Son Of The Sheik: Islamic Images And Culture

3 Pages 662 Words

“Like all young men, he loved a dancing girl.
Like all dancing girls, she betrayed him.”

Son of the Sheik was produced in a time when the unknown was often a subject of intrigue and wonder to most Americans. It follows a love story, complicated by the differences in the lifestyles of the two main characters. Ahmed, the son of the Sheik, falls in love with Jasmine, a young woman forced to earn money for her father and his cronies by dancing. When this film was produced in the 1920’s, Americans were interested in its exoticism and extravagance. Watching the film with 21st century eyes and ears, one might imply that the film’s imagery of Islamic culture was one of exaggeration and typical of the time period. As suggested by Edward Said in his writing, Orientalism, people viewed Europe as peaceful, sensual, and rational; as opposed to the East, which was thought to be dangerous, violent, and irrational. The images of Islamic culture are depicted as exactly that in the film— and though we have come a long way from the 1920’s, images similar to those in Son of the Sheik are still often seen in Hollywood films today.
In the 1994 film True Lies, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a U.S. secret agent who saves the world by stopping Arabian terrorists from buying and using nuclear weapons. The images of Islamic culture in this film are very similar to that of Son of the Sheik. In Son of the Sheik, Jasmine’s father and the other men appear aggressive and violent, irrationally gambling away their money; they live in the desert with palm trees in tents without rules or order. The men are seen wearing turbans, sporting heavy beards in some cases. Though Ahmed is seen as noble and civilized in the beginning of the film, his demure takes a sudden turn when he is told that Jasmine has betrayed him. He becomes the irrational, unforgiving, and macho; a typical Arabian man in western eyes. It is this irrational image of ...