Self-identity

Rating: 8/10 (27 April 2020)

The opening chapter begins with the death of Lawrence. It makes sense to make his death an opening chapter. A hero always starts with his death. The bronze statue of Lawrence was placed in St. Paul's Cathedral, and his deeds also began with this bronze statue.
The beginning of the film explained the background of the big war: the Arab tribe Bedouin attacked the Turkish fortress, and a war was about to begin. When Lawrence received this news, there was a classic picture-Lawrence extinguished the match with his bare hands. This picture has an indelible effect on the entire film and the personality traits of Lawrence. When William Porter asked about the mystery, Lawrence replied: "The secret is not to care about pain."
Lawrence is such a person who doesn't care about the pain. At that time, another officer, Mike George Berhart, said to Lawrence, "You will always be in trouble once, but only flesh and blood." Yes, looking at the whole movie Lawrence wanted to join the racial independence and national independence of Arabia as an ordinary person. He doesn't care about the pain, he has the will to fight and lead the people to win the war, but he is always an ordinary person. All of his composition is nothing but flesh and blood. He will always be in trouble. The "outbreak" mentioned here may be what Lawrence called "outbreak" as a historical tragedy.
Then let's take a closer look at the embodiment of the tragedy of Lawrence in the whole movie. What I want to say most is the part of death and self-identification. Of course, the entire film as an epic work also talked about politics, survival, ethnicity and even some gay themes. But I will focus on the few deaths of Lawrence's experience and the destruction of his self-identity.
The background of the character given to Lawrence in the film is that he is an illegitimate child, which is not consistent with history. The addition of such a background to the film provides a reasonable internal explanation for Lawrence and his heroic feats to a certain extent. That's why Lawrence wanted to gain personal respect for his identity as an illegitimate child as an officer did in Arabia to seize national independence for the Arab people. After arriving in Arabia, the first problem Lawrence faced was national identity. Lawrence broke through this disagreement through the death of the first person. This story happened when Lawrence entered the Bedouin tribe and they wanted to attack Akbar from behind. On the way, an Arab fell off the camel, and Lawrence turned around to rescue him despite the obstruction of everyone. You have to know that if there is no strong sense of direction and a coincidence with fate in the desert, he will never come back. But Lawrence did. When Lawrence returned to Bedouin, he said: "Nothing is destined." But it was also the Arab who was rescued, Lawrence fired the first shot. This is because the Arab killed another tribe, Lawrence needed to use his death to calm the conflict between the two tribes. Otherwise, the military operations against Akaba will be lost. So this life saved by him was eventually killed in his hands. The first death was that he entered Arabs as an Englishman in search of ethnic identity.
The second death was his servant in Arabia. When Lawrence led the two tribes to capture Aqaba, he needed to report the news to the British army and obtain their military supplies, so he needed to cross the desert. During the crossing, one of his servants, Du De, was buried in the desert because of the quicksand. When he arrived in Cairo, he met the British generals in Arab costumes. So we can think of this death as Lawrence wants to be recognized by Britain.
Later, his other servant, Faraki, could not be transferred with the troops because of the detonation tube. Lawrence ended his life with a pistol. So far, the two servants whom Lawrence first knew to take care of his life were killed. But Lawrence's identity as an Arab leader was not recognized by these tribes. When the Damascus campaign was finally launched, Lawrence picked up a pistol and shot the Turks. At the same time, the faith he held in his heart, the respect for life was also shot by him. He shot this time to enable the Arabs to personally recapture their capital. He wanted to integrate into the Arab tribe to gain their spiritual identity, not identity. But in the end, the government still did not recognize him, and he left just as he had just arrived in Arabia.
We looked back, when Lawrence was sent to Dyden, Arabia, and he said, "Great things start from a very small beginning." Lawrence led the Arabs to national independence. This great event was sent to him Arab started from Lawrence's desire to gain his personal approval. Similarly, we can say that the Arab Revolution started with every spiritually independent Arab. This film has created a hero and a tragic hero. Lawrence led the Arabs before Allenby launched the battle to seize the capital Damascus, but this provisional Arab government he established
Lawrence could not be truly recognized. The tragedy also lies in the fact that for this battle and for the final result, he personally shot the beliefs he insisted on. So at the beginning of the film, Lawrence drove a motorcycle and died in a car accident on a country road. It is precisely the way of death in this tragedy.
Lawrence is a hero or an ordinary man. His death made a conclusion about his life.