The Journey of The 13th Warrior: From Flop to Cult Classic Among Muslim Fans
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Roshan Amiri
- . August 27, 2024
- . Update: August 27, 2024 11:36 pm
Released in 1999, The 13th Warrior was projected to be a Hollywood blockbuster. Based on a Michael Crichton novel, directed by the well regarded action director John McTiernan, and starring Antonio Banderas, it had all the ingredients of a smash. But the movie proved to be a commercial and critical disaster, grossing significantly less than its big budget and getting negative reviews. Though it had a difficult beginning, the movie has since attracted fresh life especially among Muslim viewers, who value its original depiction of a Muslim protagonist in a Hollywood environment.
A Promising Yet Disastrous Beginning
The 13th Warrior was expected to be a big hit right out of print. The film had a star-studded pedigree: Banderas was at the height of his popularity, McTiernan was a proven hitmaker with films like Predator and Die Hard under his belt, and the story was adapted from Crichton’s novel Eaters of the Dead, which reimagined the epic Beowulf via the eyes of a 10th-century Arab diplomat, Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Notwithstanding these encouraging features, the movie soon fell apart from a mix of expensive reshoots, unfavorable test screenings, and a bloated budget allegedly exceeding $100 million. With just $61.7 million gross worldwide, the finished picture was labeled as a box office catastrophe.
Film reviewers were similarly nasty. Declaring that although the picture showed “a lot of cash on the screen,” it lacked substance, Roger Ebert notoriously rated the movie a dismal 1.5 out of 5. For many, The 13th Warrior turned into a Hollywood cautionary story, especially with relation to the portrayal of Muslim heroes in big-budget movies.
A New Life Amid Muslim Audiences
Although the general public mainly forgot The 13th Warrior, it has recently attracted a devoted following, especially among Muslims. Many who have long felt underrepresented or negatively portrayed in Western film connected with the way the movie portrayed Ahmad ibn Fadlan, based on an actual historical person. The 13th Warrior presented something unusual in a Hollywood scene sometimes attacked for its negative depictions of Muslims: an erudite, courageous Muslim hero presented with dignity.
Television producer and best-selling author Dr. Reza Aslan thinks the early failure of the movie might have determented Hollywood from creating more movies featuring Muslim heroes. He points out that the terrible box office performance and the events of 9/11 soon after added to a time when Muslims were more commonly portrayed as enemies than as heroes. This highlights the difficulties of positive Muslim depiction in a post-9/11 society, therefore complicating the impact of the film.
Travel from Book to Movie
Born out of a challenge, Michael Crichton’s book The 13th Warrior is based on Inspired by the epic Beowulf, Crichton set out to retell the tale for a contemporary audience using the actual manuscript of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, which offered the oldest known outsider’s account of Viking civilization. This combination of fantasy and history produced a distinctive scenario that was faithfully copied into the movie by screenwriters Warren Lewis and William Wisher Jr.
One of the screenwriters for the movie, Lewis remembers that the protagonist’s Islamic faith was always supposed to be a major focus of the production. Ahmad was presented with dignity, eschewing the humorous or disparaging clichés that sometimes defined Hollywood’s portrayal of Muslims. Rather, Ahmad is shown as a guy of intelligence and bravery—someone the Vikings he travels with respects. When the Viking captain asks Ahmad if he can “draw sounds,” or write, to which Ahmad answers by penning the Islamic confession of faith: “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his Prophet,” one unforgettable scene emphasizes this regard. Present without ominous overtones, this moment is a rare favorable portrayal of Islam in a Hollywood movie.
The reversal of stereotypes
The way The 13th Warrior inverts conventional Hollywood preconceptions about Muslims and Western society is among its most important features. Ahmad is shown as an alien from an advanced society who, by his knowledge and adaptability, gets among the Vikings rather than as a terrorist or villain. This representation presents a more complex and respectful picture, therefore subverting the sometimes oversimplified and unfavorable images of Muslims in Western media.
Associate English professor Dr. Lynn Shutters of Colorado State University notes that the film’s dynamic of having an Arab Muslim as the protagonist seeing the Vikings’ behavior deviates sharply from the conventional Western superiority narrative. This “Reversing the Eastern” cliché questions the conventional wisdom regarding the East as savage and the West as civilized. Rather, Ahmad is depicted as the refined man amid a world of uncouth fighters, a viewpoint that was perhaps confusing for Western viewers at the time but in a way that questioned their preconceptions.
Ahmad’s friendship with the Vikings highlights even more the film’s lesson of mutual respect and empathy. This feature of the movie was so strong that The 13th Warrior was even included into a unit cohesion course at the US Army’s West Point military academy.
Examinations and Cultural Authenticity
The 13th Warrior has certain shortcomings even with its advantages. The movie has drawn criticism for supporting a paradigm of masculine violence whereby Ahmad’s path to becoming a “real man” entails adopting the Viking warrior culture. This message raises questions since it implies that physical power and violence are naturally connected to masculinity and heroism.
Furthermore, the movie lacked cultural authenticity even if it was revolutionary in how a Muslim protagonist was portrayed. The movie was written, directed, and produced totally by non-Muslims; the Spanish actor Banderas was cast as the Arab hero. If the movie were produced today, Dr. Aslan points out that incorporating Muslim creators in the production process would probably be more important to guarantee a more real portrayal.
Though movie was a commercial and critical flop when first released, The 13th Warrior has now become a cult favorite especially among Muslim viewers who value its respectful portrayal of a Muslim hero. The movie is a remarkable, if flawed, addition to the Hollywood canon because of its original inversion of preconceptions and its focus on mutual tolerance and cultural understanding. The 13th Warrior is still a major movie for its contribution to on-screen Muslim representation, providing a peek of what Hollywood can do when it dares to question its own standards, even if it might not have been the smash success it was meant to be.
