I bought a book called "Lawrence of Arabia" two or three years ago, but because it was too thick, I didn't have the courage to open it. This year, I plan to eliminate a tome that I have not read for a long time every month. I spent half a month reading the legendary story of Lawrence. Only later did I know that there was already a movie of the same name in 1962, which lasted three and a half hours and was said to be a classic. I actually found the resource on Tencent Video, so it took me several days to finish watching the movie.
Director David Lean is a cinematographer, and the picture of this film is unparalleled. About a third of the footage is a stunning view of the desert. As a person who has never been to the desert, I thought that the desert was just a dull pile of sand, but there is still such a scenery in the original desert. He not only photographed the desert magnificently, but also captured the feeling of difficult survival in the desert. Maybe it's because all the scenes are shot in real scenes, and the people and horses are real. So many people filming such a long movie in the desert is really not an ordinary hard work.
I don't know much about film technology, but this film has a very wide frame, like the frame of a widescreen film today. It was completely unexpected that it was a film made 50 or 60 years ago, and the picture quality is very good. Very worth seeing.
Most of the material for the movie script may be derived from Lawrence's autobiography "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom". If you want to fully understand Lawrence and his era, and the significance of what he did, it is recommended to read Scott Anderson in 2014. Published Lawrence of Arabia: War, Lies, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East.
In this book, there is the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Lawrence, why he is so enthusiastic about the cause of the Arab uprising, even at the risk of betraying his own country, and why he can have super endurance like a Bedouin in the desert , he is even more Arab than Arab. He changed the habits and image of the British, wore traditional Arab clothes, and respected their habits and historical culture. He was the only Briton Prince Faisal trusted.
In this vigorous Arab uprising, Lawrence was a god-like existence. He did not lead the Arabs to fight guerrilla warfare, and often occupied important military positions by surprise. He was a lone hero in the desert, and often led several people to blow up railways and bridges.
Then after the war, he was unable to decide the fate of the Arab people, and the cause he fought for was ultimately betrayed by politicians. He sadly returned to England and became an obscure soldier in incognito (he could have gone to the RAF as a senior officer). Perhaps because of suffering from the post-war psychological syndrome (too many people killed in war, too many inhumane massacres), perhaps because the promise to the Arab brothers was not fulfilled, or perhaps because of the physical and psychological experience in the desert After the torture, Lawrence did not look like a hero returning after the war, but was lonelier than ordinary people. Prince Faisal, who was the one who gave his advice and was born and died, wanted to meet him several times when he visited the United Kingdom. At this time, the prince was already the king of Iraq, and he refused for various reasons. The only time he met, he was also very indifferent.
The wonderful thing about this biography is not just looking at the uprising from the perspective of Lawrence or the British side. He started from the four spies sent by the Western countries to the Middle East. The conspiracy and stupidity of the empire are on the paper, and the people's uprising Revolutionary enthusiasm is also ready to show.
Back to movies.
The movie is long, but it's not enough to watch. The pace of each passage in the desert is slow, but it's eye-catching. Several times the shots of the desert are empty and boundless, switching between the horizon and the expressions of the people in front of them. Finally, a small black spot appears on the edge of the desert, and then slowly becomes larger, and it is gradually clear that it is a person. Such paragraphs are not boring at all.
Prince Faisal in the movie also seems to betray Lawrence, which doesn't fit history. The prince in the movie is portrayed as a man who sits back and betrays Lawrence at the last minute. Instead, it was Ali who fought alongside Lawrence.
In fact, Ali was the elder brother of Prince Faisal. He did not fight with Lawrence, but Prince Sal was always on the front line of the uprising, and he united the various tribes in the desert to revolt together. It is because of his ability to unite people's hearts that Lawrence believes that Prince Faisal is the most kingly demeanor of Hussein's past four sons.
The history of the Middle East is saddened by the intervention of Western empires. The Hussein family is the guardian of the holy city, and the Prophet Muhammad is from this family. So they have an important religious position in the Arab world. The Hussein family has been in the Hejaz region for a long time and is a representative of the conservative faction. After Prince Faisal and Lawrence captured Damascus and occupied Syria, with the acquiescence of the British government, the French expelled Faisal (because Britain and France had already divided their spheres of influence, Iraq belonged to Britain, and Syria belonged to France). ). To make up for Faisal, the British sent him to Iraq to become king. King Hussein's eldest son succeeded King Hejaz and the other son became King of Jordan.
The history of the Middle East is complicated, so it's interesting. The pattern of the modern Middle East was first created by the British. However, during the First World War, European countries are now unable to extricate themselves from the quagmire of war, and they even took the initiative to ask the United States to intervene in Middle East affairs. This may be the seed for the subsequent US domination in this region. I don't know if they regret it later.
The history of the Middle East is too long to repeat here. It will be more interesting to watch this movie if you understand some historical background. If you don't have a background to see it, it may not be easy to understand and feel boring.
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