Islam in Western Cinema, Part 2

In Part 1 of our four-part series about images of Islam in Western Cinema, we saw that Muslims are often depicted as part of an exotic, dangerous world. Muslims were patriarchs with short tempers seeking to kill people (including their own) while trying to subjugate and seduce women. In the latter part of the century, film began to portray Muslims as organized masses of savages led by secretive leaders, seeking to resolve disputes with swords and rifles, needing to be civilized by Westerners. In 1962's “Lawrence of Arabia,” the title character pleads, “So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people—greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.” The American Film Institute, by the way, lists this quote as one of the great quotes in the history of cinema.