geographic location of Saudi Arabia is in world and Middle East politics.
I think that the makers of The Kingdom proboably chose to focus on Oil due to the fact that the public eye is set hard upon energy and oil security and the dangers of importing most of our power.
Your blog certainly looks very interesting. I thank you for sharing your perspectives upon Saudi Arabia. You certainly do have a very interesting viewpoint.
No matter how you feel about the content of the film, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the use of multimedia in the opening credits. It may be a bit one-sided to use in an education context without other material to balance it, but it certainly demonstrates the power of well designed multimedia content. Thanks for pointing it out.
I think the opening credits are not too controversial, therefore rendering them suitable for a classroom. However, it would still be a good idea to contrast them with an opposing view point as well as the hard facts. Unfortunately, then you run into the problem of the other viewpoints most likely not being as engaging and well presented…
Glad you liked it!