{"id":93073,"date":"2015-12-24T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T17:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=93073"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:01:27","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:01:27","slug":"special-effects-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Effects"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"District_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka\"<\/a>

From a District 9<\/i> poster, 2009.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Sharia law goes to the movies<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 2009, halfway through my second deployment as an infantryman in Iraq, I was made company armorer. Instead of spending days in the field or going on patrols at odd hours, I had a set schedule repairing our company\u2019s guns and night vision goggles\u2014a normal nine-to-five, in many ways, except that I was stuck on a military compound in the Diyala Province and my office was a shipping container. As a newly ordained soldier of leisure, I decided to reconnect with American culture by watching a couple of new movies.<\/p>\n

I chose The Wrestler <\/em>and District<\/em> 9\u00a0<\/em>for arbitrary reasons: friends back home had mentioned them and they were for sale in stacks at my base\u2019s knickknack shop, run by locals. The Wrestler<\/em>, I discovered, is a Darren Aronofsky film starring Mickey Rourke as a washed-up professional wrestler haunted by his past fame, torn between focusing on building a new life outside of wrestling and rekindling some of his former glory. The film crackles with the dark intensity of the knowledge that Rourke\u2019s character will have to make a choice\u2014the violence of the wrestling ring or domestic tranquility. I thought The Wrestler <\/em>triumphed in the end by leaving the character\u2019s fate up in the air; the film culminates in a poignant hospital scene where the broken wrestler\u2019s love interest pleads that he not agree to a reunion matchup with his old rival, the Ayatollah. Read More >>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year! \u00a0Sharia law goes to the movies. In 2009, halfway through my second deployment as an infantryman in Iraq, I was made company armorer. Instead of spending days in the field or going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20653],"tags":[5861,18088,2968,18085,2744,4425,81,5862,18084,18087,18086],"class_list":["post-93073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2015","tag-aristotle","tag-catharsis","tag-censorship","tag-district-9","tag-iraq","tag-islam","tag-movies","tag-plato","tag-sharia-law","tag-the-republic","tag-the-wrestler"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSharia Law Goes to the Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Serving in Iraq, Scott Beauchamp saw what turned out to be censored versions of American movies\u2014but he liked them better that way.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Special Effects by Scott Beauchamp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 24, 2015 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!\u00a0Sharia law goes to the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-24T17:00:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1026\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"804\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Beauchamp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Beauchamp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Beauchamp\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d98e8550129a9c4a155a874341a22bef\"},\"headline\":\"Special Effects\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-24T17:00:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":285,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Aristotle\",\"catharsis\",\"censorship\",\"District 9\",\"Iraq\",\"Islam\",\"movies\",\"Plato\",\"Sharia Law\",\"the Republic\",\"The Wrestler\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best of 2015\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\",\"name\":\"Sharia Law Goes to the Movies\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-24T17:00:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"Serving in Iraq, Scott Beauchamp saw what turned out to be censored versions of American movies\u2014but he liked them better that way.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Special Effects\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d98e8550129a9c4a155a874341a22bef\",\"name\":\"Scott Beauchamp\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2510a1e682a8efd666018ca4154285ad48372c4496ca635b7f8b160e3333baf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2510a1e682a8efd666018ca4154285ad48372c4496ca635b7f8b160e3333baf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott Beauchamp\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sbeauchamp\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sharia Law Goes to the Movies","description":"Serving in Iraq, Scott Beauchamp saw what turned out to be censored versions of American movies\u2014but he liked them better that way.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Special Effects by Scott Beauchamp","og_description":"December 24, 2015 \u2013 We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!\u00a0Sharia law goes to the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-12-24T17:00:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1026,"height":804,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Scott Beauchamp","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott Beauchamp","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Scott Beauchamp","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d98e8550129a9c4a155a874341a22bef"},"headline":"Special Effects","datePublished":"2015-12-24T17:00:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/"},"wordCount":285,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg","keywords":["Aristotle","catharsis","censorship","District 9","Iraq","Islam","movies","Plato","Sharia Law","the Republic","The Wrestler"],"articleSection":["Best of 2015"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/","name":"Sharia Law Goes to the Movies","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-24T17:00:26+00:00","description":"Serving in Iraq, Scott Beauchamp saw what turned out to be censored versions of American movies\u2014but he liked them better that way.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/district_9_vector_poster_by_butterflyka.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/24\/special-effects-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Special Effects"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d98e8550129a9c4a155a874341a22bef","name":"Scott Beauchamp","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2510a1e682a8efd666018ca4154285ad48372c4496ca635b7f8b160e3333baf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2510a1e682a8efd666018ca4154285ad48372c4496ca635b7f8b160e3333baf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Scott Beauchamp"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sbeauchamp\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93074,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93073\/revisions\/93074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}