Queen of the DesertReaching common ground often means actually walking upon said ground. Queen of the Desert is a biographical drama about Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman), a brave, educated woman from England who discovers her true calling in studying and befriending the disparate Bedouin tribes of the Middle East at the turn of the 20th century. What starts in her youth as a kind of rebellion against her unsatisfying life in the upper strata of high society starts to become something truly personal and heartfelt after she falls in love with a civil servant named Henry Cadogan (James Franco) on her first visit to Tehran.
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Depicting any figure from history can be a potentially sticky challenge, especially when that person's legacy remains relevant on today's global stage. Many people today equate the Middle East with conflict, and the tensions between the tribes that would become the nations of the Middle East after World War I are evident in Queen of the Desert. The film opens with a collective of soldiers and politicians attempting to delineate the eventual borders of what remains of the Ottoman Empire, and ultimately realizing that the only person who can guide them is a woman who has spend the last several years actually getting to know the nomadic tribes of Arabia. When Gertrude first shares that she intends to roam through the deserts and educate herself on its people, she is both mocked because she is a woman, and discouraged because the occupying British do not want anyone poking the proverbial hornet's nest. But these people are comfortable in their ignorance of the natives, and view them with an almost exclusively suspicious perspective. Others like Gertrude's uncle, Frank Lascelles (Mark Lewis Jones), hardly seem to take their place in the Middle East with any real seriousness. Gertrude becomes enamored with Tehran while falling in love with Henry, who teaches her Farsi and shares Persian poetry with her. Despite her intelligence and wit, this Gertrude seems more taken with Henry than the desert, yet she learns much about it from him. He shares stories of the mountains with her, and takes her to a tower where the Zoroastrians leave their dead to be eaten by vultures. And though she pleads with her father, Hugh (David Calder), for his approval to marry Henry, it is not given, and she loses her beloved. Some time later, she returns to the Middle East, as though on a mission. But whether her mission is one forged from a sobering awakening or a deep down death urge is not so clear early on. Gertrude comes back as an archaeologist, and crosses paths with another well known figure of the age: T. E Lawrence (Robert Pattinson). The two bond over their shared interest in the region and a desire to understand it better. Gertrude eventually falls in love again with another man, Charles Doughty-Wylie (Damian Lewis), who supports her quest into the desert through gifts which she finds more helpful to trade with the various sheikhs she encounters. But just as her loss of Henry steeled her for her risky mission into the dunes, her subsequent loss of Charles ultimately compels her to withdraw into a life of politics, returning to the courtly protocol of society from whence she fled so long before.
Written and directed by Werner Herzog, Queen of the Desert is a sweeping epic spanning almost two decades, set during a formative time in history. Those familiar with Herzog's body of work will find similarities between this film and his earlier ones. For example, Queen of the Desert opens with a caravan of dromedaries navigating the desert in a shot that resembles the opening of Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Gertrude's effort to ingratiate herself with the denizens of Arabia has the faintest echoes of the premise behind Herzog's documentary, Grizzly Man, though her efforts are thankfully far more successful. Scenes are composed with a hint of stagecraft that brings to mind some of Herzog's films like Woyzeck, and are given to moments of music and dance in the homes of the natives, like Cobra Verde. One has but to look back on the filmmaker's earlier works and compare them with this movie to see his signature here in Queen of the Desert. The film also shares parallels with Lawrence of Arabia, not least of which is the eponymous Lawrence as a supporting character here. What sets Gertrude apart from her contemporaries is her approach to researching her subjects. She never acts in a superior way toward the people who occupy these desert lands. She is not only polite but gracious, even when confronted with threats and danger, like one sheikh who attempts to take her for his harem. She remains an enigma to the British in power over the region, because despite her familiarity with the Bedouins, she will not spy on them for England; she instead claims that she only spies for herself. Queen of the Desert closes with a coda that explains how Gertrude Bell is one of the few foreigners looked upon with warmth by the Middle Eastern people today. Considering how people can be all too quick to assume the worst about someone simply because they subscribe to a different way of life, the real accomplishment is that she was able to appreciate that way of life without demanding that it conform to hers, which so often proves the root of conflict.
Recommended for: Fans of a biographical drama that explores the life and achievements of a woman who defiantly chose to learn about another people and foster understanding in a hostile environment. Like many of Herzog's other films, Queen of the Desert is as much about the characters as it is about the landscape in which it is presented, inviting the audience to consider how the world influences us rather than vice versa.
Written and directed by Werner Herzog, Queen of the Desert is a sweeping epic spanning almost two decades, set during a formative time in history. Those familiar with Herzog's body of work will find similarities between this film and his earlier ones. For example, Queen of the Desert opens with a caravan of dromedaries navigating the desert in a shot that resembles the opening of Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Gertrude's effort to ingratiate herself with the denizens of Arabia has the faintest echoes of the premise behind Herzog's documentary, Grizzly Man, though her efforts are thankfully far more successful. Scenes are composed with a hint of stagecraft that brings to mind some of Herzog's films like Woyzeck, and are given to moments of music and dance in the homes of the natives, like Cobra Verde. One has but to look back on the filmmaker's earlier works and compare them with this movie to see his signature here in Queen of the Desert. The film also shares parallels with Lawrence of Arabia, not least of which is the eponymous Lawrence as a supporting character here. What sets Gertrude apart from her contemporaries is her approach to researching her subjects. She never acts in a superior way toward the people who occupy these desert lands. She is not only polite but gracious, even when confronted with threats and danger, like one sheikh who attempts to take her for his harem. She remains an enigma to the British in power over the region, because despite her familiarity with the Bedouins, she will not spy on them for England; she instead claims that she only spies for herself. Queen of the Desert closes with a coda that explains how Gertrude Bell is one of the few foreigners looked upon with warmth by the Middle Eastern people today. Considering how people can be all too quick to assume the worst about someone simply because they subscribe to a different way of life, the real accomplishment is that she was able to appreciate that way of life without demanding that it conform to hers, which so often proves the root of conflict.
Recommended for: Fans of a biographical drama that explores the life and achievements of a woman who defiantly chose to learn about another people and foster understanding in a hostile environment. Like many of Herzog's other films, Queen of the Desert is as much about the characters as it is about the landscape in which it is presented, inviting the audience to consider how the world influences us rather than vice versa.