This is a metaphor of security obsession

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2006)

Steven Spielberg brings together a civil war in some Slavic country, a tourist from this country coming to John Fitzgerald Kennedy Airport on a private visit to New York City, a brand new security boss and an international diplomatic imbroglio that can last centuries if it is not taken care of by history. When a lawful government in a foreign country is ousted by an unlawful revolution and replaced by a fully illegal government that the US does not recognize, all flights from and to this foreign countries are banned in the US, and all citizens from this country have non-valid passports. If this happens to take place when one of these citizens is in the terminal of the airport before going through customs he can never get an entry-visa and is trapped in the airport for a long time. Imagine this situation and imagine the passenger is an enterprising but law abiding man and you can imagine too how he is going to find a place in the terminal, in the hearts of all the regular workers in that terminal including security officers, and even in some transient personnel like stewardesses or who knows what and whom. There we find out that this silly situation can become pathetic and even full of empathy and sympathy, even some compassion. One could live for a long long time in a terminal. But everything has to come to an end one day and it is even more difficult to bring the absurd situation to an end than to avoid it or solve it. At times it is funny. At times it is a deep satire of American security obsession. At times it is symbolical and metaphorical. But it is always extremely human and even humane. Even in such an artificial surrounding things can remain heartfelt and throbbingly moving.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne