From the early 11th Century, the name Omar Khayyam has been inextricably, but never faithfully, linked to a number of adorning titles. Khayyam the mathematician, poet, sicentist, philosopher, the soldier. The recognition of Khayyam's innumerable academic achievements documented in Iranian history has allowed his genius, much in the manner of Leonardo Di Vinci, to remain indistinct. These men both embodied a stark juxtaposition, men of many parts, combining both a scientific and artistic ability. However, as with De Vinci's art, Omar Khayyam's reverent poetic verses are what immortalise him as a pioneer of Persian culture.
Omar Khayyam relentlessly sought to deconstruct existential complexities. He used poetry to articulate the definition of life, death and the human condition beyond the explanations that science and religion could provide. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is the most celebrated collection of the poets work. Its verses intoxicate the reader with his epicurean style, presenting his complex philosophical ideas on a lavish, word-rich platter. This celebration of life's languor through poetry was welcomed beyond the Iranian boarders. Edward Fitzgerald's 1859 translation of The Ruybaiyat of Omar Khayyam opened the Western world to his work, altering the foreign perception of the Persian Empire at that time.
With the original publication of the Rubaiyat available for a single cent in the early 19th Century, the poetry of the Ruybaiyat offered an alluring opportunity of escapism. The ballads of Persian fantasy denoting tales of war, ethereal romances and the opulence of the Seljuk Empire had Khayyam's growing readership craving for adventure. It was only a matter of time and technology before Khayyam's work would be translated into societies favoured form of circumvention, cinema.
The early 1920s saw the emergence of three silent films, each visualising the mythology that surrounds the life of Omar Khayyam. All three movies, The Lovers Oath directed by Ferdinand Pinney Earle (1922), Omar the Tentmaker, James Young (1922) and Omar Khayyam by Byan Foy (1924) follow a slightly homogenised plotline, borrowing from The Rubaiyat's verses for the film titles alone. Both Omar the Tentmaker (1922) and Omar Khayyam (1924) focalise on the shrouded romance between Omar and his childhood love, Shirin, the Shah's unwilling wife-to-be. These films are all essentially Persian Folklore, stories of love lost and found, with a feel of tragedy and adventure, each depicting Omar as the gallant lover. These initial forays into 'cinematic Khayyam' teach little about his life or his poetic works, but still channel a unique charm and innocence of their time.
Hollywood's fixation with Khayyam's embellished biography continued with the 1957 technicolour talkie, The Life, Loves and Adventures of Omar Khayyam, from director William Dieterle. Its protagonists include Debra Paget as love interest Shirin and Cornel Wilde, who plays a young, Byronic Omar Khayyam. The movies release was paralleled with immense publicity, merchandizing, offering free tickets to budding American poets. Although the general plot seems repetitious of other Khayyam 'biopics', there is an intellectual richness and texture to it that is often omitted from neighbouring films of this era. There is faithfulness to historical events, offering a detailed narrative of the Persian-Byzantine war. While it hyperbolizes Khayyam's achievements, it also depicts known events in his life, such as his reformation of the Iranian calendar. Unfortunately, rather than using Khayyam's poetry to texturize the plot, his verses surface mainly to allow the maudlin character to express his love of fine wines.
Some Western productions have offered homage to Khayyam in a more subversive way, using the words of The Ruybaiyat to aid allegorical storytelling. Films such as the 1946 Duel in the Sun, the 1945 Dorian Gray and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, 1951 all include direct quotations. Strangely, the use of the Rubaiyat canto which explained the legend of the Flying Dutchman in Pandora was edited out of the US cut, perhaps undermining the US audience's ability to appreciate Khayyam's poetry. A personal favourite of the Khayyam references can be observed in The Music Man, 1957 where a local woman offers her daughter a book of what she lovingly calls "the Ruby Hat". The town librarian scathes her use of 'the dirty Persian Poetry', and then paraphrases Khayyam's verse on the hedonism of youth 'People lying out in the woods eating sandwiches, and drinking directly out of jugs with innocent young girls'.
The echoing influence of The Rubaiyat in contemporary cinema remains, though their recognition demands a love of Khayyam combined with a discerning ear. Recent uses can be seen in Unfaithful (2002) where Oliver Martinez's character offers a copy of The Rubaiyat to the female leader as a note of seduction. A more light-hearted nod to Khayyam can be seen in an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle where Bullwinkle discovers 'the Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam'.
While the legend of Omar Khayyam no longer has a known presence in Hollywood, the thematic content of his poetry resonates through its storytelling. As with the work of Shakespeare, he offers today's filmic bards a stepping stone to tackle life, death and love within their work. As the poet himself once wrote,
With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand wrought to make it grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
The Rubaiyat Quatrain XXVIII
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