The Barbarian (1933)

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Film was awarded a 2 for filming, but content earns a 0.While I can give a pass to certain inequities in movies, (i.e. the Nicholas Brothers dance number that Fred Astaire rated as the best dance number ever filmed) I draw the line at praising a film where a woman is kidnapped, raped, eventually returned, ridiculed upon her return, then runs off with her kidnapper/rapist, for the lame reason of her mother was half Egyptian, feeding into the stereotype that people of certain ethnic backgrounds should stick together.The cinematography of the film rated a 2 because that could be interesting.No matter when this picture was made, pre-code, post-code, whatever, there is no excuse for tolerating the torture of a woman, then have the woman go out of her way to return to her torturer. Sorry, no can do.

This is one pre-Code movie I will miss should I ever come across it again.****This may contain spoilers**** The reviews seem to be divided between whether Myrna's character (Diana) is British or American. The movie tells us she is half Egyptian.Whatever her nationality, what she endures is much more obvious. Lured to a house under false pretenses by Roman Navarro's character (Jamil), where she is subjected to being whipped (we hear the off screen screams), a whip that Navarro himself hands to Edward Arnold (Pasha), she is "rescued" by her betrayer and bought back. This leads to a trek across the desert with Jamil wistfully repeating "you called for me". Right, Diana called for him rather than her no where to be seen fiancé or the police.Then after a fight with some of Pasha's men sent to bring back Diana, Jamil, the winner of the fight, makes Diana walk across the desert to the oasis.After all of this comes the much debated scene. Jamil grabs her and forcefully kisses her, completely with pulling hair scene. She tries to fight him off. Did he or did he not rape Diana?The movie makes this very plain in the very next scene. A close up of Diana, face tear stained, eyes vacant, she recoils when Jamil talks to her, offers her a cloak to cover herself for the rest of the trek in the desert. He graciously offers to let her ride the horse this time.At his father's camp, Jamil reveals he is a prince and that he adores Diana, even wanting to marry her. She goes so far as to go through the ceremony until it is her turn to drink from the wedding cup. She throws the water in his face and storms out. Humiliated, Jamil grabs a whip and strikes her. A second whipping! Yes, this is love. Then he relents and sends her home.Back with her people, and her fiancé, Diana is getting ready to be married that day. The movie gets in one more subtle hint to what happened to Diana. Her close confident, overcome by emotion at seeing her friend ready to be married responds to Diana's request to be alone by saying "yes, your last moment of virgin solitude" then turns away from Diana suddenly realizing the import of her words indicted by her gasping and whispering "virgin".And at the end of all of this, Diana runs away with Jamil!Another reviewer commented that we shouldn't judge a movie made so long ago by our century's standards. I disagree adamantly. Eighty years or eighty centuries, rape is rape, abuse is abuse.Skip this one and watch one another of Myrna Loy's pre-Code movies such as "Penthouse" or "When Ladies Meet".

I think the only saving grace for this film is that is when it was made...1933. Basically you get a suave young lady coming to Cairo to marry her husband. She seems to love him enough then a ruthless womanizer who happens to be a guide/thief in Cairo continually professes his love for her but she resists.They let you know early on that he's a inveterate womanizer but by the end the Myrna Loy character falls in love with him. I mean after he lies to her consistently and she knows it, constantly undermining things between her and her husband, and she knows it...constantly kissing her and she doesn't expect or want it...then the peak of it all, he kidnaps her and forces marriage from her from his tribe. She says yes then turns the tables on him at the ceremony. She gets to leave his ways and she then informs the Egyptian authorities who then set out to catch him (Of course they don't).After all this you already know the ending. There's 2 to 3 minutes left and she finally gets alone in her room ready to get married to her future husband and guess who arrives? You got it, Mr. Charm himself. We then proceed to see them floating down the Nile lying in each others arms.I can only think of this film as offensive to women, in 1 way, is this character so weak minded that she would leave her future husband she loves for a guy who does everything he does to her in the way of lying, cheating and kidnapping and then she decides.."Oh well, I'll go with him cause now I love him."? It's just ridiculous. I can see why this one isn't very popular. It's a dud.If you wanna see where Myrna Loy starts to shine, fast forward a year and start on the "Thin Man" movies. They're a class unto themselves.

I can't believe the reviews so far on this movie on IMDb. So far, one reviewer gives it a score of 1 and two others a 10!! The simple fact is that very, very , very few films deserve a 10 or 1 but reviewers routinely throw these numbers about without thinking. After all, there's no way that anyone could place this movie among GONE WITH THE WIND, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES or even STAR WARS just as there is no way this film deserves the same rating as BABY GENIUSES or PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE!!! Like most movies, a realistic score would definitely be somewhere in between.Now this isn't to say that the film reviewers were totally wrong. The one perceptive person who thought the movie was evil because it propagates "the rape myth" is 100% correct--the film is terrible because it seems to indicate that the way to a girl's heart is to kidnap and probably rape her--or at least whip her into submission!! In the 21st century I cannot understand how anyone could rate a movie that treats women like cattle with a score of 10! And, people who would kind of scare me.On the other hand, the film is gorgeous. The cinematography and costuming is incredible and made Myrna Loy (often the "nice girl" in films of the 1930s) into an incredibly alluring figure. Her bathing scene is simply one of the sexiest scenes in screen history--not so much for what it showed, but how it showed so much without showing everything as well as not being pornographic but artful and beautiful. She was, in many ways, like a modern Venus de Milo. Plus, when Ramon Navarro isn't busy trying to rape Ms. Loy, he is a very, very dashing and gorgeous figure himself. So beautiful and compelling that he was like a better and more romantic version of Valentino from THE SHEIK. Plus, given that Mr. Navarro was in real life gay, he deserves a lot of kudos for his convincing romantic scenes. The problem, though, is that the writers didn't know what to do with this romantic figure. One minute he is kind of funny and clever, the next he is an ardent suitor, the next he is selling her into sexual slavery and the next he's a sex offender trying to rape her!!!! The fact is the movie strongly implies he DID rape her (though it is a bit vague in this respect). And, having this confusing package ruins the wonderful romantic elements of the film. After all, what's romantic about a rapist or spousal abuse?! This is in the end, a complete muddled mess that could have been a wonderful film. With a re-write to remove the sick aspects of the film (the physical and sexual abuse AND Ms. Loy's ultimate choice to run away with this sick, twisted freak after being abused), it could have been among the most memorable and romantic films of the age. As it is, mostly it will be remembered for the pre-Code titillating bathing scene with Ms. Loy.