Not Without My Daughter Critique - Movie Review Example

Not Without My Daughter – A Movie Review The film “Not without My Daughter” has all the trappings of the tearjerker movie with colonial overtones. Released in 1990, the movie is full of clichés about the East, especially the Middle East that various media representations have fostered in the mind of the average American. Depicting the movie as a struggle between the good and the evil, where good is the white race, and evil, the brown, the movie was timed to be released on the eve of the first Gulf War. The movie is based on the true story of Betty Mahmoody which was published as a book earlier in 1986. . Betty, played by Sally Field, is an American, happily married to the Iranian physician Mahmoody (Alfred Molina), who has been in the U.S. since twenty years. They have a six year old daughter Mahtob(Sheila Rosenthal). Mahmoody is urged by his sister in Iran to bring his wife and daughter to Iran for a family celebration. He is upset by the anti Iranian remarks made by some of his colleagues. Mahmoody asks Betty to go with him to Iran for a fortnight. When he sees Betty is nervous about it, he swears on the holy Koran to look after them and bring them back after two weeks, and Betty agrees to go. In Iran, Betty is forced to wear the black burqa. Once in the midst of his family in Iran, Mahmoody changes completely from a civilized, reasonable and sensitive man into an unreasonable, chauvinistic brute. He discloses to Betty that he has lost his job in America, and wants to stay on in Iran for ever. He also wants his daughter to be brought up as a Muslim. Betty wants to take her daughter and leave, but Mahmoody says that she can leave alone, but Mahtob will stay in Iran. Betty realizes she is a virtual prisoner in her sister-in-law’s house. She manages to go to the Swiss embassy, where she learns that according to Iranian Law, she is now an Iranian citizen as the wife of a legal Iranian citizen. She and her daughter cannot leave the country unless her husband gives written permission. She also learns that her husband would get the sole custody of their daughter if she were to get a divorce. . Moody becomes increasingly violent and Betty makes plans to escape from there taking her daughter. She meets Houssein (Roshan Seth) in the market, who works for a network that helps foreigners to escape from Iran. When her father falls sick, Moody tells her to go to America for a visit, because he wants her to liquidate his assets in the U.S while she was there and send the money to Iran. In desperation, she contacts Hossein who helps her. She finally escapes with her daughter after a harrowing journey through Turkey Western film makers have always tried to depict the East as a sort of Arabian Nights story, portraying only what they want to see, and ignoring everything else. This has been happening since the early ages of the Cinema, when Western Cinema depicted India as it was seen by the British soldiers. . According to Alan Nadel, this puts “the East at a double remove from the source of its representation.” (Nadel 184) In “Not Without My Daughter” too, this type of double remove can be noticed from the beginning of the film, with its too idyllic American life in a charming villa by the river, and later, in their life in Iran. Sally Field is the charming American wife of the doctor, who is free to dress as she likes in America. Moody is a loving father, and a considerate husband, in America. But as soon as they go to Iran, Sally is forced to cover her hair and wear a chador. Moody becomes a loud mouthed, boorish husband. a stereotype male chauvinist, who demands that Betty should conduct herself like a “good Iranian wife”, that is, like a slave. According to Vincent Canby in the New York Times, “Once in Teheran, Moody changed, or, as the movie portrays it, he reverted to his more primitive personality” Not only are the chief actors of the drama are at a double remove, even the minor actors are the same. The scene at the airport when the Mahmoody family arrives in Teheran shows hordes of the doctor’s female relatives, all clad in black gowns with their heads covered, running towards them as soon as they come out of the plane, wailing all the while. When they at last come to the house, they are greeted by more wailing women in black burqas watching from the terrace. There is a scene where Betty and her daughter cringe at the sight of a live goat killed in front of them, according to the Iranian custom. Like other Hollywood movies such as “Aladdin”, which are habitually used by the media and the film industry to misrepresent the East, “Not Without My Daughter” is also used for the same purpose. The timing of the release of the movie might have been orchestrated to coincide with the first Gulf War. Ayatolla Khomeini was there in Iran, and Iran had become ‘the Evil State’. According to Nadel writing about Aladdin’s Arabia, “It is the source of dissimulation and/or the object of it, the origin of misrepresentation and/ or the victim, the world to be escaped or redeemed” (Nadel 194). For Betty, life in Iran was a world to be escaped. Moody changes beyond all recognition as soon as he reaches Iran. He dresses in Iranian clothes. He becomes moody and withdrawn He shouts at Betty and even beats her. He is rude to his mother – in – law when she telephones from America. He now talks and laughs loudly like his compatriots. He takes away Betty’s money, passport and credit cards He refuses to allow Betty to go back to America with her daughter. . He lies and breaks his most sacred oath which he had sworn on the holy Koran. Betty is virtually a prisoner in her sister –in- law’s house. The metamorphosis of Moody from a cultured man to a brutal wife beater is hardly credible. The “culture” projected by the movie as “good” is the Western culture. It portrays the East, especially the Muslim culture of Iran as crude, something not trustworthy, and full of lies . Mahmoody’s sudden change from a caring husband to a domineering bully seems to suggest that in spite of his spending twenty years in America, he is still a crude Iranian at heart. According to Nadel, “Like India, Iran and Iraq have been represented in the U.S. through the C.I.A. “(Nadel 185) The State department and the C.I.A would naturally avail the best time to do it. Thus it is no wonder that the movie “Not Without My Daughter” was released during the gulf war. By its depiction of Iran as a fanatical Islamic country where people with machine guns move freely everywhere, it succeeded in giving a relentlessly negative impression of Iran to the people of America and the world. According to Nadel, “The foreign policy itself becomes the medium that allows American cultural narratives- projected on the world as foreign policy, clothing style, and social codes “(Nadel 200) The movie is based on a book with the same title written by Betty Mahmoody and William Hoffer, which is a true story of Betty’s experiences in Iran. The screen version is written by David W. Rintels. The movie has been mostly filmed in studio sets and in Israel, which gives it an authentic look of the Middle East, with the background minarets. The American home of the Mahmoody’s (Alpina, Michigan) which is shown in the beginning of the movie, is filmed near a charming, wooded locale with a gurgling river, portraying a sense of peace and well being, in absolute contrast to the Iran with the baleful images of Ayatollah Khomeini which are displayed everywhere. . Brian Gilbert, the director of the film has made the film a sort of a horror film, by showing only a one-sided image of Iran. The plentiful conversations in Farsi are untitled, leaving the non Iranian in the dark. Sally Field who plays Betty sets your teeth on edge by acting superior all the time. Nothing in the foreign land seems to intrigue her or interest her. Sally Field, as she plays Betty, according to Vincent Canby, in the New York Times,” is a sincerely unpleasant, rather stupid woman”. Canby compares her to the stuck up tourist, who, in Paris, would “insist on eating at McDonald’s.” British actor Alfred Molina who plays Dr. Mahmoody is not convincing when, from a charming, sophisticated man, he turns into a screaming, teeth baring monster overnight. Sheila Rosenthal, who plays the young Mahtob, is spontaneous and convincing. She won the Best actress young artist award for this role. Indian actor Roshan Seth is convincing as the Iranian who helps Betty to escape. “Not Without My Daughter” is a film of single dimension, which represents a single view point . References Canby, Vincent. Movie Review .Sally Field, Fervently “Not Without My Daughter” New York Times January 11, 1991. viewed at http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review? On March 23, 2009 Nadel, A (1997) ”A Whole New (Disney) World Order: Alladin, Atomic Power, and the Muslim Middle East “ Visions of the East Orientalism in Film Sernstein,M. , Studlar,G.(Editors) Rutgers University Press Wilmott,D. “not Without My Daughter” film review. 2005 Filmcritic.com Read More