This research is conducted to explore the construction of post-9/11 orientalist
discourse in a movie entitled Body of Lies (2008). The objective of this research is to describe the construction of post 9/11 orientalist discourse in the representation of the Arab characters in Hollywood spy movie, Body of Lies using Edward Said’s orientalism theory. This research is categorized as a descriptive qualitative research which analyzes the orientalist discourse of the Arab characters in Body of Lies (2008). This research takes the movie’s dialogues, mise-en-scene, and cinematography which represent the construction of post-9/11 orientalist dicourse as the primary data. Furthermore, to support the argument over the primary data, secondary data are used. The secondary data are taken from books, articles, and online documents. Said’s orientalism theory is used as the main theory of the research. Beside Said’s orientalism theory, this study employs visual discourse analysis and semiotic theory to decode the signs that are represented in the movie. The result of the study shows that the movie indeed correlates with Said’s orientalism theory. The power and dominance is shown through relation between the Arabs and Americans’ interaction. In addition, the 9/11 event inspires the movie to narrow the representation of Arabs into specific images. Therefore, this research categorizes the movie’s construction of post-9/11 orientalist discourse into two: 1) Arabs as the world’s bad guys and 2) the good Arabs. The first category is made to describe how the movie constructs the Arabs as the terrorists and basically bad people with specific characterization, while the second category explains the depiction of the good Arabs in the movie that implies America’s power and dominance over the orient
