Guest Post: The Hurt Locker’s (Mis)use of Sacred Muslim Symbols
After watching Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker I felt it was necessary to write about what I found to be a careless use of sacred sound design. The Hurt Locker is an Oscar nominated film about a US army bomb disposal unit in Baghdad during the early stages of the US occupation of Iraq in 2004. The film contains various intense scenes encountering IEDs, car bombs, and explosive vests disarmed by the film’s protagonist, a young die hard bomb expert Sergeant First Class William James.
My greatest criticism with The Hurt Locker is its inconspicuously (conspicuous for Muslims) offensive use of the Muslim call to prayer and the Quran as a device to prelude a scene of violence. The sound of the “Adhan” (call to prayer) or verses from the Muslim holy book are heard before every scene discovering an explosive device.
However, the film’s overall portrayal of Muslims and/or Iraqis is not completely homogeneous, unlike 95% of American films about the Middle East, but by no means is it a huge step forward. Iraqi characters range from militant Muslim gun men, pornography selling merchants, and innocent Iraqis living in a war torn Iraq.
The film as a whole I feel has no intention of painting Iraqis and/or Muslims as evil people. However, the use of Islamic symbols in the form of the Adhan and the Quran are used specifically to connote the presence of violence and danger. The use of these symbols as dark, exotic, and evil forces is not new to cinema (see The Exorcist), however, we should expect more from a film produced in 2008. Non-Muslim film producers somehow fail to see that these verses are sacred in Islam, a religion followed by over a billion people worldwide. Any use of these symbols to connote danger alienates the non-Muslim world from seeing Islam as a faith tradition rather than a doctrine of violence and hate.
I hope I’m not the first to tell say that this “critically acclaimed” work needs a lot more… work. I think it’s time filmmakers stop pretending that they “understand” and start admitting that pretentious portrayals of the world only expose their ignorance.
That is despicable!! Glad I haven't spent one red cent to see it.
I thought the film was pretty non-judgemental in its point of view. But off course, as I dont know arabic, I couldnt get the koran reference. Here is an interesting comment from the original post:
"… Think about it with so many mosques in baghdad and the numerous times it's recited per day (5x at Sunni mosques and 3x at Shiite mosques) the sound is unavoidable if you as a cinematographer are striving for authenticity."… may be it is just that? Or do you think it is a deliberate attempt to defame Islam?
Try to imagine a film on the IRA in which every bombing in Northern Ireland or England is preceded by church bells and the singing of Ave Maria, and you might have an inkling of how hurtful using the call to prayer and the recitation of Qur'anic verses as indications of violence and danger is to Muslims (of whom I am one). Using sacred symbols in this way not only "alienates the non-Muslim world from seeing Islam as a faith tradition rather than a doctrine of violence and hate" but alienates Muslims from non-Muslims and reinforces the idea that the West is waging war on Islam, not on terrorists. It rarely occurs to Westerners, apparently, that Muslims love and revere the Adhan and the Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him — I will never forget how shocked and hurt I was to see the cartoon of our Prophet with a bomb as a turban. It is as if non-Christians portrayed Jesus Christ wielding a torture instrument from the Inquisition.
American Guest,
well here is the thing.. In Hollywood, Arabs, and Muslims have no representation.. Its not Arabs, and or Muslim's faults.. Its just that we immigrated later than other cultures, so we gotta do something about it.. we can decide to make money on our cultural music and take control of the situation or we can act like the we are the victims..
we are not, we just are not organized..
1. lets take action, by creating resources for editors and directors..
a. by making information readily available, an example can be to start a company that license's Muslim sounds.. by Muslim's being the owner of such music they can play descretion in who buys the music and sale such music at a cost.. this is how you own Hollywood! I think we need to create an initiative in the Muslim community to actually start facilitating such endeavors.. .Kinda like how warner brother's own the song happy birthday.. they charge an arm and leg for anyone who sings happy birthday on air.. food for thought!
I have to start off by saying that I'm not a Muslim, which probably explains why I am having a hard time completely relating to your point of view. I just watched it earlier tonight, and for the second time (after seeing it in theaters) and, correct me if I'm wrong, the only scene where the adhan was used was the scene where James is on his first mission with Bravo Company and he finds the multiple bombs buried in the dirt (the one in the promo poster). And addressing InfidelRudy's quote, theres really no way it wasn't intentional; it was used at the high tension point of the scene when the man was shown running down the stairs.
However, I actually went back and watched that scene just now and I may almost agree with you. It certainly does associate the call to prayer with the threat of imminent violence. Aesthetically, it felt like the right background sound for the scene, but as a non-Muslim American, I think that's because Qur'anic recitation (or at the very least Arabic) is so often used in cinema and tv as a background to things like that and theres probably some degree of conditioning/association. Not to mention that to western ears, the harmonic minor/phrygian dominant scales (what people would say is a middle eastern sound) is somewhat dissonant and creates a feeling of mystery and tension.
That being said, while I agree that it is something that should not be in a film period, let alone one that recieves wide screening from an American audience, I think you are far too quick in condemning The Hurt Locker as a whole. The scene with the adhan suggested the man was an insurgent and perhaps Muslim (although I wonder if the audience upon hearing the background sound, thinks of Islam or simply of the Middle East), but then the viewer's perception is flipped over and he turns out just to be an innocent guy running away. Not to mention, the Shahada was used in a very heart wrenching moment, during the last bomb scene where James realizes he can't defuse the man's vest and he starts praying. I could see if you were upset by the mere fact that the two were mixed, but in terms of affecting American perceptions of Islam and Arabs, I think this movie does much more good than it does harm.
Apparently it won oscars for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing…
I agree with GVL completely, and I would like to contribute my own another theory. The Adhan is a call to prayer, and is being played during the scene with multiple stringed bombs. Perhaps these two things are coinciding to symbolize William James' (or anyone in the IED squad for that matter) underlying spirituality and perhaps prayer for safety at that moment of tension and danger.
Grow up, people. Not all Americans wake up every day thinking of ways to insult your religion. Most of us simply don't care about your holy cities, sacred symbols, prophets, or fatwas. It's simply not a factor in our lives.
The whole "muslims are outraged " bit is getting kinda stale.
I agree with ya Andy in way.. Muslims should not act as the victim when we can take measures to correct such issues.. Like a company that is Muslim can go together to buy the licensing rights to the Adhan for the world.. in buy doing this it is not freely available.. I cannot stress this enough!!!
You're being too sensitive. Using the call to prayer before a violent scene is the same as using church bells or Christian music and there should be no offense taken because as I see it, it is a device to show the dichotomy of the scene..which is to say that this contrast between something that is beautiful and peaceful and meant to inspire spirituality and the violence of war.
It is to shake the viewer into action…look at this! Look how one minute there is nothing on peoples' minds except going to pray and then they are confronted with the reality and ugliness of war.
There is no disrespect meant…it's just to highlight the disparity of peace and war.
I have to admit, i think that the oscars is fun to look at, and i truly think that the hurt locker was a awesome movie to watch!
Avatar should have won, anyway.
as a moslem, i was offended when i saw the little kid talked very ugly..i dont know if its true or he was just made to talked that way on the movie.woman are very respected in islam u know.the idea of kids selling pornography,,it hurted me some how.
LOL, this is where we start making money in hollywood.. You know, if you email the directors a positive uplifting email, stating they did a wonderful job in Parts of the movie, but with their ignorance they used Islamic recitation that was offensive..
Ya know.. there isn't a website that offers producers's and editors the availability of "politically correct' music they can buy to edit movies..
We can blame the Movie makers, but then again I did work in Music while in Hollywood, and one of my illusions of grandeur was to actually create a website that can be used for movies and sell the licensing for such movies.. of course giving a dipiction and a history of what the music sounds like..
if anyone wants to collaborate with me respond to this post..
My Regards