A historian ᴀssesses the realism of a scene in a Jake Gyllenhaal action fantasy movie. Gyllenhaal’s film debut was in the 1991 comedy City Slickers, where he played the son of Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch Robbins. Several of Jake Gyllenhaal’s best movies came in the following decade, beginning with Donnie Darko, in which he played the тιтular character. Donnie Darko did not perform well at the box office during its initial run, but has since become a cult classic, and is considered one of Gyllenhaal’s defining roles.

The 2000s also saw Gyllenhaal starring in the disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, the romantic drama Brokeback Mountain, the war movie Jarhead, and the mystery thriller Zodiac. He has continued to expand his career, including making his mark on the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his role as the villainous Quentin Beck/Mysterio in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. However, not all of Gyllenhaal’s movies have been critical hits, with some of his projects being widely panned.

Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time Is ᴀssessed For Realism

Jake Gyllenhaal Plays Prince Dastan

A scene in Gyllenhaal’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is evaluated for its realism. The 2010 movie was adapted from the Prince of Persia video game franchise. In addition to Gyllenhaal, the cast included Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, and Alfred Molina. Prince of Persia earned $336 million at the worldwide box office, but it is not considered to be one of the best Gyllenhaal or Ben Kingsley movies, and was instead critically panned, leading to a 37% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.

In an Insider video, historian Roel Konijnendijk, who is an expert in ancient warfare and battle tactics, breaks down the realism of a scene where Gyllenhaal’s character, Prince Dastan, infiltrates a city. Konijnendijk explains how there is a historical precedent for Dastan’s strategy that can be traced back to Alexander the Great. Nevertheless, Konijnendijk is baffled by the use of a crossbow when a ladder would serve the same purpose, and he is also perplexed by how the characters are shown infiltrating through the wall. Check out his comments below:

It’s a common tactic to try and find one position that they’re not paying attention to or that hasn’t been reinforced to the same degree. Sneaking in there with a small force, Alexander the Great did it a few times. He would just offer rewards to the first person who made it up a particularly difficult slope or something like that, in order to overcome the defenses of a particularly strong position.

I have no idea how you would be able to shoot a bolt with a crossbow that would dig so deep into a stone wall that you could hang a man from it. That seems wild. I’m very impressed with that crossbow. I want that technology. I’m surprised they haven’t used a ladder to climb the wall instead of doing this really elaborate thing.

By far the most common way for cities to fall was through treachery. So you’d almost always either have someone sneak in and open the gates or you’d have someone on the inside open the gates for you. When you read ancient treatises like Aeneas Tacticus, the vast bulk of that work is devoted to how do you keep people from giving away the pᴀssword, sawing through the crossbar of the gate, how do you keep people from sending signals to people outside the besieging force. So that kind of factor is much more important in the defense of an ancient city than the technicalities of what kind of weapons you might use to defend it, at least in the minds of ancient authors.

I’d give it a six [out of ten]. He’s infiltrating the wall in a really bizarre way that doesn’t make sense, but then fundamentally, the idea of opening up a gate from the inside so that friendly forces can approach the city and enter, that’s obviously very realistic.

Our Take On Roel Konijnendijk’s Comments

Realism Is Not The Most Important Element In Prince Of Persia

Konijnendijk’s comments provide valuable insight into the history and effectiveness of the infiltration strategy. At the same time, Prince of Persia is ultimately an action fantasy movie where Prince Dastan comes to possess a dagger that gives him the power to travel back in time. Realism is not one of the most important aspects of the movie and the lack of realism is not why the Jake Gyllenhaal movie received poor reviews.

Source: Insider, Rotten Tomatoes