Now let's take a look at "Conquest 1453", the "blockbuster" with the largest investment in Turkish film history. The film tells the story of a grand military feat in the history of the Ottoman Empire - the capture of Constantinople by Mehmed II. Putting such a grand historical event that has influenced so far on the screen, the meaning of the film itself has taken a back seat - this is the social attribute of the film. Just like when China decided to film the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the three major battles, although performances and scripts were also considered, the ultimate achievement that the creator had to face was not the achievement of the film, but the social "achievement" (the achievement here refers to the fact that it achieves the historical interpretation of events into a social force). As far as this film is about to shoot the most profound siege battle in ancient history, the director must not only restore the whole incident as much as possible, but also obtain reasonable explanations from at least three large social groups— - One is the domestic audience in Turkey. At a time when the economically sluggish EU has repeatedly rejected the thriving Turkey's application for membership, and Turkey's domestic nationalism is on the rise, what such a film needs to provide them is the right amount of patriotic stimulation and slightly elevated Historical imagination; one is the Orthodox people left by the Byzantine Empire, especially today's Greece - in Greece, people still regard the fall of Constantinople on Tuesday as the most ominous day of the week. It is conceivable that if The film vilifies the Orthodox Christians like the American movie "300 Warriors" vilifies the Persians, and the opposition will overwhelm the intended effect of the film; the other group is other than the Turks who believe in Islam, mainly including Iranians And the Arabs, these three major Islamic races have established martial arts in history, and the fall of Constantinople even threatened the achievements of Rome, but only the Turks can do it - now the Turks have to compete with the Arabs and Iranians. This history is an indispensable part of striving to be the leader of the Islamic world. In addition to the leaders, the Turks will obviously call themselves enlightened (perhaps they are indeed the most enlightened in the Islamic world), and this idea is reflected in the film.
It is meaningless to discuss the acting skills of the actors, or the skills of the writers and directors for such a film (maybe there is something worth talking about in terms of art props), it is not made for movie audiences, it is made for dozens of people. Hundreds of millions of people affected by this war watched. If you insist on taking the standard of a "good movie", then it will undoubtedly have a protracted plot, rigid characters, rough computer effects, and even some scenes are incoherent. But for lovers of this history and audiences who are concerned about current politics, they can learn how the Turks think and interpret this history through the film; It is yet another interesting perspective for domestic audiences of such Western-centric Hollywood war films.
First let's take a look at how the Turks see their place in the Islamic world. The film opens with a prophetic prophecy that a holy monarch will lead a holy army to conquer Constantinople in the future. Such a passage is undoubtedly clumsy, but the message conveyed is clear. In the early morning of the day when Constantinople was captured, when Muhammad II led the army to do Naimaz (prayer), there was neither a "high hand" (hands on the chest) nor "no hand" (hands hanging on both sides) ) - the former is the worship of the Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia, and the latter is the worship of the Shia in Iran. Through such details, the film handed over the "sacred" destiny to the Ottoman Empire alone, that is, Turk. And this sacred mission will continue to this day with the fall of Constantinople-in today's Islamic world, Turkey, the country's most powerful country, has such confidence.
The Turks also duly sow discord between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. The last emperor of Byzantium, Constantine XI, hoped that the Pope of Rome would send troops to help defend Christendom when a strong enemy came. However, the burning, killing and looting brought about by the Four Crusades has completely affected the image of Catholicism in the eyes of the Orthodox Christians (especially the Fourth Crusade, where the knights, at the instigation of the Venetians, captured the emperor Constantinople), the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church announced the apostasy of Constantine XI, who was secretly rumored to be in Rome. Unlike Catholicism forcing Orthodox Christians to convert, Muhammad II allowed Orthodox believers to have freedom of belief after the occupation (this history is exaggerated in the film to prove the enlightenment of Islam. In fact, in the Middle Ages for nearly a thousand years In time, Islamic civilization was indeed more enlightened than Christianity). Now that the Greeks have no choice but to shut up, the film cleverly exploits the old relationship between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church - under the rule of paganism, the Orthodox Christians have been freed instead.
On the other hand, the idea of freedom of belief promoted in the film also coincides with the political idea of Turkey's secular regime since the Kemal Revolution in the 20th century. In fact, the important driving force of the whole film (and one of the important driving forces of this history) is religious conflict, but at the end of the film suddenly begins to promote religious freedom in the modern sense (Ottoman Middle Eastern Orthodox Christians and Muslims are not equal Yes, that kind of freedom is not religious freedom in the modern sense), one cannot help but ponder the ambiguous gesture of the creator of the film - while using nationalist and religious sentiments to obtain high box office, he also did not forget to add "progressive" " at the end, in order to cater to the political orientation of Turkey's domestic intellectual elite.
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