At the 35th Academy Awards season held in 1963, "Lawrence of Arabia" won 7 awards including best picture and best director in one fell swoop. The male protagonist, male supporting character and screenwriter have also been nominated for Oscars. . Definitely the biggest winner of that awards season.
'Lawrence of Arabia' movie review with sound
Recommended index: ★★★★★
Suspense Index: ★
Visual index: ★★★
Plot index: ★★★★
What I want to share with you today is the classic old movie from 1962, "Lawrence of Arabia".
At the 35th Academy Awards season held in 1963, "Lawrence of Arabia" won 7 awards including best picture and best director in one fell swoop. The male protagonist, male supporting character and screenwriter have also been nominated for Oscars. . Definitely the biggest winner of that awards season.
While I've known about the Lawrence of Arabia movie for a long time, if it wasn't for the Alien prequel, Prometheus, I probably wouldn't have had much of a desire to watch it. After all, the movie is too old, and it's a war theme that I'm not particularly keen on.
However, Lei Dao's tribute to "Lawrence of Arabia" in the Alien series aroused my interest. After realizing it, I realized that the classic lines in Prometheus - big things have small beginnings , great Everything has small beginnings. It was from Lawrence of Arabia. And the android David in Alien also likes to imitate Lawrence, combing his hair, saying his one-liners - The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts . The secret, Williamsport, is not to care about the pain. In the viral short film "Prometheus" - Wieland's speech, Wieland quoted the scriptures and used this allusion. This shows the great director Ridley Scott's love for "Lawrence of Arabia". If you watch both films at the same time, you will find that there are indeed many similarities between the Englishman Lawrence and the android David.
So this episode is a little science fiction fanboy, under the guidance of a science fiction master, an attempt to review the war movie. If there is something unsatisfactory, you are welcome to leave a message in the interactive area of the program to discuss and help me improve.
About the length of the film
Many movies in the 1960s were divided into two halves, beginning and middle, with special entry and rest periods.
So when you finally find resources to appreciate this masterpiece, don't be put off by the three-minute black screen at the beginning.
The reason for setting the intermission time is also very obvious, because the film is more than four hours long. So the length of the film may be the key factor that really dissuades many fans.
In the era of short videos, no matter how good the movie is, the huge length will be a spiritual challenge. Once you get used to the rapid iteration of information bombs, it becomes more and more a luxury to stop and watch a slow-paced old movie.
If conditions permit, I still recommend that you watch the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" and enjoy the classic movies crafted in the 1960s. If you really don't have time to watch it, then listening to old movies for review is also an alternative.
real history
The film is based on real historical events, real historical figures.
So I think it is very necessary to first remove the decoration of art and talk about the truth of history.
Lawrence of Arabia is set in the First World War. The First World War was a war of interests. The Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary were one camp at that time, while Britain and Tsarist Russia were one camp.
Before the war, the contradictions between the two sides had reached an irreconcilable level. Tsarist Russia had fought with Turkey for many years for the export of the Indian Ocean and the Black Sea. Turkey, in order to penetrate the European continent, cooperated with Germany and hoped to build a railway from Baghdad to Istanbul, as well as Hejaz. The railroad (the railroad where Lawrence grabbed the train in the movie). These railways linking Germany and Turkey deeply hurt the interests of Britain and France. Each is a reason to go to war.
After the war, the British in the Middle East battlefield were beaten out of breath by the Turks in Egypt. In order to disintegrate Turkey from the inside, the British hoped that the Arabs in the Middle East could launch an attack from Arabia. Of course, the British had no idea at all about helping the Arabs liberate themselves from colonial rule.
The difficulty of instigating the Arabs is that the Arab Bedouins are erratic and elusive . At the beginning, the British did not have much hope for this tactic, so they just sent an ordinary British tactic. Army Lieutenant - Lawrence, try to instigate the Arab forces.
But no one thought that this little British lieutenant would take advantage of the ambitions of the Hashem family and the demands for independence of the Arab nation to put forward the strategic idea of building a big Arab empire, successfully impressing the Hashem family, who called themselves the king of Arabia. of Sharif Hussein Ali. And Sharif's son is Prince Faisal in the movie. What happened next is basically the same as the plot of the movie. With the help of Lawrence, the Arabs successfully captured Akaba and Damascus, completely driving the Turks out of the Arabian Peninsula.
Then, there is the history that the movie doesn't talk about. At the parliament of the great Syrian state convened in Damascus, Sharif's eldest son replaced Sharif as the king of the Hejaz Kingdom, the second son Abdullah became the king of Jordan, and the third son, Prince Faisal, became the king of Syria.
The Arab world seemed to see the dawn of liberation, but this dawn was soon to be shamelessly torn apart by the Paris Peace Conference, which was divided. The treaty signed by the Paris Peace Conference is as follows:
The Arab and Iraqi areas that belonged to the Ottomans were ceded to Britain and France, and new protected areas were established. Among them, the south of Karatash and Mardin belongs to Syria, and the south of Mosul belongs to Iraq
In this way, Arabia was dismembered and divided between Britain and France, France got Syria, and King Faisal of Syria became a king without land.
Later, the conflict in Iraq under British management continued. The British couldn't bear it and decided to establish a monarchy, so they found Faisal. Because of Faisal's legitimacy from the Hashem family, the Iraqis were very useful. So Faisal became the king of Iraq. After Faisal's death, his throne passed to his son. Until 1958, Iraq staged a coup that overthrew the dynasty and established a democracy.
On the other hand, the Najd kingdom of the Saudi family annexed the Hejaz kingdom and drove the Hashemites out of Mecca. The Kingdom of Hejaz and the Kingdom of Najd were merged, and a new country name, Saudi Arabia, was named after the surname of the Saudi family.
The Hashemite family, once all-powerful, only lived well in Transjordan, and once occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But after the establishment of the state of Israel, the territory of Transjordan was returned to the east of the Jordan River. It has been stable until now. In order to commemorate the lost homeland and emphasize the orthodoxy of his Hashemite family, it was renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, or Jordan for short.
The above is an abbreviated version of modern Arab history. As an addition to the historical context of the film.
The real Lawrence
"Lawrence of Arabia" is adapted from Lawrence's prototype character - Thomas Edward Lawrence, which is TE Lawrence's memoir - "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom".
In 1960, screenwriter Michael Wilson persuaded Lawrence's brother to sell the film rights to The Seven Pillars of Wisdom to producer Sam Spiegel.
The screenplay was co-written by Michael Wilson and Robert Bout. The screenwriter adopts the method of "overall truth and details fiction", and based on "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", director David Lean produced the shocking masterpiece "Lawrence of Arabia".
Lawrence in the film works in vain for the Arabs' ideal of freedom, but ultimately fails due to the disunity among the Arabs and the political wrestling between the great powers. The majestic and vast Gobi desert in the shot, combined with the blue melancholy eyes of starring Peter O'Toole, further turned Lawrence into a legendary tragic hero.
But, is the image of the real Lawrence what we see in the movie? Not, or not entirely.
For future generations, the real Lawrence is a mystery. Not only is there a big difference in the film and autobiography, but also in the descriptions of those who had an intersection with him at the same time. In the autobiography "Seven Pillars of Wisdom". , Lawrence's claims, and even his own on other occasions conflict with each other.
I can only search for some fragments of Lawrence in the ancient books as much as possible, and piece together a complete Lawrence as much as possible. You are also welcome to leave a message for more additions.
Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in Tremadog, Wales on August 16, 1888. Unlike the tall and handsome image in the movie, Lawrence's actual height is only 1.65 meters. But he's really brave enough to challenge his potential: he often goes two or three days without food, does cross-country training in the cold winter, and trains to ride his bike until he's exhausted on the side of the road. Through this masochistic exercise, Lawrence not only cultivated a strong physique, but also cultivated a hard-working spirit, laying a solid foundation for his future military career.
young lawrence
adult lawrence
Lawrence's father, a veritable aristocrat, cheated during the marriage and eloped with his lover Sarah Jonah, leaving Lawrence and three other children. Because Lawrence's mother was born out of wedlock, he has always been ashamed of his illegitimate child status, which may have created his distinctive character.
Lawrence (right) with classmates
Lawrence entered Jesus College, Oxford University in 1907, to study modern history, one of the important subjects was archaeological research. At the age of 18, he traveled all over France on a bicycle and made a profound inspection of the ancient castles during the Hundred Years War between Britain and France. At the age of 19, Lawrence won a scholarship of 50 pounds per year from the Jesus College of Oxford University. During the university, Lawrence went to the Middle East alone. He visited the ruins of the Crusaders in Palestine and Syria on foot, and wrote his graduation thesis "The Influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture at the End of the 12th Century", which is a very good thesis even in Oxford . After graduating he naturally became an archaeologist, and because he was active in the Middle East during his college days, he knew the situation there well. After Lawrence joined the army in 1914, he was sent to Cairo as an intelligence officer.
In 1914, the Ottoman Empire declared its participation in the war as an ally of the Germans, and the entire Middle East theater was in chaos. The Ottoman Empire, in the name of the world's Muslim leaders, waged jihad against the Allies.
The British troops stationed in the Middle East were not adapted to fighting there, and often suffered heavy losses in the confrontation with the Ottoman Empire. At that time, the British were struggling in the Middle East. The most prominent example is that when the regular army of the British army and the army of the Ottoman Empire had a skirmish, 3,000 British soldiers were killed in a fierce battle, while the army of the Ottoman Empire had only about 1,000 casualties. At this time the British realized that fighting in the Middle East was not good for their regular troops. So the British government ordered and decided to turn to support Sharif Hussein, in order to support Arab independence, to promote the Arabs to participate in the fighting.
Two different units needed a middleman to act as a hub, and that man was Lawrence as we know him, a man who really changed the situation in the Middle East. Lawrence is one of many Britons who love Arab culture, and he changed into an Arabian cape and turban in order to integrate into Arabia. In order to enable Arab independence, an important and influential leader, the son of Sharif of Mecca, Prince Faisal, also played a key role. With the encouragement of Lawrence, the prince declared the independence of Arabia and carried out a great uprising. Arabia broke away from the long-term rule of the Ottoman Empire, and Lawrence took the prince to lobby the various tribes and united for a common goal. Lawrence I also stayed to help the Arab people in the fight.
Although the defeat of the Ottoman army in the Middle East was mainly due to the British regular army, the Arab guerrillas also played a very important role: responsible for disrupting and containing the enemy. And this Arab guerrilla was composed of Lawrence and the prince. Although they were supported by British weapons, the overall equipment of the troops was quite backward compared to Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire.
However, Lawrence, known as the father of guerrilla warfare, used his wealth of knowledge and knowledge to play an extraordinary military talent. Leading the Arab warriors avoided a frontal conflict with the Ottoman army, taking advantage of the skirmishers, dispersing their actions, and cooperating with each other, causing huge casualties to the enemy.
In an encounter, the troops led by Lawrence detected the enemy troops stationed in front. The enemy's troops were several times or even dozens of times that of Lawrence's troops, but Lawrence used guerrilla tactics to raid the Ottoman Empire. Facing the sudden arrival of Arab The guerrilla attack, the Ottoman army panicked, and even some soldiers forgot how to shoot. As expected, Lawrence's guerrillas wiped out more than 1,700 Ottoman troops, while his own team only lost 2 people. This is the battle of Akaba we see in the movie.
After Lawrence became famous in the First World War, all Lawrence's troops became the biggest fear in the heart of the Ottoman army at that time. Even in the Ottoman army, the soldiers were still rumored that a group of sand warriors lived in the desert, and they came and went without a trace. , suddenly appeared from the yellow sand, killed people, and then disappeared from the yellow sand without a trace.
In this way, Lawrence's reputation spread farther and farther, and he became a great hero in the Middle East at that time. News reporters also ran to interview. Between the two world wars, military writer BH Liddell Hart wrote his friend Lawrence very well. On the positive side, he is euphemistically known as the founder of "the first scientific theory of unconventional warfare".
But Lawrence's ambitions didn't stop there. He wanted to politically establish an independent Arab state belonging to the British Empire while winning a great military victory, but this effort failed completely.
Lawrence wears arabesques in battle, partly out of necessity and more because he hates formal uniforms and what they represent.
While attending the Paris Peace Conference as a consultant and interpreter, Lawrence wore a British uniform but an Arabian hijab, a attire that signaled his thoughtful political views. In 1916, Britain and France signed the "Sykes-Peak Agreement" to secretly divide the Middle East. Lawrence was deeply angry when he learned of this. In the agreement, Britain and France completely dismembered and divided up the Arabs. This arrangement made the Arab independence cause completely lost. soup.
After the war, Lawrence gained both fame and wealth. It should be considered that he has reached the peak of his life, but the inability of Arabs to become independent has always been a pain in his heart. After the war, he kept brokering negotiations between Arabs and Britain and France. The ambitions of the British and French governments made it difficult for Lawrence to implement his political ideas, and his former comrade-in-arms, Prince Faisal, was unwilling to sign the Versailles contract. Lawrence had no choice but to give up and leave it alone.
Prince Faisal (front row) and Lawrence (middle row, second from right) at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference
For his heroic deeds in World War I, the government awarded him the Order of "Extraordinary Contribution". But he refused to accept the knighthood of the British Empire that King George V would hand to him because he called himself "Lawrence of Arabia".
Later, the curious Lawrence could not be idle at home, secretly ran to the Royal Air Force, changed his name to become a soldier, but was recognized by some unscrupulous media, and then hyped Lawrence's presence in the Air Force, bringing great influence to the local area. The big turmoil even affected the normal operation of the troops.
Lawrence had no choice but to change his name to become an armored soldier, but he found that the armored soldier was too tired, and finally went to the Air Force under his real name. But in the end, the turmoil could not be quelled. In severe cases, some violent terrorist incidents would occur. The cause of all these accidents would also be attributed to Lawrence by those bad media. In the end, due to pressure, Lawrence had to hide from the media and return home to write a book, and then he came to the "Seven Pillars of Wisdom".
Just when everything was becoming peaceful, an accident happened. In 1935, Lawrence rode a motorcycle to deliver the manuscript. Just as he was accelerating through a small hillside, he found two children riding bicycles in front of him. In order to avoid these two children, He turned the motorcycle sideways and slammed on the brakes, but the motorcycle lost its center of gravity and spun on the road. Although he avoided the two children, Lawrence also fell out and suffered serious head injuries. Tian left the world and ended his legendary life.
As the saying goes, there are thousands of roads, safety is the first, and the driving is not standardized, and the relatives are in tears. The policy of one helmet and one belt is still very necessary.
At Lawrence's funeral, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill also came to mourn, saying: "In my eyes, Lawrence is one of the greatest figures of our time. I can hardly find anyone else who can match him. People. I worry that no matter how much we need them, there will never be people like him."
Lawrence seems to be a contradictory being. He is taciturn, not good at communication, and even looks a little shy and shy, but has an extremely competitive spirit.
In the harsh desert natural environment, he can even endure the harsh environment better than the Bedouins who have lived in the desert for a long time, showing a tenacious character.
On the one hand, he can achieve extraordinary rationality, to the point of being ruthless. For example, when he learned that his younger brother was killed in battle, Lawrence wrote to his parents, "We are obliged to hide any sadness that will make people sad. Feelings, if made a grief-stricken gesture, will definitely affect others"; on the other hand, he seems to have a sentimental heart and sympathize with the suffering of others. In the midst of brutal warfare, he collected coats just to make his wounded and dying enemies comfortable.
In terms of political attitude, Lawrence is also extremely two-sided. For the benefit of the Arabs, Lawrence revealed the contents of the British-French secret agreement "Sykes-Picot Agreement" to the leader of the Arab rebel army, Prince Faisal, at the risk of being charged with treason, but at the same time, Lawrence was not for the sake of An internationalist fighter for the independence and freedom of the Arabs, he has strong personal ambitions to build his own immortal career. In order to achieve his goals, he often turned a deaf ear to the orders from his superiors and acted on his own. He did not hesitate to distort the facts to achieve his goals. The self he created in his autobiography was very different from his real self, and he was a collection of contradictions.
If you want to know more about the character of Lawrence, there is a book I recommend you to read, called Lawrence of Arabia: War, Lies, Imperial Folly, and the Formation of the Modern Middle East. Lawrence's broadest approach.
This work provides an alternative reading of Lawrence and that history, and Lawrence's complexity is vividly displayed in this work.
Book author Scott Anderson said, "History is malleable, and people are willing to believe what's true and what's true," as if to justify his own rhetoric, but historians do, don't they? Is that the kind of thing? Whether we accept it psychologically or not. Historian's writings don't have standard answers like textbooks, and any historian who promises to give you the only truth is dubious, if he either erases or smears something. If the Lawrence in the book seems contradictory to the reader, it may be closer to a real person.
movie title
The title of the movie is Lawrence of Arabia, and we have replayed it, Arab in History and Lawrence in History. Whether it is Arab or Lawrence, the biggest thing they have in common may be contradictions and divisions.
A person who is divided between contradictions and wants to help a country with divided contradictions and achieve independence may be doomed to fail from the beginning.
Movies have been expressing or implying this since the first Arabs appeared. In the desert, the most deadly thing to the Arabs is not the harsh environment, but the same skin color, the same ethnicity, the Arabs.
As the movie says, great things have small beginnings. On the other hand, the embankment of a thousand miles can also be destroyed by the ant nest. At that time, Arabs far surpassed Britain in terms of land and population, but as a result, their natural advantages were exhausted by Arab distractions and infighting, and even became disadvantages.
Lawrence, though, can cater to Arabs, lead Arabs, and even become Arabs. But the Arab nation is still the Arab nation, and it will not be turned over because of the appearance of a white man.
In the end, Arabia has not become Lawrence's Arabia, and Lawrence has not become Arabia's Lawrence. They can be organically combined, but they cannot be completely unified . Although Lawrence himself hopes very much, he is not a god after all, and he is not even a qualified politician. At the negotiating table in Damascus, Lawrence, who was in the desert, stood aside like a display. Prince Faisal said that there is no need for soldiers here, we are bargaining, that is the work of the old man. The essence of war is the essence of youth, courage and hope for the future. The old man keeps the peace, the crime of peace is the crime of the old man, distrust and wariness, it must be like this.
Then Lawrence pulled out of the negotiating table, out of Damascus, out of the Middle East, out of the battlefields of World War I.
This ending is somewhat saddening. What the heart thinks may not necessarily become what the eyes can see.
But even so, Lawrence still maintains a young heart. The first scene of the movie is also the last scene of Lawrence's life. He stepped on the speeding motorcycle and moved forward freely and without hesitation. The essence of youth is the courage and hope for the future, not believing, the so-called fate.
Lawrence did not create an independent Arabia, but he created miracles unprecedented in the Arab lands.
I think Lawrence of Arabia is worth watching by every entrepreneur. The road to starting a business is not necessarily bright, and it is even full of obstacles that are visible to the naked eye. However, for what our heart thinks, it is worth giving our whole heart and soul. Miracles are not believed because they are seen, but they are seen because they believe .
'Lawrence of Arabia' movie review with sound
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