The language of normative humanity is English; the language of the Other, the foreigner, and the monster is babble. This is especially true of Arabic, which when included in a film is presented as “an indecipherable murmur.” This is a “hallmark of the Orientalist project,” seen in the numerous Oriental and Muslim characters that grunt, cannot speak at all, or have an obvious physical deformity. The films of Ray Harryhausen include numerous examples of these conventions.

XREF: Relates to Said's Orientalism and postcolonial film theory about how representation encodes power through language.

Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imag…, loc. 635