The Mummy (1999)
May. 19th, 2024 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
predelectionMy sister and I recently went to see a theatrical re-release of The Mummy (1999) and I have some thoughts about it. First, I think it's a really good movie. The pacing is good and it didn't feel like there was wasted screen time or dialogue, and any exposition-heavy dialogue was executed well which is something I think is hard to do. Overall a really enjoyable and re-watchable film!
Basic Summary:
The Mummy is a remake of a 1930s movie and a lot of plot points are pulled from the original film. The pharaoh's mistress, Anck-su-namum, and his head priest, Imhotep, are having a forbidden affair. When the pharaoh discovers their relationship, Anck-su-namun kills him so Imhotep can escape and use his magic to resurrect her and so they can be reunited. Before Imhotep can complete the ritual to resurrect Anck-su-namun the Medjai (the Ancient Egyptian Police SWAT unit) stops the ritual and as punishment for the affair/assassination Imhotep is buried alive and cursed in a really vague way that is bad but also allows him to become an all-powerful immortal being if he is ever resurrected himself (???). Cut to the 1920s and Rachel Weisz hires Brendan Fraser to take her to the hidden necropolis where the mythical Book of the Dead is allegedly hidden and Imhotep is secretly buried.
Rachel Weisz accidentally resurrects Imhotep by reading from the Book of the Dead and he starts killing people to restore his powers/fleshy-ness and so he can sacrifice Rachel Weisz to resurrect Anck-su-namun. She and Brendan Fraser are able to defeat Imhotep at the last moment by using the Book of Amun-Ra and save the planet from Imhotep and his terrifying powers.
Language:
One interesting aspect of this movie is that language and translation are critical plot elements. Throughout the film Imhotep and Rachel Weisz use/speak the Ancient Egyptian language. If Rachel Weisz didn't (accurately) read the Book of the Dead the story wouldn't even happen! And later in the film she retranslates a stele to find the location of the Book of Amun-Ra which can counter Imhotep's power. However, when the characters are speaking Ancient Egyptian it's basically made up sounds. Honestly, this is to be expected. Hieroglyphics, like a lot of writing systems in North Africa and the Middle East, is an abjad writing system, meaning only consonants are written (or has few/optional vowels). When hieroglyphics were deciphered new sounds were mapped on to the script to represent the concept of the language but do not function as a phonetic guide to pronunciation. Some scholars have attempted reconstructing Ancient Egyptian using Coptic as a reference point, but without the advent of time travel it's uncertain how accurate any attempts would be. It's strange to think that famous Egyptian words and names that everyone "knows" are basically just made-up by scholars! For example, the name of Tutankhamun's wife, Ankhesenamun would be transliterated as nḫ-s-n-imn and her name means "Her life is of Amun". Ankhesenamun's name is the inspiration for the name of the character Anck-su-namun except the elements of the character's name are parsed completely wrong, don't put the em dashes there (a carryover from the original movie)! For the curious: Imhotep's name means "He (who) comes in peace" which is a really beautiful name IMO. The movie used their artistic license with Ancient Egyptian dialogue, but no more artistic license than scholars of the language used when they came up with the transliteration system or when translating texts today. There are actually quite a few "real" Ancient Egyptian words used in the film which I think is cool and something I think I would also want to have fun with if I was a filmmaker. I definitely appreciate this aspect of the movie since mixing language use/using invented languages in sci-fi and fantasy films can give them a lot of depth and fans can get really into it. See: Quenya/Sindarin, Klingon, Dothraki, Huttese, etc. Lord of the Rings fans never stop mentioning how the music in the films are sung in Elvish and by Lord of the Rings fans I mean ME!
The Curse:
I think if there's a crucial plot hole/flaw in the story it would be the premise of the curse/resurrection which was carried over from the original film. It's basically made-up (like many things in movies!) but there's no historical basis for the curse in Ancient Egyptian history. I think the horror elements of the curse are rooted in late 19th/early 20th century Western anxieties. Being buried alive was one of the biggest cultural fears of that time period and I think Imhotep being buried alive is derived from to that anxiety. Ancient Egypt definitely had harsh punishments for criminals, but the "worst" punishment would have been being burned alive and ashes scattered! Since Ancient Egyptians believed mummification was a requirement to reach the afterlife, having your name erased and body destroyed beyond the point of mummification would have been absolute death. Realistically, Anck-su-namun and Imhotep would have been executed or (if lucky) would have been allowed to commit suicide. Imhotep's priests who were associated with him, but maybe not "conspirator" level may have been punished for being guilty by association by having their nose/ears cut off, but not killed. Historians know this because of the Judicial Papyrus of Turin which describes the trial and outcome of those who were involved in the assassination of Ramses III. One of his wives planned his assassination and to have her son become pharaoh instead of his designated heir, Ramses IV. The assassination was successful, but the queen and her son were unable to gain control of the throne and Ramses IV ascended the throne. Amazingly, both the mummies of Ramses III and his son who was involved in the unsuccessful plot have survived. The real name of his son is unknown, but he's given the pseudonym "Pentawer" in the documentation of the trial. Ramses III's mummy shows the marks of his assassination and an assault by multiple attackers. Pentawer's mummy died by strangulation and was embalmed, but did not undergo the complete mummification process and was buried in an animal skin. Before his mummy was identified he was known as "The Screaming Mummy" which is great horror inspiration! I think the "being returned to life as an immortal mummy" also doesn't fit the Egyptian concept of a curse/punishment, but stems from Western "cursed immortality" or "cursed undead" tropes like the Ancient Mariner or Dracula. There's also the pedantic critique of "why would you curse someone you hate to become nigh unkillable and all-powerful", but I don't really care about this plot hole lmao. I also really like the spin-off movie from this franchise, The Scorpion King (It's so cheesy but so fun, maybe I will make a dedicated post about it in the future). The Scorpion King (character) arguably has an even more ridiculous curse, because he becomes half-man, half-scorpion and also gets to command an immortal army. Like ye gods! When will these ancient societies stop giving antagonists awesome powers as a punishment!
Basic Summary:
The Mummy is a remake of a 1930s movie and a lot of plot points are pulled from the original film. The pharaoh's mistress, Anck-su-namum, and his head priest, Imhotep, are having a forbidden affair. When the pharaoh discovers their relationship, Anck-su-namun kills him so Imhotep can escape and use his magic to resurrect her and so they can be reunited. Before Imhotep can complete the ritual to resurrect Anck-su-namun the Medjai (the Ancient Egyptian Police SWAT unit) stops the ritual and as punishment for the affair/assassination Imhotep is buried alive and cursed in a really vague way that is bad but also allows him to become an all-powerful immortal being if he is ever resurrected himself (???). Cut to the 1920s and Rachel Weisz hires Brendan Fraser to take her to the hidden necropolis where the mythical Book of the Dead is allegedly hidden and Imhotep is secretly buried.
Rachel Weisz accidentally resurrects Imhotep by reading from the Book of the Dead and he starts killing people to restore his powers/fleshy-ness and so he can sacrifice Rachel Weisz to resurrect Anck-su-namun. She and Brendan Fraser are able to defeat Imhotep at the last moment by using the Book of Amun-Ra and save the planet from Imhotep and his terrifying powers.
Language:
One interesting aspect of this movie is that language and translation are critical plot elements. Throughout the film Imhotep and Rachel Weisz use/speak the Ancient Egyptian language. If Rachel Weisz didn't (accurately) read the Book of the Dead the story wouldn't even happen! And later in the film she retranslates a stele to find the location of the Book of Amun-Ra which can counter Imhotep's power. However, when the characters are speaking Ancient Egyptian it's basically made up sounds. Honestly, this is to be expected. Hieroglyphics, like a lot of writing systems in North Africa and the Middle East, is an abjad writing system, meaning only consonants are written (or has few/optional vowels). When hieroglyphics were deciphered new sounds were mapped on to the script to represent the concept of the language but do not function as a phonetic guide to pronunciation. Some scholars have attempted reconstructing Ancient Egyptian using Coptic as a reference point, but without the advent of time travel it's uncertain how accurate any attempts would be. It's strange to think that famous Egyptian words and names that everyone "knows" are basically just made-up by scholars! For example, the name of Tutankhamun's wife, Ankhesenamun would be transliterated as nḫ-s-n-imn and her name means "Her life is of Amun". Ankhesenamun's name is the inspiration for the name of the character Anck-su-namun except the elements of the character's name are parsed completely wrong, don't put the em dashes there (a carryover from the original movie)! For the curious: Imhotep's name means "He (who) comes in peace" which is a really beautiful name IMO. The movie used their artistic license with Ancient Egyptian dialogue, but no more artistic license than scholars of the language used when they came up with the transliteration system or when translating texts today. There are actually quite a few "real" Ancient Egyptian words used in the film which I think is cool and something I think I would also want to have fun with if I was a filmmaker. I definitely appreciate this aspect of the movie since mixing language use/using invented languages in sci-fi and fantasy films can give them a lot of depth and fans can get really into it. See: Quenya/Sindarin, Klingon, Dothraki, Huttese, etc. Lord of the Rings fans never stop mentioning how the music in the films are sung in Elvish and by Lord of the Rings fans I mean ME!
The Curse:
I think if there's a crucial plot hole/flaw in the story it would be the premise of the curse/resurrection which was carried over from the original film. It's basically made-up (like many things in movies!) but there's no historical basis for the curse in Ancient Egyptian history. I think the horror elements of the curse are rooted in late 19th/early 20th century Western anxieties. Being buried alive was one of the biggest cultural fears of that time period and I think Imhotep being buried alive is derived from to that anxiety. Ancient Egypt definitely had harsh punishments for criminals, but the "worst" punishment would have been being burned alive and ashes scattered! Since Ancient Egyptians believed mummification was a requirement to reach the afterlife, having your name erased and body destroyed beyond the point of mummification would have been absolute death. Realistically, Anck-su-namun and Imhotep would have been executed or (if lucky) would have been allowed to commit suicide. Imhotep's priests who were associated with him, but maybe not "conspirator" level may have been punished for being guilty by association by having their nose/ears cut off, but not killed. Historians know this because of the Judicial Papyrus of Turin which describes the trial and outcome of those who were involved in the assassination of Ramses III. One of his wives planned his assassination and to have her son become pharaoh instead of his designated heir, Ramses IV. The assassination was successful, but the queen and her son were unable to gain control of the throne and Ramses IV ascended the throne. Amazingly, both the mummies of Ramses III and his son who was involved in the unsuccessful plot have survived. The real name of his son is unknown, but he's given the pseudonym "Pentawer" in the documentation of the trial. Ramses III's mummy shows the marks of his assassination and an assault by multiple attackers. Pentawer's mummy died by strangulation and was embalmed, but did not undergo the complete mummification process and was buried in an animal skin. Before his mummy was identified he was known as "The Screaming Mummy" which is great horror inspiration! I think the "being returned to life as an immortal mummy" also doesn't fit the Egyptian concept of a curse/punishment, but stems from Western "cursed immortality" or "cursed undead" tropes like the Ancient Mariner or Dracula. There's also the pedantic critique of "why would you curse someone you hate to become nigh unkillable and all-powerful", but I don't really care about this plot hole lmao. I also really like the spin-off movie from this franchise, The Scorpion King (It's so cheesy but so fun, maybe I will make a dedicated post about it in the future). The Scorpion King (character) arguably has an even more ridiculous curse, because he becomes half-man, half-scorpion and also gets to command an immortal army. Like ye gods! When will these ancient societies stop giving antagonists awesome powers as a punishment!
