Cultural Impact
When Douglas Fairbanks died on December 12, 1939, he had won seven Photoplay Awards (IMDb, Douglas Fairbanks: Awards). Furthermore, he left behind a legacy whose impact can still be felt today. His most important legacy was the stereotypes that films promoted. However, this legacy has a mixed reputation. This was due to the fact that it both shaped the film industry and promoted harmful stereotypes. For example, in his 1926 film The Black Pirate, Douglas portrayed a young nobleman who infiltrates a pirate crew to avenge his father’s murder. However, his character’s costume would become so iconic that it became the stereotypical pirate outfit. As a result, the pirates’ costumes in Gene Kelly’s 1948 film The Pirate, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise draw directly from Farbank’s iconic character (Vance, p.209). This character was so Iconic, that used this character as a point of comparison for the levels of questionable opulence that the Papacy displayed in Richard Condon’s book “A Trembling upon Rome: a work of fiction” (Swirski 2009, 463). In fact, Douglas Fairbanks made such an impact in early Hollywood, that he was awarded a posthumous Oscar in 1940, and a Star on the Walk of Fame in 1960 (IMDb, Douglas Fairbanks: Awards).
Furthermore, the costumes in his 1924 film The Thief of Bagdad, epitomized the stereotypical image of what people thought of the Middle East. This was done by having the film’s actors wear revealing costumes that were designed to capture the mystique of Middle Eastern cultures. Furthermore, this film propagated the stereotype of Middle Eastern people being easy to outwit by constantly following them through ruses such as changing his clothing in order to gain access to the royal palace (Bobal 2013, p. 955).