El príncipe del desierto

'Black Gold' is an old fashioned epic about feuding fiefdoms in 1930's Arabia, when oil had just been discovered in the region. Mark Strong & Antonio Banderas are the two rulers with a long standing rivalry that metamorphoses into a temporary truce, only to flare up again when their very divergent views inevitably come in the way. Tahar Rahim & Freida Pinto as their respective children, married to each other in what is essentially a politically motivated gesture, attempt to play the peacemakers. Performances - particularly Strong, Rahim & Pinto - are very good. Rahim, playing a Michael Corleone-ish character, does a commendable job. Pinto looks lovely, and Strong as the devout Sultan with a conscience, is nicely understated. As is customary in director Jean-Jacques Annaud's films, the locales & cinematography are breathtaking. The action sequences are crisp & filmed in a raw, realistic manner. Where the film falters, is in taking too long to tell a story that in fact needs far less time. Some passages get boring whereas others keep the viewer completely engrossed. It is this unevenness in the film's pacing that dents the possibility of it soaring high. Overall though, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

I remember when Lawrence of Arabia came out, long ago. The most stunning things about it were Peter O'Toole, the haunting music, and the hard won shots of the desert. I would have traded it all to learn the details of desert warfare, but it failed to do more than offer a glimpse. Instead it wallowed in Lawrence's tortured mind to little purpose, creating a deeply dissatisfying movie. Now, years later, my antidote has come in the form of a real story, the kind I longed for as a kid, but seldom found.

If you consider the people of the Arabian desert savage, superstitious barbarians, you won't be able to enjoy this movie. But if you can suspend your prejudice long enough to be convinced, they do a fine job of conveying how a totally foreign and ancient culture can make more than a little sense in today's world.

Is it all fantasy, these unusually noble men with their deep distrust of western values? I doubt it. There are always ineffable things about a people's true dreams and character that have little to do with their actual history, that can only really be expressed in art. If I were Arab I'd be very happy to see a movie like this about how my forefathers reacted to the first oil wells and the riches they promised.

The lead, Tahar Rahim, is spot on as the bookish Prince Auda, turned fighter. His father Mark Strong as the Sultan Amar has some of the best lines and is a strong and welcome presence throughout. Antonio Banderas worked for me as Emir Nesib and I admire his entire career. There's no doubt in my mind he was fully committed to this movie though some apparently found his performance distracting; I did not. As others have pointed out, Freida Pinto and Liya Kebede, as the female leads, are both fairly wasted here though there's something true about how minor their roles are given this is mostly a story about change, war and father-son relations.

No, I might forever be labeled a low brow for writing this, but I enjoyed this film much more than I did the highly acclaimed Lawrence of Arabia. This is a far more earnest and effecting film and deserves a great deal more praise than it's likely to get in the west given our politics. That's truly a shame as we could use a little sympathy and insight into these people.

Super-high production values here. That's why I rented it. I knew they'd spent some money. To some(me too, initially), it looks like a "B" flick you've never heard of.

In that regard it might exceed some people's expectations.

In hindsite, however, the story is an excellent platform for a great drama, but unfortunately, that drama never comes to fruition.

And I'm not sure why. The film needed more dialog between its lead character(Auda, played by Tahir from 'A Prophet' fame), and both of his "fathers". We get far too little quality acting and dialog, and way too much meandering amongst the desert. Mark Strong is excellent as usual - too bad he has 5 or 6 lines in the entire film(most coming in the first 10 minutes).

The film should have worked dynamically, but the lack of quality dialog and the lack of drama ruin the film. One of many balls that were dropped. The "falcon" storyline and connection - also dropped like a 16-pound bowling ball. The final scene between Banderas and Rahim, ditto.

Watch this film for what it should have been - one of the best made for TV epics ever put on the living room screen.

The film deserves some credit for not selling-out to the geek squad, and for not boring me(entirely), but the film really could have been great.

It's quite beautiful to look at, and most of the acting is passable, but again, it lacks the drama to give it the emotional power to match its 'look'.

60/100 and considering it's 50 million-dollar budget - I won't be adding it to the B-Movie-Marathon anytime soon(even though its total-lack of box-take makes it eligible).

not bad for out-of-the-redbox with low-expectations.

It has a good story (historically irrelevant) about the beginnings of oil exports from the middle east. The leading role is played marvelously while for some obscure reason the accompanying major characters are a bit swallow.

Other than that, it is consistent, the film and the story flow without tiring the audience and with awe inspiring scenes of desert battle.

Baring in mind that I gave a 9 to the film because I really enjoyed it and that's what films are about, I have to address the fact that either my knowledge of the Arab world is far lesser than i thought or the film for some reason follows some ill-thought clichés... Half of the people shown on the film would never pass for Arabs... really never... it's more likely that i would pass for an Arab and I'm Greek than half of the cast of the movie... moreover the "heaviness", if it can be a valid term, of the language reminds me more of Persians and less of Arabs ...

Anyways other than that, it is a good film worth seeing, it will make you worth the time.

i was deeply moved and excited by this great movie. finally, there's a movie that told us how the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was built. this is a movie not only gave us great scenes of the desert, the people and one of the greatest fighting scene since 'lawrence of Arabia', but also gave us some great love romance between the two younger generations of the Saudi reigning tribes, their loyalty and their faith to each other during the turmoil time. there was also a beautiful romantic touch from that beautiful exquisite free-will young woman from the southern tribe, she not only saved the future king, helped him regaining the land but also left him with a forever nostalgic memory.

the casting did a great job signed up two great actors to play the foe against each other. the development of the young hostage son from a geeky bookworm nerd to a great man with a vision for its land and its future was also very well crafted.

too shame that the extremity of the strong belief of the Muslim religion didn't free that country but enslaved it later with tyranny and totalitarianism. but for this movie itself, this outcome was not what the screenplay and the director really wanted to portray in the first place. what they've tried to tell by this movie were love, loyalty, truthfulness and humanity before that black gold buried and suffocated the whole country's past and future. its later corrution and cruelty of the house of the saud were not included in what they wanted to tell in this particular movie.

this is a wonderful and fantastic film with great cinematography and sound track. an almost perfect romantic saga.