MY BOY JACK, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA AND MICHAEL COLLINS
If you are fond of watching good movies,
have a passion for history and enjoy reading literature, then you must have
heard the names of Rudyard Kipling, Michael Collins and TE Lawrence or
"Lawrence of Arabia". Shall be. With the help of these geniuses,
we can better understand the era of the early twentieth century and see the
concepts of nationalism, patriotism and sacrifice etc. in different terms. Although
the three films, "Lawrence of Arabia", "My Boy Jack" and
"Michael Collins" were not equally popular, they can be a useful
resource for understanding history and with it. The ideas of fiction can also
be helpful in understanding the period in which they exist.
The beginning of the 21st century and the
beginning of the 20th century are very similar, and it seems that no matter how
far the world has come in a hundred years, many factors remain the same. 2023
marked the centenary of the establishment of the "Turkish Republic",
which was established after the end of the Ottoman Empire. Lawrence of
Arabia played an important role in the Arab Revolt against the Turks, which
eventually helped in the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. In 2023, Ireland
also celebrated the centenary of the end of the Irish Civil War.
This civil war officially ended in 1923. Michael
Collins played a decisive role in the Irish War of Independence and sacrificed
his life in it, while Rudyard Kipling was a brilliant writer as well as a
fearless advocate of British imperialism, which Ireland He was strongly against
granting independence. To satisfy his war mania, he used his influence to
recruit his only son into the army, although the teenager's eyesight was poor
and he lost his life on the battlefield at the start of the First World War.
The hand was lost.
MY BOY JACK:
Let's first look at the British film,
"My Boy Jack," based on David Hague's 1997 play. Daniel
Radcliffe plays the role of John or Jack Kipling in this film. It should
be noted that the household name "Jack" is also used for John in
English. This film was made in the early 21st century when Britain was engaged
in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and once again its popularity among the
British people. Anti-government sentiments were rising.
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
was shamelessly and obstinately advocating these wars. Against this
background, when the film, "My Boy Jack" was released, it showed how
a century ago Rudyard Kipling not only strongly supported the First World War,
but also his only son in the war. Jhunak Diya, who lost his life, but still
Kipling managed to overcome his grief. Kipling wrote the poem, "My
Boy Jack," after the death of his son. This poem shows how Kipling
tried to inculcate the spirit of sacrificing life in the name of nationalism. The
film shows Kipling pushing his 17-year-old son to join the British Army.
He meets with a number of senior military
officers to get his son recruited, although Jack's vision is weak and not
acceptable to the officers. Jack repeatedly fails his eye exams, but his
father does not allow his obsession with going to the front to get out of his
head, and eventually Kipling uses his influence with the highest-ranking
officers to get his son. gets recruited into the Irish Guards.' A platoon
called 'Irish Guards' was formed in 1900 when the Second Boer War was going on
in South Africa. The soldiers of Ireland played the most important role in
this war and sacrificed their lives for the British Empire. Rudyard
Kipling was very happy about this. Although Irish soldiers were sacrificing
their lives for the interests of the British crown, Kipling was strongly
opposed to giving independence to Ireland.
The gender factor has also been well
presented in this film. For example, Jack's mother and sister strongly
oppose his enlistment in the army. Although these two women have a lot of
humanity, they are not able to convince the gentlemen of their house and only
at the age of 17, Jack is made an officer and sent to lead soldiers much older
than himself. After only six months of training, he becomes a military
commander in France, where he is ordered to lead his troops into the Battle of
Loos in September 1915.
Then, for the first time in history,
chemical weapons were used by both sides, causing heavy casualties. Soon
it is reported that Jack is among the missing soldiers. When Jack goes
missing, his parents try to find him and meet several soldiers who were on the
front with Jack. The search continues for several years and eventually it
is confirmed that Jack has been hit by enemy fire, partly because his glasses
fell off and he could not find him in the mud.
Rudyard Kipling was a big name in the world of literature at
that time, because he had received the Nobel Prize for Literature at the age of
42. This award was given to him in 1907. Using this fame, Kipling
began to preach politics in his writings, but even before he won the Nobel
Prize, Kipling had become a strong advocate of war. He wrote the poem
"The White Man's Burden" in 1899, when he was only 34 years old. While
British forces were fighting the Second Boer War, the United States invaded the
Philippines. Both these wars continued from 1899 to 1902.
During this time, Kipling addressed the
Americans and wrote this poem: "Lift the white man's burden... Send the
best of your race... Send your sons out of the country... To supply your
captives... And the heavy reins." Below...hold the scattered and warlike
people under control...your captives...are half savages and half children.'' As
it is the work of women to bring forth a new generation, and the fathers to
send these children away from the country, while the captives remain under the
bridle, for they are savages and like children.
Can you imagine the Nobel Prize being awarded to the writer of
such a poem? Yes! Probably, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for
writing these lines, and exactly a century later, America and Great Britain
were once again doing the same thing. It can be inferred that Kipling's
concept of power and patriotism is permanent beyond the boundaries of his
country and time. When Rudyard Kipling was barely 25 years old, two more such
children lived in Wales and Ireland. , who left their deep imprint on history. Their
names were TE Lawrence and Michael Collins, who opened their eyes to this world
in 1888 and 1890 respectively.
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA:
Lawrence was to emerge as an
archaeologist and a keen soldier, and was to capitalize on war activities in
the Middle East. By the age of 40, Lawrence had recorded the details of
his World War I campaigns in an 800-page book called Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
The film based on, "Lawrence of Arabia" hit the screens in 1962 and
is considered one of the greatest films in film history. The director of
this film, David Lean, showed his essence in the deserts of Arabia and achieved
an incredible cinematic feat.
Although both Lawrence's book and David
Lean's film deviate from the facts, both are engaging and informative. In
the early 20th century, the British Empire was at its peak, but people like
Kipling and Lawrence were not satisfied. While Kipling was encouraging war
attacks and writing poetry and prose in their praise, Lawrence was on the front
lines.
In World War I, Germany and Turkey were
allies and common enemies of Great Britain. The Ottoman Empire of Turkey
had ruled the Arabs for four centuries and the Arab tribes were very unhappy
with this Turkish yoke. Britain was ready to fuel the Arab Revolt and
Lawrence was the perfect man for it. Lawrence played his part in uniting
the various leading tribes of Arabia so that they could form a united front
against the Turks. In the film, Peter O'Toole played Lawrence, who was not
yet 30 years old, but had knowledge of the local Bedouin tribes, as he had been
on research trips to the region and had mastered the Arabic language. was done
In the film, Lawrence is on the hunt for
Prince Faisal and plays the role of an Arab liaison officer with Britain. In
the desert, he encounters Sharif Ali, the actor Omar Sharif. Here is a
scene from the film, in which a horseman sees a dot in the distance and then
becomes clear to the camera. This scene is considered as one of the great
scenes of the film world.
The film "My Boy Jack" was
about Kipling's family and how he imposed his patriotism on his family, while
"Lawrence of Arabia" is the story of one such individual. , who is
suffering his body and soul for the sake of British supremacy. To achieve
this goal, Lawrence himself can override the orders of his superiors. The
film beautifully shows how he sets out with only 50 Arabs to visit Aqaba, which
is located on the other side of the Al-Nufud desert.
Along the way, he encounters Ouda Abutai,
the head of the Hawitat tribe. The role of Auda in the film is played by
the incomparable actor, Anthony Quinn. It should be noted that Lawrence
has mentioned Uda in great detail in his book and if he had not written this
book, perhaps the historical role of Uda would have been lost somewhere. Well,
at first Auda Abutai hesitates to attack Aqaba, because he receives a stipend
from the Turks.
This is a kind of ransom and the Turks
pay so that this Bedouin tribe will not disturb them, but when Lawrence shows
Audah Abu Tay Kokai dreams of all the financial benefits, Audah is ready to
attack Aqaba. The film shows how they cross the Nafud desert, but
historians do not fully accept this claim and say that Auda Abutai actually did
not allow Lawrence to cross the most difficult desert route with his men.
Rather, it took them along a relatively long route, which was not too
difficult.
Here the film takes on a bit of a fictional
feel, but David Lean holds the audience's attention completely. The film's
music in particular, composed by Maurice Jaar, is particularly heartwarming. The
same composer also composed the music for the famous title song "Lara's
Theme" in the 1964 David Lean Haye film, "Doctor Hugo", which
moviegoers still remember. Lawrence of Arabia depicts Prince Faisal
leading a campaign, most of whose soldiers are armed with swords and running
around under fire from German and Turkish planes.
In the film, David Lean misses no
opportunity to show Lawrence as more sympathetic and braver than the Arabs. When
one of the film's characters, Qasim (played by actor IS Johar), is left behind
by the convoy, Lawrence is the only one who returns to rescue him, while the
Arabs resist the attempt, saying that Qasim is dead. Is. Later, in another
scene, when this same Qasim commits a crime against another Arab tribe,
Lawrence shoots him dead, to avoid a tribal conflict. To this, Kipling
said that Lawrence was willing to take on "the white man's burden",
as the "scatters and savages" were to be kept under control.
Meanwhile, Lawrence's behavior changes
and he goes through mental and physical torture after being tortured by Turkish
soldiers. In fact, he is captured while spying in a small town in northern
Arabia, Deira, but after his release, he appears a changed man, who himself
becomes cruel and barbaric. Lawrence, after a battle, brutally kills
defeated Turkish and German soldiers despite being wounded, drowning himself in
blood. Lawrence, symbol of colonialism, also suffers from a false sense of
guilt. Such a white man, who brings a false message of improvement to the
Arabs and exactly the same was done a hundred years later in Afghanistan and
Iraq and both failed.
MICHAEL COLLINS:
Both Kipling and Lawrence are no match
for Michael Collins, who was a supporter of Irish independence. He
challenged the British supremacy and stood firm against their atrocities.
Released in 1996, the film "Michael Collins" is the masterpiece of
the Irish director, Neil Jordan, which he not only wrote, But also directed. This
film is considered to be the best film on the Irish independence movement.
Michael Collins appeared in the second decade of the 20th
century in a very opposite role to Kipling and Lawrence. The film portrays
Collins as "Lee Am Nisin" (a prominent leader of the Irish War of
Independence). At the beginning of the film, the end of the "Aster
Rebellion" of 1916 is shown, when the beleaguered Irish are forced to
surrender to the British army and this happens in the Irish Republican
headquarters in Dublin. Michael Collins and his accomplices are executed
after a brief trial.
By 1918, Kipling was
openly advocating the suppression of the Irish independence movement. He
became an open spokesperson of British colonialism. Meanwhile, Lawrence
had succeeded in extending British supremacy in the Arab region, but Michael
Collins had a completely different perspective and presented the sentiments of
patriotism and sacrifice in a different way. The sacrifice Kipling sang
was for Britain's expansionist ambitions. But Collins and his colleagues
were making sacrifices to throw off the yoke of the British crown. The
film depicts the election of 1918, in which the citizens of Ireland elected the
Sinn Fein Party, which then unilaterally declared independence.
The film stars Alan
Rickman as de Valléer, who takes over as president, while Michael Collins is
made the head of the Irish Republican Army's intelligence division. The
British authorities decide to arrest the entire Irish cabinet, whereupon
Collins and Boland escape custody and Collins becomes the most senior of the
independent leaders. Now Collins conducts a series of assassinations, in
which informants and "traitors" are disposed of. In response, the
British forces showed more brutality and targeted innocent civilians, as was
being done in India as well. The director of the film, Neil Jordan, has filmed
the Croke Park massacre with great skill.
Michael Collins becomes
the hero of guerrilla warfare and becomes the epitome of his kind in the first
half of the twentieth century, while half a century later, Che Guevara replaces
Collins as a new hero in the 1960s. Just as Lawrence defied the orders of his
officers in the film, "Lawrence of Arabia," Michael Collins refuses
to obey the orders of his president, de Valera, and negotiates and compromises
to avoid further war. Emphasizes. We know that Kipling, Lawrence and
Collins were all stubborn and that Britain opened the door to negotiations only
because of Collins' guerilla warfare.
De Valera wants Collins
to go to London to negotiate. Collins is reluctant at first, but then
agrees to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which gradually gives Ireland full
independence, but temporary status as a British Dominion. De Valera
rejects the agreement and demands immediate full independence. Public
opinion supported the treaty, demanding unconditional independence, prompting
de Valera to start a civil war. That is, Collins and de Valera supporters
start fighting each other. In August 1922, Michael Collins was killed in
an attack and in 1923 the Civil War ended.
From the death of Jack
Kipling to the death of Michael Collins, concepts of nationalism and patriotism
keep changing. If you are a symbol of non-violence like Mahatma Gandhi,
your life may be in danger and an extremist may target you too. But in the
final analysis, when a survey was conducted at the end of the twentieth
century, the greatest figures of the century were not Kipling, Collins or
Lawrence, but Gandhi and Mandela, who were called the greatest figures despite
non-violence. Finally, there are two stanzas from a poem by Kipling: When
someone asks, why we were killed... say, because our parents lied.
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