Dastan, a street urchin, rescues his friend from being caught for what appears to be theft in a Persian bazaar. As Dastan is apprehended himself, he catches the eye of the local king, who does the unbelievable – adopting the boy “for valor.”
We then see Dastan as a grown young man (Jake Gyllenhaal), storming the walls of the sacred city of Alamut. In this wondrous city, he and his two prince brothers, along with their instigating uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley), expect to find weapons that the Alamutians are secretly forging to sell to the Persian king’s enemies. Upon closer inspection, the story of the weapons turns out to be a hoax. However, in the ensuing battle, Dastan manages to seize a magical dagger that can turn back time. As it turns out later, this dagger was the real reason for the invasion of Alamut. Before this is revealed, Dastan is framed for the king’s death, and he escapes the city with the local princess (Gemma Arterton), who follows him to the ends of the earth – initially not so much out of love, but because she is assigned to guard the dagger, as it could be dangerous in the wrong hands.
A New Summer Disney Franchise
A new summer Disney franchise, poised to replace “Pirates of the Caribbean” when Johnny Depp finally departs, “Prince of Persia” is exactly what you’d expect – a light, two-hour “roller coaster” that’s easy to watch and quickly forgotten. In some ways, the film could indeed aspire to be the new “Pirates,” but it lacks Depp’s presence and, more importantly, the eccentricity that distinguished “Pirates” from other summer blockbusters. In “Prince,” they’ve tried to compensate with ostriches and parkour, but as they say, ostriches are no Jack Sparrow.
Otherwise, everything is in place, starting with director Mike Newell, who struggled with the overly ornate, Colombian material of Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera” a few years ago, but has done an excellent job with the adaptation of a video game, which “Prince” essentially is. Much of this success can be attributed to producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s decision to omit any ethnic logic from the start, making everything in the film a grand “artistic convention” that’s hard to fault.
Casting Choices and Character Portrayals
For example, Prince Dastan is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, a blue-eyed American with Jewish-Swedish roots and the manners of a cowboy who reads Kafka or even Schopenhauer at night. The words “Persia,” “Eastern,” and “Petrukha” are nowhere to be found in the description, and rightly so. But it doesn’t matter, because he is charming, talented, and, most importantly, runs well and doesn’t argue with the producers when they tell him to run even better. After all, Ben Kingsley, flaunting Eastern robes and triple eyeliner, even holds the title “Sir.” But anyone who says that his “Nizam” is any worse for it can tell him that themselves.
Hollywood Tropes and Familiar Themes
The rest of the East is equally conventional, and under the colorful decorations of 6th-century Persia, one can easily recognize the familiar Hollywood ethos. The black assassins are black, ugly, and invincible, like the Nazgûl from “The Lord of the Rings.” The bickering between Gemma and Jake inevitably evokes the screaming faces of Douglas and Turner, and the archaeological puzzle scenes make it impossible to resist shouting “Indiana! Indiana!” But that is essentially the main function of Bruckheimer’s production machine – to select the best and recast it into new stories that will delight new, often young, audiences.
As for Bruckheimer’s supposed rule that a scene should not last longer than four minutes, it’s probably so that older viewers don’t have time to wonder why they are watching the same thing for the millionth time.