The Film That Taught Me About “Blowback” As a Kid

On the 1998 thriller (starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Benning, Tony Shalhoub, Assif Mandvi, and many more) that was also an early education for me.

The first time I ever saw a depiction of Palestinians was also the first time I got introduced to the concept of “blowback”—a term of CIA origin that describes the unintended harm resulting from actions of the national security state.

As a Central Florida teen, I walked into the Regal Cinema at the Oviedo Mall at least 50 times in 1998. One of those tim…