It’s not because I’m in India, and very few English-speaking films of any merit are released here.
It’s not because I’ve played the game, ’cause I never have.
It’s not because the special effects were very nicely done and not over-wrought.
It’s not because of Jake Gyllenhaal (although, he in no way, shape, or form is offensive to mine eyes).
No, I liked this movie because it moved (the plot never lagged for me), it made me care about the characters, it was exciting to watch, and it had action–FEMALE driven action.
Princess Tamina, played by relative new-comer Gemma Arterton (who ironically portrayed Io in the re-imagining of Clash of the Titans, which I reviewed here), who is more than just a pretty face. Arterton’s Tamina is womanly, but she is not frail.
**WARNING: SPOILER ALERT**
When we first meet the Princess, her peaceful city is under attack from the Persian forces. She commands her advisers to take action and tells them she will be in the chapel praying. Truth be told, I groaned inwardly at this scene. “Oh Christ,” I thought to myself, “here we go–princess in her tower in need of saving.” So the princess prays as her city’s walls are breached, and a special, assumingly mystical-magical door of light opens. More fighting, cut to the princess handing something wrapped up tightly in cloth to a man servant with orders to get it to the temple.
But then… the movie turns the whole shrinking violet/princess in a tower trope on its head. Sure, the princess becomes war booty (pun intended, tho truth be told there is no sex, only a little kissing (this IS a family friendly Disney movie after all) and not until much later in the movie). The eldest of the three princes of Persia wishes to marry her in order to create an alliance between her people and his.
She’s all set to refuse–goes so far as to say she’d rather die than marry a Persian–until she sees that our hero has some-how acquired the Magical Mystical Object.
But our princess is no idle idol, oh no. She has a plan.
She goes to Persia, allows herself to be presented to the king, making snide, snarky comments to her captors the entire time (in fact, the banter between her and Dastan, the hero, is razor sharp and full of little goodies!), impresses the king with her sharp wit and he “gifts” her to his youngest adopted son.
(Stay with me, people, I know the idea of “gifting” an unwilling woman is repugnant, but stay with me.)
And then all hell breaks loose. The king dies through nefarious means, the young prince, Dastan, is accused of the murder and must flee for his life.
And here’s where it gets interesting.
Right off the bat, Princess Tamina takes charge. As they’re fleeing the city, SHE directs traffic (go this way if you want to live!). Granted, its her city, but still. Better yet, he LISTENS to her. He doesn’t just bullheadedly gallop his way through the city, he follows her orders. In another scene, when our hero and heroine have been captured by the smarmy ostrich-loving desert bandit (portrayed hilariously by Alfred Molina), and she’s forced to work as a racetrack bar wench, it’s Tamina who comes up with a way out of that particular mess and NOT Dastan (he’s too busy trying to figure out how to get a daggar out of his sleeve to see the necessity of a mob-based diversion).
Second point: She has a mission and, despite the fact her people are a peaceful people, she will do ANYTHING to complete that mission. Even if it means sticking around a dude who she really doesn’t like. Even if it means going places she won’t (and doesn’t like). Even if it means she has to pick up a sword (or dagger, or whatever–cause SHE DOES, and with a decent ability to do so) to fight. Even if it means she has to do things she doesn’t want to do (such as the aforementioned serving wench “job”–which, kudos to the writers for not making THAT particular moment into a sex-slave harem moment). Even if means she has to kill. She has a job, she sticks to it with a determination that I don’t think is often attributed to female characters in fantasy based movies. Furthermore, she doesn’t need no stinkin’ man to help her. Sure, she’ll let him come along–but mostly because he wont’ give the damn magical article back and he is, by virtue of male physiology, stronger than her.
But lets pause here a second. Sure, Dastan may be stronger than her, but she’s smarter. She dupes him at LEAST twice, if not three times throughout the movie. She plays on his honor induced hero-complex once–pretending to faint under the hot, hot sun, only to konk him on the head, knock him out, and escape with the magical object. She later TAUNTS him:
Tamina: Such a noble prince leaping to assist the fallen beauty.
Prince Dastan: Who said you are a beauty?
Tamina: There must be a reason why you can’t take your eyes of me.
Prince Dastan: [stutters] You’re… I…
Furthermore, her taunting kind of calls him on the “maleness” of his gaze–which is pretty cool if you think about it.
Lastly, and MEGA SPOILER ALERT, the ending.
In the penultimate moment of the movie, our hero and heroine face the Mega Baddie in battle. This was another moment, to be honest, I was prepared to slap myself on the forehead. I mean, seriously, these are the moment in which the princess is *usually* put in peril just so the hero can save the girl, save the world, and secure the happily ever after.
Except no. After some nifty special effects in which there is a lot of sand and crumbly buildings falling into the sand, we find our hero grasping the edge of a precipice with one hand, and Tamina with the other. We expect our hero to haul her up and then himself.
Except… no.
Tamina tells Dastan that she does not matter–the fate of the world does. If the Big Baddie goes through with his plan, the sacrifice that the small girl child made eons ago to protect the world will be for naught. She tells Dastan to let her go. And when he won’t, SHE lets go. She sacrifices herself, willingly, to save the world. And Dastan doesn’t even get to save her.
While, on the one hand, I can see how this is repugnant to some–I mean my God, why doesn’t Dastan sacrifice HIMSELF so TAMINA can save the world!– but in the end, its not HER story, really (the title would be Princess of Persia: Sands of Time if it was). But hang in there, there’s one more scene.
So, naturally, Dastan wins, Baddie fails, the world is righted. Dastan is changed by his journey–which no one but he remembers as he righted time. He confronts the Baddie once again, emerges victorious once again (though it is not his hand that fells the Baddie, but rather his brother’s WHICH is a nice development of one of the side plots), and once again finds himself in the position of being gifted a bride: the Princess Tamina.
However, rather than approach her and be all “I love you, don’t you remember me?” the writers actually did something pretty neat here. He approaches Tamina as though she is his equal vs. some prize to be won. Better yet, there is no ZIP! ZOWIE! moment of remembrance on the part of the princess, but rather a moment where it is clear that theirs will be a partnership. Indeed, the movie does not end with a kiss but rather a handshake.
Which, again, is pretty cool if you think about it. It implies that there is time for them to learn about each other, grow as a couple, and rule as equals.
Overall, I gave Prince of Persia: Sands of Time 3.5/4 out of 5 stars. I was prepared NOT to like this movie: it’s an adaptation of a video game (which rarely come out well), it’s set in a time when women weren’t treated well, and I couldn’t buy Jake Gyllenhaal as “Persian”. But I went, I saw, I LIKES. And sure, it has its moments of “Oh Lordy!”, and it definitely is not 100% true to the Persian/Arabian culture (Gyllenhaal speaks in a weird Cockney-American accent for parts of the movie). Its not an Oscar contender by any means, but its fun, funny, and *mostly*gender fair.
Patrick says
I agree that there is a difference between casting whiter actors in non-white parts and the reverse.
The use of “Anglo” to mean white people in general, or people whose lineage goes back to the British isles specifically, really irks me. It erases people’s ethnic identity (I’m Irish-American, I an NOT AN ANGLO). It’s no different from using the term “Mexica” to refer to all Latino people.
I remember an especially offensive use of “Anglo” when Star Wars Episode II came out, and a group advocating for better representation of Latinos in Hollywood were condemning it. Were they bothered by the fact that the Star Wars Galaxy appeared to have only a single Latino character (Senator Bail Organa)?
No, they thought that Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers presented a negative stereotype of Latinos. They recognized that actor Temuera Morrison is Maori, but stated that “Anglo audiences would read him as Latino.” I don’t think I need to explain how offensive that statement is.
(And that’s not even getting into how apparently “mercenary bounty hunter who is so awesomely badass that the Grand Army of the Republic uses him as the sole template for its army of incredibly badass soldiers” is a Latino stereotype. They also stated that “Anglo” audiences would read the “parade ground” scene at the end of the film as “hordes of interchangeable Latino immigrants” instead of a Triumph of the Will reference.)
Sorry for the rant, but the generic use of “Anglo=White” is as vile as any other attempt to erase ethnicity.
Tina says
Other Patrick–totally makes sense and I totally agree. It often feels like, these days, that if one is an actor (using it in the gender-neutral sense here) of ethnicity/race these days, if you want to be taken seriously, you have to star in some sort of low-budget indie movie. Mainstream Hollywood makes little room for ethnic actors. And even then, I think there’s a certain degree of dumbing down that happens to make the race-based roles more palatable for white audiences (I’m thinking specifically of the movie Monster’s Ball (with Halle Barry)and Precious,though admittedly I have not yet seen the later only read critique of it).
Here’s a fascinating thing about this little gem that I learned my first trip to India.
The Nazi party back in the day did a bit of research in an effort to legitimize their claims of superiority. Someone ran across the same tib-bit of info that Jenn posted and appropriated (read: twisted) that info in order to establish the idea of “Aryan” as white, which in turn made the race of Aryans (which the Nazi party claimed to be) one of the oldest races of humans. If I remember correctly, the “Land of Aryan” actually extended into parts of India and was subsumed into Hindu culture. They (the Nazis) also appropriated the swastika which is actually an incredibly beautiful symbol of cyclically eternal nature of life/death/rebirth(if you draw lines out from the “arms” of the symbol, you’ll note they never cross). So I wonder, in part, if the concept of “Aryan” equally “white” isn’t a 20th Century conception.
photondancer says
I feel a bit sorry for Tina, whose review has been well and truly derailed but still: can I just say how much I loathe the use of the word ‘caucasian’ as a synonym for ‘white’? it is based on a blatant falsehood and totally flummoxes real Caucasians (in the geographical sense) when they learn about it.
The logic that Persians can’t be ‘white’ because they don’t have blue eyes fails to impress me since I know too many ‘whites’ with grey/brown/green/hazel eyes. And if you refuse to classify them as ‘white’ for reasons of privilege, you’re left in a bind because they certainly aren’t ‘black’ or ‘asian’. Heck, I saw that when I was a kid except I was looking at Italians rather than Persians. Hence the numerous subdivisions of the ‘3 great races’ theory, which is a crock. (There’s a good overview of the lack of any physical/genetic basis for race in the book “What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee” by Jonathan Marks, incidentally.)
Since Prince of Persia does not purport to be a documentary or even to be set in any real version of Persia, I find the casting stupid rather than offensive. Are the people howling down Jake and co. for not being Iranian the same ones cheering the casting of a ‘black’ to play a Nordic god who was specifically renowned for his white skin?
BetaCandy says
Actually, Persians do sometimes have blue eyes.
I… there are just no terms for race that aren’t problematic. I don’t even feel comfortable labeling myself, and never really did.
It doesn’t “feel like” it – that might as well be a the rule, because… okay, here’s a familiar story to any screenwriter who tried to sell a non-issue movie with a minority lead character to Hollywood:
Exec: “Why does it have to be a woman/black guy/LGBT/insert minority here? Your movie isn’t about being a woman/black guy/LGBT/insert minority here, so why can’t it be a white guy? I mean, GOSH, what if we could get Tom Cruise???OMG-SQUEEE!!11!!”
No “minority” lead will have the box office draw of a white dude because they don’t have the resume because they never get cast because HW only casts white dudes *unless* the movie is about How Hard It Is Not Being A White Dude. Therefore actors from marginalized groups are stuck with “genre” movies or tiny/Dead Meat Guy type roles in bigger movies. Once in a great, great while, you get a Will Smith who somehow slips through the cracks and proves he can pull in an audience just like white guys.
Talk about yer self-fulfilling prophecies (never casting non-whites because they don’t have draw because they’re never cast). What we’re looking at here is an aggressive extension of that philosophy: even when we DO make a movie about people of a certain ethnicity, we can still squeeze Brit/Euro-descended whites into those roles.
SunlessNick says
I just saw this today, so sticking with the topic of review itself…
But lets pause here a second. Sure, Dastan may be stronger than her, but she’s smarter. She dupes him at LEAST twice, if not three times throughout the movie.
The time he steals the dagger from her it’s in her sleep.
And when he won’t, SHE lets go. She sacrifices herself, willingly, to save the world. And Dastan doesn’t even get to save her.
It fits. I don’t mean the story, I mean her. As you said, she’ll do whatever it takes to finish her mission, and here that means die. I like it because it’s a definite choice she makes, and it’s a choice she makes for the sake of the world, not for the sake of Dastan (most scenes of this ilk that didn’t involve him rescuing her would involve her getting between him and the villain’s blade).
Also, giving her life for the world is repeating the feat of that long ago girl who offered to trade her life for the world to stop the Great Sandstorm. (And it would be nice to think the gods accepting that is what allowed Dastan to turn an ostensible world-ender into several weeks of turned-back time).
but in the end, its not HER story, really (the title would be Princess of Persia: Sands of Time if it was).
Gotta say though, to my ears “Princess of Persia” scans much better than “Prince of Persia.”
Better yet, there is no ZIP! ZOWIE! moment of remembrance on the part of the princess, but rather a moment where it is clear that theirs will be a partnership.
Although it does take her something like five seconds to work out the gist of what’s going on, which is nice.
Keith says
I loved The Sands of Time game for two reasons:
1) It was written so well that I actually cared whether the Prince “got the girl”
2) He didn’t.
I could go on, but instead I just want to go play it again.