Sally Field stars as Betty Mahmoody in ‘Not Without My Daughter’ (Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer)
By all indications, Not Without My Daughter should be a forgettable movie. It was a major motion picture when it premiered — 25 years ago today — starring one of the most-adored actors of the era, Sally Field, coming off the hit Steel Magnolias. But its $15 million opening weekend barely made a dent in the box office; it was largely critically panned for its Islamophobic undertones; and in re-airings, it could easily be mistaken for a Lifetime movie with a timely political pitch: Woman escapes from abusive Iranian husband, scary foreign country, and the evil clutches of Islam. In the larger cultural imagination, the film was consigned to oblivion.
But Not Without My Daughter has its own curious legacy. Over the years, it’s been shown in schools, re-aired on television, and notoriously played in Paris the night before the 1998 USA versus Iran World Cup match. One journalist responded to Iranians’ concerns over the World Cup airing with, “Oh, shut up,” arguing that the film was so unremarkable, grievances were “illogical.” But whereas some could easily disregard it, others were captivated by the film’s “woman in peril” narrative, with Field at the center. It endured in the years following its January 11, 1991, release as a troubling albatross for Iranians that, often, was presented as evidence of the barbarity of Iranian men.
By all indications, Not Without My Daughter should be a forgettable movie. It was a major motion picture when it premiered — 25 years ago today — starring one of the most-adored actors of the era, Sally Field, coming off the hit Steel Magnolias. But its $15 million opening weekend barely made a dent in the box office; it was largely critically panned for its Islamophobic undertones; and in re-airings, it could easily be mistaken for a Lifetime movie with a timely political pitch: Woman escapes from abusive Iranian husband, scary foreign country, and the evil clutches of Islam. In the larger cultural imagination, the film was consigned to oblivion.
But Not Without My Daughter has its own curious legacy. Over the years, it’s been shown in schools, re-aired on television, and notoriously played in Paris the night before the 1998 USA versus Iran World Cup match. One journalist responded to Iranians’ concerns over the World Cup airing with, “Oh, shut up,” arguing that the film was so unremarkable, grievances were “illogical.” But whereas some could easily disregard it, others were captivated by the film’s “woman in peril” narrative, with Field at the center. It endured in the years following its January 11, 1991, release as a troubling albatross for Iranians that, often, was presented as evidence of the barbarity of Iranian men.
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