The Hollywood blockbuster that pioneered a Muslim hero

On its 1999 launch, this historic motion movie starring Antonio Banderas as an Arab warrior was a giant flop. However now, it has been rehabilitated – amongst Muslim followers specifically.

Launched within the US 25 years in the past in the present day, The thirteenth Warrior had all of the markings of a Hollywood blockbuster. It had an A-list star in Antonio Banderas, was helmed by famend motion director John McTiernan, recognized for blockbuster hits like Predator and Die Exhausting, and was based mostly on a captivating novel written by Jurassic Park creator Michael Crichton referred to as Eaters of the Useless.

Just like the e book, which was a unfastened reimagining of Beowulf, the film informed the story of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a tenth Century Arab diplomat exiled from Baghdad, who reluctantly joins a bunch of Vikings of their quest to battle a mysterious and terrifying evil.

However whereas it’s lengthy forgotten by a lot of most people, the movie has cultivated a loyal cult following, particularly amongst Muslims trying to find optimistic illustration on the large display.

Hollywood has been the topic of frequent criticism for its often-toxic portrayal of Muslims and Islamic tradition over time. It’s fairly telling that, even in the present day, one could be onerous pressed to search out an instance of a optimistic or nuanced depiction of a Muslim protagonist in a movie however no dearth of villainous or problematic ones. There’s the odd biopic a few vital Muslim determine corresponding to Ali or Malcolm X, and a handful of comparatively smaller price range movies with Muslim protagonists like Traitor and The Large Sick that buck the pattern. But, none had the extent of sources poured into them that The thirteenth Warrior did, making its underperformance much more stark and its legacy a sophisticated one.

“As somebody who has spent 20 years making an attempt to make films and tv exhibits that put Muslim identities on the forefront, I feel The thirteenth Warrior most likely damage the scenario as a result of it was such a field workplace catastrophe that some individuals in Hollywood determined that they weren’t going to make a film with a Muslim protagonist anymore,” says Dr Reza Aslan, a bestselling creator, TV producer and professor of inventive writing on the College of California, Riverside. “Then, nearly instantly, we had the occasions of 9/11 which allowed Hollywood to show Muslims into the antagonists.”

Now, 25 years after its launch, the movie warrants a reassessment, particularly in mild of its contribution to on-screen Muslim illustration, at a time when having a Muslim protagonist remains to be fairly unconventional.

“Legend has it that Michael Crichton was arguing with a pal in regards to the deserves of Beowulf – the primary necessary Anglo-Saxon work of literature – and on a guess determined that he might rewrite it for a contemporary viewers,” says Aslan. “Within the means of doing so, he stumbled throughout this manuscript by Ahmad ibn Fadlan that’s the very first outsider’s description of Viking tradition that now we have – and was so taken by it that he determined to make him the protagonist of his story.”

In line with Warren Lewis, an adjunct professor of screenwriting at California State College, Fullerton and one of many screenwriters of the movie, when adapting the e book right into a film, there was little question that the Islamic religion of the character was going to be a central component. In reality, numerous thought went into presenting Ahmad in a tasteful method, which is why the model of the character we see on display is way totally different to earlier extra comedic conceptualisations that had been discarded.  

It is not troublesome to determine why many Muslim viewers gravitate in the direction of him. Performed with an air of quiet dignity by Banderas, whereas Ahmad is positioned in a fish-out-of-water state of affairs with the Vikings, this isn’t used solely to ridicule him, as might have occurred, however as a substitute he’s given loads of alternatives to shine together with his mind and bravado. When the Vikings mock the scale of his horse, he impresses them with how properly he can trip it. After they give him a sword too heavy for him to raise, he fashions it right into a scimitar he can wield with ease.

“Poor, confused Ahmad would not know what he is gotten himself into. He will get thrown a sword – a giant outdated two-handed Viking sword – and is unable to choose it up. The joke is that he’s informed to develop stronger. And what does Ahmad do? He grows smarter. He finds a steel employee and makes it into a phenomenal Arab curved sword that has extra chopping potential than the membership they handed him,” says Lewis.  “Have you learnt that ‘Develop Stronger’ turned a slogan amongst a specific unit in the USA navy? It was even on patches. That second resonated with lots of people.”

One other second that stands out is when the Viking chief enquires whether or not Ahmad might “draw sounds” (ie write), juxtaposing the scholarly Arab with the illiterate Northmen. To exhibit that he can, Ahmad chooses to put in writing, in Arabic, the Muslim declaration of religion: “There is no such thing as a God however Allah and Mohammad is his Prophet.” It’s refreshing to see it seem in a film in a way that’s simply instructional with no sinister overtones in anyway. “He might have written the boys’s names or the rest, however he goes straight to what’s in his coronary heart,” says Lewis.

“It was most likely disorienting – however in a great way – for Western audiences to see writing and learnedness related to the Arabic script and Islam, versus Western cultures,” says Dr Lynn Shutters, affiliate professor of English at Colorado State College.

With Ahmad being a practising Muslim, the movie avoids one other trope that Hollywood perpetuates even when aiming for optimistic illustration – he’s a sympathetic individual not on account of him distancing himself from his religion, however due to it.

That is to not say that Ahmad is barely portrayed in a flattering mild. He’s initially despatched away from Baghdad as punishment for an amorous encounter with a married girl – a giant transgression for a religious Muslim. Initially of his character arc, he’s judgemental, boastful and useless ­– or as Lewis places it “a little bit of a dandy”.

“You will have a person from a sophisticated civilisation who, for his sins, is banished to individuals which might be concerned in a horrible battle he’s not actually certified to combat. It is nearly like an area film, or proper on the sting of it,” says Lewis. “However at the same time as an outsider, at the same time as somebody who wasn’t essentially the most revered individual in his hometown, [with the Vikings] he was all the time seen because the civilised man within the room. And, subsequently, a Muslim from a sophisticated tradition hanging out with these – what boiled right down to – bikers.”

“It was fascinating to have an Arab Muslim as our viewpoint character who was initially observing the Vikings and seeing how barbaric and uncouth they’re of their behaviour, particularly within the early a part of the movie,” says Shutters.

This dynamic wasn’t only a massive departure from commonplace Hollywood depictions of Western enlightenment and superiority – which stretch way back to the Twenties in movies like The Sheik – it was nearly an entire inversion of the tropes. Right here was an Arab character separated from his tradition, coming into into an alternate Western world after which returning to “civilised society” a greater man. Shutters refers to this as “Reversing the Jap”.

The comradery and mutual respect that develops between Ahmad and the Vikings within the movie is heartening. In line with Lewis, The thirteenth Warrior was even proven in a category on unit cohesion on the US Military’s West Level navy academy.

“One of many issues I am happy with within the movie is that the Vikings by no means query his religion,” says Lewis. “They’re sarcastic and cynical – in each manner bikers are – however they’re proper there with him.”

The inclusive nature of the Viking characters makes it tougher for the movie to be coopted by white supremacists, which Shutters cites as a big concern in relation to fictional portrayals of the Center Ages. Regardless of Vikings being multiracial and multicultural, the Far Proper have latched on to and weaponised a traditionally inaccurate whitewashed imagining of their historical past.

However whereas commendably avoiding some dangerous tropes, the movie is responsible of perpetuating others, maybe as a result of action-adventure style it’s located in.

“One of many points I’ve with the movie is that it promotes a mannequin of masculine violence,” says Shutters. “Even when presenting Ahmad positively as a realized man, there’s a suggestion that he is not a ‘actual’ man initially, and he has to change into a ‘actual’ man by coming into into the warrior tradition of the Vikings. The fantasy behind this model of masculinity – that it is necessary to be a warrior and a fighter as a result of there are unhealthy individuals on the market doing unhealthy issues and you’ll want to be militarily robust to defeat them – may be fairly harmful.”

There are additionally points round authenticity that had maybe been ignored on the time as a result of shortage of another optimistic Muslim illustration on display.

“I can not divorce my private emotions in regards to the movie – which I very a lot loved – with the truth of what it is like working in Hollywood in the present day,” says Aslan, “as a result of the lens that I used to return 25 years to consider The thirteenth Warrior is one that may’t assist however discover that they had a Spaniard play an Arab; that it was absolutely written, directed, and produced by non-Arabs and non-Muslims. The method of creating it and the completed product – as enjoyable a film because it was – was utterly devoid of any authenticity.” He believes that had been the movie to be made in the present day, Hollywood’s higher appreciation of the worth of cultural authenticity would have meant Muslim involvement would have been thought-about a necessity.

The thirteenth Warrior is on no account an ideal movie. However even 1 / 4 of a century later, it stays a enjoyable watch with an attractive storyline, nice units and costumes, and intense motion sequences. Was it onerous accomplished by the brutal important consensus on the time?

“Pirates of the Caribbean is a fairly good comp for what The thirteenth Warrior might have been,” says Aslan. “It had the identical sense of swashbuckling journey that turned a ‘4 quadrant’ film that Hollywood is so determined for – one which appeals to all age teams and demographics. I feel in case you made The thirteenth Warrior in the present day, it could be way more profitable as a result of now you’d have a mannequin to emulate.”

“I used to be actually happy with my work on The thirteenth Warrior,” says Lewis. “It is not my job to second guess critics, however I simply cannot think about what they had been anticipating. This was not science fiction, and but it was. This was not a western, and but it was. This was not a horror film, and but it was. So possibly they felt it was – as they are saying in Hollywood – a fish with feathers.”