durack

This is very slow at times. Looks like the movie was state-sponsored by the Qatari Government to the tune of $40 million. It has only made ~$5 million at the box office. I blame the length of over 2 hours as a contributing factor. There's so much padding. Unlike other unnecessarily long movies, this one seems to have burned a lot of money on padding with so many extras, Camels, etc. The story of how the West discovered oil in Iran and Iraq leading to the formation of British Petroleum (BP) in the very early 20th century and then leading to similar discoveries in Bahrain, Kuwait etc., can be told in a much more interesting manner than this. Unfortunately, in this instance, the Qatari funding must have dictated that the narrative must make Arabs look smart. Well, that's hard to do when all the Arab leaders at the time had to do was sign leases handing over their backyards to western oil companies. The rest is history. Today, in the 21st century (100 years since the events of this movie), most middles eastern countries are case studies for Resource Curse.