xaggurat — 11 years ago(April 17, 2014 02:43 PM)

• Some spoilers might be here, not serious though -
  I thought the movie is beautifully filmed, and very well acted, besides I did like the lesson the story offered.
  Some have mistook this film as a propaganda, in order to make British history or the former British Empire look bad. It's true that British Empire is put in contrast against Sudanese people, but I don't see such comparison, which would praise the other side to make another look worse. For me this movie gave very different message, more international and common to all cultures.
  In most religions pride, hubris, is thought as negative. In early Christian teachings it is the most serious of all seven deadly sins and often it's seen as the source of other sins. I am not Christian nor religious in other ways, but I do believe pride is the source of most evil.
  In the beginning of the movie, we see a group of proud young officers going to fight the war for the pride of their empire. One of them, Harry Faversham begins to question his life and motives, as quite logically he'd like to stay home to marry his fiance more than travel far away to face the possibility of death, so he decides to quit the army and marry his fiance instead. As a reaction his friends send him white feathers to tell him they hold him as a coward. His father, a general, denies him as his son. The most importantly, his loved one rejects him and gives him a feather too. Harry, feeling lost, travels to Sudan to redeem himself in the eyes of others, before his fiance who has understood her fallacy, has a chance to tell him she's sorry.
  In Sudan young officers will face events, which drop them down from their self created pedestal. Harry looks out every chance to redeem himself, and while doing so, he finds himself in a position where he truly has nothing left but his life, which he is willing to sacrifice for his friend life. He is helped and protected by a "noble savage" character, a sudanese warrior Abou Fatma, who seems to have his priorities fixed. There's an excellent scene where Abou teaches Harry how to laugh from the bottom of his heart, instead of polite and civilized manner.
  Jack, one of the officers gives a speech, in which he says: "In the heat of battle, it ceases to be an idea for which we fight, or flag, rather we fight for the man on our left, and we fight for the man on our right". So, the moral of the story is, when things get ugly the people who are nearest to you are the ones who really count.
  In sociological and some psychological theories, also in some religious, concept of sin is interpreted as the feeling you get when you are rejected or outcasted, especially by the people you are close to, and in contrast to that being a part of a group and society makes you feel holy and gives you a sense of belonging. So basically this story is about feeling holy and unholy.
  None of the characters in the film are bad people, but they still have to go trough all this trouble just because of pride, their own pride or others. But seemingly, in the end they all have learned in different ways what is truly important to humans, under the surface of civilization and it's rules. Think about that.
  Sorry about possible errors and inconsistencies, as English is not my first language. I'm curious, did you find the same message or some other?