Much has been written about the stereotyping of Middle Eastern and other non-white people in American cinema.  Critics have taken Hollywood to task, with much reason, for stereotyping Middle-Eastern people as “oriental” or savages, as well as for downplaying or eliminating their roles in events. There is some nuance, though, in how writers and directors have approached Middle-Eastern subject matter in American film history, and portrayals are not always bifurcated along the good versus bad axis that is flatly referenced by some critics, viewers, and historians today.  This is true of films produced in modern times, such as the controversial Iraq-war epic American Sniper (2014) or the Eurocentric Ridley Scott epic Kingdom of Heaven (2005), just as it was during the post-silent era of the late 1920’s -1930’s, including, for example, lavishly produced historical epics such as Cecille B. DeMille’s 1935 film The Crusades.  While certainly written as, primarily, an homage to European colonialism and heritage, DeMille and the authors of the screenplay for The Crusades were very sensitive to the even-handed, diplomatic way that Saladin, an Arabic Sultan and starring character in the film, reacted with religious tolerance in the face of war.

European colonialism of the Middle East during the medieval period, such as that depicted in The Crusades, is a microcosm in this broad pantheon of filmography blending race, culture, and war and, in many ways, reconstructing history on its own terms and helping to write the narrative on influential stereotyping in American film.  In particular, The Crusades, in loosely distilling the long history of the seven crusader wars (circa 950-1350CE), packages the overarching narrative in the characters of King Richard I of England, a Catholic crusader-king also named the Lionheart, and Saladin, the first Sunni-Muslim Sultan of Egypt and Syria, emphasizing the broad role of kings and their pageantry while deemphasizing the role as massacres’ that commoners and soldiers played in actual history.  Both rulers were men of reason, and it was important for DeMille, as well as screenplay writers Harold Lamb and Waldemar Young, to depict Saladin, especially, in an historically accurate manner, as an attempt to humanize him and present him as the charismatic, practical ruler that he was. In doing so the filmmakers subtly, but importantly, broke free of the conventional stereotyping that marks broad generalizations of period and other films in cinema history.

In 1187 CE, An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known as Saladin, through siege craft and diplomacy, retook Jerusalem from European forces of the second Crusade, prompting the remaining French and English armies to retrench at Tyre, Antioch, and Tripoli.  In response, the kings of Germany, France, and England – King Richard the Lionheart – raised new armies and marched on Acre, north of Jerusalem, laying siege and massacring thousands of captives in 1191.  Having pushed Saladin and his forces back to Jerusalem, King Richard, in the spring/summer of 1192, and by this time the sole commander of Crusader forces in the region, “marched his troops to within twelve miles [of the city] only to withdraw each time, arguing he had insufficient men to take or keep the city.” At a stalemate, Saladin negotiated the Treaty of Jaffa, partitioning Jerusalem as a gesture to religious tolerance, and without handing over rule to the European kings. 

As depicted in The Crusades, the siege of Acre and the parlay with Saladin are replete with lavish costumes, elaborate sets, and huge casts that are hallmarks of DeMille’s filmography.  Henry Wilcoxin and Ian Keith portray just rulers disastrously at odds over impassable matters of faith.  Loretta Young is bold and beautiful in the latest fashion of her era, artfully playing a fictionalized Berengaria, Princess of Navarre, the wife of King Richard I.  Interspersed between these two overarching thematic elements of the film, are other, even more fictionalized accounts of events that marked King Richard’s assault on the Holy Land.  These include the anachronistic addition of Peter the Hermit, who was a catalyst in the first Crusade of the 11th century, refashioned in The Crusades as a similar priest-like figure antagonizing the masses to take up arms in the Holy Land, as well as the fabricated capture of and infatuation with Beringia by Saladin, himself.  Another hallmark of the film is long processions of the Crusaders, priests, and commoners that made up the bulk of armies heading overseas from Europe, overdubbed with Christian hymn-like choirs singing of the righteousness of their cause in the Holy Land.

These facile historical inaccuracies mask the more complex issues of leveraging stereotypes.   Even after a mediocre reception to the film, DeMille noted in his biography that, “thanks to our treatment of the subject and the wonderfully sensitive performance of Ian Keith as Saladin, The Crusades has been one of my most popular pictures in the Middle East.” Critics agreed.  Writing for the New York Times one wrote, “DeMille hopes to do rightly by Saladin.  The day for looking down on Saracens, or Turks, is over.  Saladin always kept his word, and unlike Richard, did not fall out with his allies.  The Saracens, despite their worship, were a civilizing influence.” At the end of the film, after Saladin and Richard have met to negotiate terms of peace, Richard is portrayed standing atop a hill facing Jerusalem, some miles below, as Christian pilgrims pour into the city gates to, ostensibly, live side-by-side with new Muslim neighbors.  In fact, Richard never saw Jerusalem, and Saladin had ushered in an era of truces and peace that would change the focus and veracity of future Crusades.  In these ways DeMille and modern historians have both helped to cast a light on the complex narrative that marks these medieval wars.

Bibliography

Benshoff, Harry M.; Griffin, Sean. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. Chichester. Wiley. 2011.

Birchard, Robert S. Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. Lexington, United States. The University Press of Kentucky. 2009.

Idwal J. "Richard and Saladin and Cecile B. DeMille." New York Times (1923-Current file). New York, New York. 1934.