“The Mummy Returns”—Along With the Usual Despicable Stereotypes of Arabs

By Jack G. Shaheen

“Daddy,” remarked daughter Michele, “I can’t believe you are going to see another bandages-with-eyes movie, that cursed ‘The Mummy Returns.’”

“Afraid so,” I sighed.

“But aren’t you on deadline for your new book?”

“Yes,” I groaned, “but this is a 2001 film—I need to make the book as up-to-date as possible before we go to press. Don’t worry, I’m sure ‘Returns’ won’t be as bad as its predecessor, ‘The Mummy’ (1999). Remember, plenty of film critics and Arab-Americans criticized Universal for its blatant stereotypes.”

“I hope you’re right,” cautioned Michele.

Notepad in hand, off I went. I gave the cashier two fives and entered the theater. The place was packed. Hollywood’s walking-dead Egyptians always draw a crowd.

From the beginning, the industry’s prowling mummies have prompted box office registers to ring da bing-bing!! Later, I found out that “Returns” earned more than $70 million on its opening weekend (May 4-6), making it the biggest non-holiday opening in movie history.

As a youth, back in the 1940s, I loved being frightened as I watched mystical mummies prowl the screen. Back then, movies like “The Mummy’s Hand” (1940), “The Mummy’s Tomb” (1942), “The Mummy’s Curse” (1944) and “The Mummy’s Ghost” (1944), featured special effects and plots that were simple, but effective. Cinematographers would place gauze over the camera’s lens, creating chilling, dreamlike and exotic moods.

True, yesteryear’s movies were based on Egyptian stereotypes. But the studios also projected harmful caricatures of blacks, Asians, Latinos and others. Today, in the enlightened 21st century, it is absolutely unacceptable to demean racial and ethnic groups on movie screens—unless, of course, they are Arabs, the industry’s “other.”

Ominous music introduces the high-tech, high-budgeted “The Mummy Returns.” As the opening frames depicted gobs of stereotypical Egyptians, I cringed and began taking notes.

The action, pitting “evil” Egyptians against “good” Westerners, is set in “Egypt, 1933.” Aiding the Western protagonists is one good Egyptian. His token presence reminded me of how producers once tried to justify their stereotypical depictions of American blacks by including the one noble black who sacrifices his life for the white champion in movies that focus on savage Africans.

To beef up the desert sword fights and fistfights with the film’s heroes, Rick and Evelyn (Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz), the director unleashes the Scorpion King, a deadly half-scorpion, half-man, portrayed by the wrestler, “The Rock.” King and the mummy, Imhotep, move to rule the world. Assisting them are Imhotep’s disposable guards—wearing flaming red mesh outfits, resembling discarded fishing nets—the mummy’s long lost love, Anck-Su-Namun, an evil knife-for-hire thug, a greedy, disagreeable museum curator, the curator’s very black bodyguard, who is obsessed with killing an 8-year-old child, and gobs of hackneyed computer-generated Egyptians. Some digital villains are werewolfs; others are flying see-through mummies, ghastly pygmies, and armor-plated scarabs. As they crushed hundreds of frightened Egyptian guards, viewers laughed. Sadly, audiences have grown accustomed to seeing the industry dispose of Arabs as junk dealers trash autos.

Aren’t filmmakers supposed to be more enlightened in this, the 21st century?

And what about movie critics and audiences? Why hasn’t anyone contested this financial blockbuster’s hideous stereotypes? Silence from critics and Arab Americans alike makes it that much easier for major studios like Universal to continue vilifying Arabs.

Until the day comes when the American moviegoing public refuses to pay to watch their fellow human beings depicted so callously, only the vocal objections of those who recognize intolerance when they see it stand in the way of Hollywood’s continuing barrage of hatred.

Jack G. Shaheen is the author of Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, to be released in June 2001 by Interlink Books, Inc. and available through the AET Book Club.