Friday Statement: In his lecture, historian Qin Hui listed several common theories on the current Afghanistan issue (including the theory of imperial tombs, the theory of intervention by foreign powers, the theory of peasant uprisings, etc.), and used common sense, logic, and history to make them one by one. objected. This reminds me of the classic old film "Lawrence of Arabia" co-produced by the United Kingdom and the United States 60 years ago - as far as the theme is concerned, the creator really used the characters and events of World War I to express the feelings after World War II. As far as viewpoint theory is concerned, it just corresponds to Qin Hui's viewpoint. Therefore, this film can serve as a reference for us to tear apart the political surface of the Afghan issue and explore its essence.
In addition, in terms of film language, "Lawrence of Arabia" has an epoch-making significance in film history in terms of visual composition and scene scale, and it is a standard example for us to study film
Text: Savage Five
Edit: Mr.Friday
Image: Video screenshot
1. Magical composition and visual feast
Most of the film's scenes take place in the Arab world, and it tells the whole process of the British military financing the Arab princes against the Turkish army during the First World War. The officer Lawrence was the advisor and general sent by the British to Arabia. With a certain ideal and passion, Lawrence entered Azerbaijan alone, ready to do a great job.
★ Let's first look at how the director expresses the grand scenes of Hou Ah-
▲ This is the first time Lawrence entered the desert;
▲ This is the scene of Lawrence rushing alone in the desert;
▲ This is the marching scene of the army when it conquered the territory of Turkey.
Quite simply, this kind of "grand" director is accomplished through the proportion of the composition. Further, the film frame is limited, and he uses the small to set off the big in the limited frame. Simple, yet effective.
★ Of course, this composition method is not only used in a "grand", look at -
When a person is cornered in the desert and is on the verge of despair, suddenly a black spot appears in the distance (despair becomes hope);
Gradually, the black spot got bigger and bigger until it became clear that it was a person (hopefully).
So far, the composition participates in the psychological imposition of the audience, and achieves the dramatic rendering of the plot.
★ Finally, on the basis of psychological imposition, the film composition also adds literary metaphors——
The picture above is the scene of Lawrence walking alone on the beach after his graduation. The director asked the actor to ride a camel and drive slowly from left to right from the frame. Gradually, a touch of gold appeared on the right side of the frame, contrasting with the dark gray on the left, which brought out Lawrence's melancholy and contradictory mood at this time. It can be seen that the director has made great efforts in the composition and even the whole film language.
Let's take a look at the next still picture-
This is a conversation between an American journalist and an Arab prince. It's strange that the director did not use "front and back", but made two people wearing dark clothes sit side by side in the close-up of the camera; leave enough space in the middle, and open a door in the distant view; the brightness outside the door almost makes conversation The two of them were in the "backlight"; not only that, the director also made an Arab soldier put on red clothes, just standing in the bright light outside the door.
In this way, there is a strong conflict between the protagonist and the secondary character, the focus of the plot and the focus of the camera. And this kind of compositional conflict hides what the director wants to metaphor (I won't break it down here, everyone can think about its meaning after watching the film by themselves).
With so many examples, it can be seen that "composition" plays a great role in this film, and at the same time it lays the foundation for the infinite release of film space in the future.
In addition to the composition, the film has also achieved a strong aesthetic effect in terms of color, light and shadow. Here are a few selected for everyone to appreciate——
2. The idealism of Lawrence under the vision
If you think that those visuals are just to satisfy the audience's aesthetic, you are wrong. Aesthetics is only a guide to lead the audience into the door. As for what the director wants to show (or sell) inside the door, that's something else. Frankly speaking, we can find the answer in a large number of lens designs, such as the comparison of match light and sunlight transition mentioned in our last article (top ten "transitions" in film history). hope";
For example, the director and screenwriter are contradictory to Lawrence,
The shaping of melancholy character;
Another example is the rivalry between Lawrence and his pragmatic boss, tribal leader, and colleagues in the movie...
All these settings, whether the focus of the camera or the focus of the plot, point to one thing, and that is "Lawrence's idealism."
So what exactly is Lawrence's idealism? With this question we return to the topic of the article "Arab Question" -
3. Motivation of "Western Powers" under Idealism
Talking about motives is a habitual way of thinking for us—everyone makes enemies first, and first villains. Simply put: there is no love for no reason, and there is no hate for no reason. So,
★ Is the US participation in Afghan politics for the purpose of exterminating its clan and enslaving its people?
Of course, this does not make sense. In terms of military strength, the two countries are not on the same level at all. As long as the life and death of civilians and the protection of cultural relics are ignored, it is easy for the former to blow up the latter. Why do you run away in a panic over and over again? Not only a war in Afghanistan, from Somalia to Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo to Iraq, which time the United States is not embarrassed after the fact, no one inside or outside. You know, the robbers won't take care of the aftermath when they finish their work, and they won't even stay alive.
In the movie "Lawrence of Arabia", the situation and routines of the Arab civil war that Lawrence and even the United Kingdom participated in are also roughly the same - first envoys were sent in, then financial, material, and technical assistance, and finally post-war reconstruction, cleaning up A mess, until the final embarrassed evacuation.
This is the question we need to think about. In the end, what kind of good people are the "British and American imperialists" pretending to be?
★ Secondly, is the United States plundering resources to make money?
This point can be refuted by the logic of our editor-in-chief Hu of the Global World. You must know that China is the most bidder for energy development companies in Arab countries (the United States has not gained any benefits in oil and economic development). Which excavation machine is stronger?" This is a question!
In "Lawrence of Arabia", the British government funded weapons, gold, and even the entire power system after the war, but it ended up with a power outage at its own headquarters. How could it be possible to start a company to make money, let alone make money? Colonize it!
Since slavery is not, and making money is not, what do they want?
Part of the answer is given in this movie-after Lawrence led the Arab side to victory, he tried to balance the contradictions in its internal distribution through parliamentary methods, and tried to elect leaders by popular election.
Bottom line: It's selling Western "democracy". In the words of Professor Qin Hui: they want to make a model of "democracy" in Arab countries.
4. The Difference Between Conquest, Colonization, and Marketing
Since ancient times, from Greece and Rome to the Middle Ages in the West, and from Zhou Qin to Song and Yuan Dynasties in China, any "conquest" has been accompanied by the subjective cultural cleansing and reset of the conqueror.
However, a very strange phenomenon appeared in "Lawrence of Arabia" - after Lawrence entered the Arab world on behalf of Britain, he was instead assimilated by the other party's culture. In other words, Lawrence was able to lead the Arabs to victory and win the hearts of the people, not because of his own Caucasian advantages, but because he learned the other party's language, understood the other party's behavior and demands, and even fell in love with the other party. culture (obviously this is not the concept of conquest and colonization).
So we saw the turning point that Lawrence first led the army to change into Arab clothes,
Then I saw Lawrence's embarrassment after returning to the British Territory wearing Muslim clothes,
After that, Lawrence resigned and changed back to a suit, which ended in tragedy. These are things that the director constantly reinforces and interprets (i.e. Lawrence's cultural integration and change).
Reinforcement and explanation do not mean the point of view. If you can take Lawrence's first army to attack the Turkish territory as a transit, and divide the film into two parts, it is not difficult to see the film's self-criticism and reflection—— It criticizes the difference between pure idealism and practice. The reflection is on the nature of political, cultural and racial contradictions. In addition, you must know that the integration of the former Lawrence culture is also the beginning of war killing. The latter's post-war political practice proved that the price paid was far greater than the expected result (not to mention that the democratic system envisaged by the West ended in failure). In other words, the film is emphasizing that the West's plan to sell "democratic" institutions to Arab countries is a failure.
And when a film has a certain criticality, it is not equivalent to a general commercial film. At least, it is telling us that those so-called "imperialists" are doing these things with contradictions themselves.
5. My Criticism of Lawrence of Arabia
Although "Lawrence of Arabia" has many innovations and innovations, I still feel that its performances and lines are too blunt, too Hollywood-style routines (released in Colombia), so it is inevitable that some of them fall into the stereotypes of commercial films. This is in terms of the movie itself.
So with the creative motivation behind it, can it be considered a purely independent film at all? Otherwise, I think it is guided by a certain ideology——
First of all, the film itself is told in English (abandoning all Arabic native languages), and Muslims and Christians all share a word-God, which itself has subjective bias and guidance;
Secondly, several Arab characters with slightly critical thoughts in the film are either followers of Lawrence or "turtles" who have returned from their studies in the UK... This itself is an extremely obscure form of propaganda;
In the end, no matter whether Lawrence's personal charm or the funny embarrassment of the British officers, after all, it is much more ambiguous than those Arab thugs.
All these favored things are bundled with "British and American" and delivered to the audience like a soft advertisement.
So, in reality, who is right and who is wrong in Afghanistan, whose motives are beneficial to the people, whose motives are beneficial to the power class, and who benefits from it... This is a question that each of us needs to use our own brains to identify.
Pay attention to [Friday Literature and Art], interpret the classics
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