The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Will Smith & The Last Pharaoh

Will Smith & The Last Pharaoh

Posted by Tiglath (Guest) info@gilgameshgames.org - Friday, September 12 2008, 12:44:48 (CEST) from 58.104.78.36 - d58-104-78-36.dsl.vic.optusnet.com.au Australia - Windows Codename Longhorn - Internet Explorer Website: http://www.gilgameshgames.org Website title:

Randall Wallace William Morris Agency One William Morris Place Beverly Hills, California 90212, USA CC: Will Smith Overbrook Entertainment 450 N Roxbury Drive 4th Floor Beverly Hills, California 90210, USA 10th September, 2008 Dear Randall Wallace, I recently read that you are currently penning The Last Pharaoh, which revolves around Taharqa, the pharaoh who will be played by Will Smith, who battled Assyrian invaders, under the command of King Esarhaddon, in ancient Egypt beginning in 677 B.C. I write to request that before you complete the screenplay you consider the pervasive Orientalism framework - first coined by the late Edward Said - that has long been used to diminish the history of both the African and Middle Eastern people by depicting them as blood thirsty, exotic, decadently corrupt, despotic and regressive. This racist framework was first constructed by European colonialists during the 18th century and reinforced by European writers and historians, to justify their control of third world nations and the expropriation of their resources. This same framework was reflected by Harvard Egyptologist George Reisner who between 1916 and 1919 offered the first archaeological evidence of Nubian kings who ruled over Egypt. He went on to insist that black Africans could not possibly have constructed the monuments he was excavating. He believed that Nubia’s leaders, including Taharqa, must have been light-skinned Egypto-Libyans who ruled over the “primitive Africans.” The same framework is also apparent in many racist depictions of the ancient Assyrians. I have taken the liberty of setting out some typical scenarios that may inadvertently make their way into the film’s script and then debunked them in the attachment that follows. Today thanks to African-Americans, such as Will Smith, great strides have been made in dismantling this racist framework when it comes to depicting Africans in films and media. And while it is admirable that you debunk the racist view of the ancient Africans I ask that you not conform to the same framework when it comes to depicting the ancient Assyrians in your screenplay. This depiction is especially important to the descendants of the Assyrians, the modern day people of Iraq who continue to live under US colonialism. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration regarding this sensitive issue. Kindest regards, David Chibo Melbourne, Australia http://www.gilgameshgames.org Typical Assyrian Orientalism Scenes 1. The typical Assyrian Cruelty Scene – In the capture of Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital, the scene will depict the Assyrians as heartless and cruel most likely instigating massacre, rape, torture and pillage against an innocent population. This distorted cruelty assumption is easily debunked by the late Assyriologist Henry Saggs who stated that, "There is no proven case of any atrocities committed by individual Assyrian soldiers as matters of mere sadism. It is true that there are some scenes on bas reliefs which do show the mutilation or barbarous killing (as by skinning) of prisoners, but the indications are that these represent what was done to ringleaders by order of the king, not random acts of barbarity by private soldiers. Indeed, there are indications that the king insisted on very strict discipline in the matter of treatment of prisoners-of-war, and one royal letter to an Assyrian administrator dealing with provisions for such prisoners actually warns the official: 'You shall not be negligent. If you are, you shall die.'" (H.W.F. Saggs, The Might That Was Assyria, pp.262-3) Furthermore: "Amongst all the aspects of ancient Mesopotamian life, there are few which have been more widely misunderstood and misrepresented than the nature of Assyrian imperialism. Few historians or other writers who touch upon Assyria in the period between 900 B.C. and its final fall just before 600 B.C. can resist the temptation to gather up their skirts and add yet another shocked comment upon barbarism, brutality and unmatched ruthlessness of the Assyrians. It is rare to find any attempt to look at Assyrian warfare and imperialism as a whole in its perspective. Yet, as it is hoped to show below, when one considers the whole functioning of the Assyrian Empire, and particularly when one passes judgement in accordance with the standards, not of our own times but of the other peoples of the ancient world, a very different picture emerges. The Assyrian Empire was efficient and would not gladly bear those who wished to upset the civilised world order, but it was not exceptionally bloody or barbaric. The number of people killed or mutilated in an average Assyrian campaign in the interest of efficient administration was, even in proportion to the population, probably no more than the number of dead and mangled humans that most Western countries offer annually as a sacrifice to the motor-car, in the supposed interest of efficient transport." (H.W.F. Saggs, Everyday Life In Babylonia and Assyria, p.99) 2. The typical despotic King scene – King Esarhaddon will most likely be depicted as a blood thirsty despot intent on ruling the world. And 3. The blatant sexual King scene – Esarhaddon will most likely be depicted as having some type of harem and be a sexual predator. Both these scenes are easily debunked by Professor Simo Parpola who explains that, “In the popular imagination Assyrian kings have long been portrayed as despots of the worst possible kind, spending their time--when not engaging in war or other cruelties--in their harems, immersed in bodily pleasures and revelries. Consider Eugène Delacroix's famous painting The Death of Sardanapalus: Here, an atmosphere of depraved luxury is suggested in the disgusting portrait of this last great Assyrian king (late seventh century B.C.) as described in ancient Greek histories. The picture of Assyrian kingship that emerges from a study of the documents left by the Assyrians themselves, however, is far different. To the Assyrians, a king immersed in revelries and cruelties would have been an abomination; their kingship was a sacred institution rooted in heaven, and their king was a model of human perfection seen as a prerequisite for man's personal salvation.” (Parpola, Simo (1999) Sons of God - The ideology of Assyrian Kingship. In: Archaeology Odissy Archives, December 1999.) 4. The incompetent Assyrian army/soldiers scene - in which the undisciplined Assyrian army will be shown as blundering incompetents easily defeated by the disciplined “freedom loving” Egyptians. This is also easily debunked by Richard A. Gabriel and Karen S. Metz who explain that, “In terms of efficiency of organization, no military staff (i.e. administrators, logistic officers and engineers) would reach the proficiency of the Assyrian or Roman military staffs until the German general staff of the 1870's.” (Richard A. Gabriel and Karen S. Metz. "From Sumer to Rome: The Military Capabilities of Ancient Armies." New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.) --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

The full topic: Will Smith & The Last Pharaoh Tiglath - Friday, September 12 2008, 12:44:48 (CEST) Re: Will Smith & The Last Pharaoh pancho - 09/12 23:52

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