by It is often difficult for audiences to match a film with the producing studio. Actors, directors and screenwriters appear much more influential than the enormous machinery behind them. But there’s an exception to every rule. Fans of movie classic and cinema’s greats will invariably associate Universal with their iconic Classic Monsters from the 20s to 50s. Or, in other words, Universal stands first and foremost for its creature features. Classics such as Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, Frankenstein with Boris Karloff or even The Invisible Man with Claude Rains in the lead have been referenced, copied or remade countless times since they appeared. The Mummy by contrast, also starring Karloff in 1932 in one of his best performances, hasn’t entered pop culture as successfully as other Universal Monsters. When Stephen Sommers made a loosely-based remake, the material seemed fresh again, unused and exciting. The resulting film turned out to be the first monster/swashbuckler feature of the millennium.
To those that don’t remember Eroll Flynn in tights, the swashbuckler genre is nothing but a blank page. But to film enthusiasts, it’s a forgotten classic, built around familiar ingredients. Set in a romanticized past. Starring good-looking male hero. Featuring a treasure of some kind. What audiences preferred back in the golden age of Hollywood cannot be copied anymore. It takes a twist, some more spice to the ingredients that aren’t familiar anymore. Sommers did exactly that, and being ahead of time, paved the way for future attempts at creating classics that still ended up underwhelming at the box office. The best and, arguably, most important example is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a classic only few have ever heard of.
Plot is negligible here, it is only a vehicle that puts characters in situations that lead to serendipity. That’s why we easily take for granted that a priest buried alive thousands of years ago for having an affair with the pharaoh’s wife and murdering him can be brought back to life – and be equipped with extraordinary superpowers. We expect a character like Professor (Indiana) Jones to waltz on screen after being surprised the story didn’t begin with him in a tight spot in the first place. Instead, we’re seeing Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell, an American serving in the French Foreign Legion coming across the Egyptian City of the Dead. Rick is the typical underachiever. Tall, strong and equipped with massive firepower and the skills of a pirate or mercenary, or “swashbuckler,” we wonder what else he could do if he weren’t hired to lead Evelyn and her brother Jonathan to Hamunaptra and fight a resurrected mummy.
I only gamble with my life, never my money.
Rick O’Connell
Fraser is a perfect fit for the part, not taking himself too seriously to spoil the fun. And fun is what The Mummy is all about. A raid on a river boat. A battle on the City of the Dead. The ten plagues befalling Egypt. Again. All these scenes lead to entertaining skirmishes, snappy dialogue and even an occasional laugh. At the same time, the film never becomes ridiculous, it still manages to retain sufficient plausibility to take it seriously, if not too seriously. This is an accomplishment in itself, and much of the credit goes to Arnold Vosloo starring as Imhotep, the god-like resurrected mummy. As scary as the decaying carcass walking around and sucking the life out of a group of American fortune hunters is, Vosloo manages to display the restored Imhotep as authoritarian, intimidating and humane at the same time. Even the monster is destroyed by love eventually, yet dies in dignity, not shame.
Contrary to the old-fashioned swashbuckler flick, all this male capacity is balanced by female characters that know how to take care of business and have bigger qualities than only being picture-pretty. Anck-Su-Namun, the cause of all the trouble, is capable but not loyal, leaving Imhotep to die in a tight spot. She’s an opportunist, and her character is contrasted by Evelyn. A brilliant, yet clumsy librarian, she outclasses any character in the film in terms of intelligence and education. What qualities she lacks Rick possesses, and vice versa. This is a new ingredient used in subsequent films in the same tradition. At the same time, you could argue The Mummy plays with stereotypes. Americans are cultureless capitalists while British are the exact opposite. All Egyptians in the wake of a nation building process are depicted as featureless servants. The past is romanticized and the present (here the 1920s) is a period of people solely relying on the miracles of science that are outclassed by pagan spells and witchcraft. But then we remember this is a film supposed to entertain, not educate. And also that the same applies to Indiana Jones.
The Mummy is an entertaining remake of an already great classic that, once you realize not to take it too seriously, is a fun ride. It creates a dense atmosphere with wondrous things to look at that sucks you right in and makes you wish you could try that shotgun at the resurrected mummy stalking you. By honoring the classics and adding new ingredients to the mix, Stephen Sommers made a film that references without copying, that is familiar without being alienating. The Mummy is a new classic in its own regard. That alone is a great accomplishment.
