"Before the dominance of the “terrorist” trope in Hollywood dozens of films embraced romantic and exotic representations of Muslims on screen. While these films are often left without serious inquiry because they reproduce stereotypes, Daniel O’Brien’s Muslim Heroes on Screen questions whether these depictions can transcend their Orientalist production and framing. O’Brien brings his compelling and careful film analysis to a series of films that center heroic Muslim characters, while also analyzing their cinematic production, release, and journalistic reception. Muslim Heroes on Screen is an unique study that pushes the study of Muslims in film in interesting directions." — Kristian Petersen, Old Dominion University, editor of Muslims in the Movies: A Global Anthology and New Approaches to Islam in Film.
If films drawing on Middle East tropes often highlight white Westerners, figures such as Sinbad and the Thief of Bagdad embody a counter-tradition of protagonists, derived from Islamic folklore and history, who are portrayed as ‘Other’ to Western audiences. In Muslim Heroes on Screen, Daniel O’Brien explores the depiction of these characters in Euro-American cinema from the silent era to the present day. Far from being mere racial masquerade, these screen portrayals are more complex and nuanced than is generally allowed, not least in terms of the shifting concepts and assumptions that inform their Muslim identity. Using films ranging from Douglas Fairbanks’ The Thief of Bagdad, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, El Cid, Kingdom of Heaven and The Message to The Wind and the Lion, O’Brien considers how the representational strategies of Western filmmakers may transcend such Muslim stereotypes as fanatic antagonists or passive victims. These figures possess a cultural significance which cannot be fully appreciated by Euro-American audienceswithout reference to their distinction as Muslim heroes and the implications and resonances of an Islamicized protagonist.
Daniel O’Brien is a writer and part-time lecturer in film studies, and has worked for both the Department of Film and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, UK. His previous books include Classical Masculinity and the Spectacular Body on Film (Palgrave, 2014) and Black Masculinity on Film (Palgrave, 2017).
