So much average

A Masterpiece!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

She was a woman with so many accomplishments when women were next to nothing. In the film all you hear about is single lines stating this accomplishments and the rest is she doing childish argues to go somewhere new and let man save her from everything and show her everything!!! The small periods of romance are so hytened in the movie that left no place for her personality and it seems like they tried to show that she did everything for her lost loves! I am not much of historian or anything but as an Iranian I am sure what they show as Tehran (Iran) was totally wrong. You see people in Moroccan/Syrian/Arabic clothing which definitely does not belong to Tehran, you hear people speaking Arabic then you hear actors and actresses trying to read poems in Farsi. It is even a pity that they did not learn a few lines of farsi and pronounce everything with a not very accurate translation (as far as I could read the texts) even locations featured in the movie are nothing like Tehran, the palm trees that you see in some scenes can not be found by hundreds of kilometer from Tehran which means that the love birds cannot go for a short ride to such places. You also see a ton of actors and actresses that enter the plot and they have such a short appearance that their dialogues become silly. Take the 1 year love story of the daughter of consul in Tehran that ends with her crying, leaving dinner table and nothing more... I cannot get why this was necessary and many of Gertrude Bell's achievements were not! Was it necessary to see that the man she loved was loved by other women? What does it tell us? Should we compare her personality to a spoiled teenager who is only care about fun and shopping? Do not let me start with Robert Pattinson's role! Who chose him to be Lowrance and how silly he was depicted here... I really don't understand! 5 star to me was for them trying and some how some accurate scenes...

Phooey with all the comments that this is not "Lawrence of Arabia," or that it doesn't have the passion of other Herzog movies like Fitzcarraldo. I loved it. And, I say nay to the reviewers who praise the cinematographer, but say Herzog, the director has lost it. As I see it, Herzog is the guy telling the cameraman what to do, and Herzog has the last say in film editing. And, visually, this movie is stunning. AND, the musical soundtrack is awesome, even better than Lawrence of Arabia (except for that unforgettable theme.) Then there's Nicole Kidman. She certainly does it for me. I was with her all the way. Never did I think, "oh, she wasn't right in that scene." It all felt right all the way to the final shot of the "back side" of the camel with Nicole riding into the sunset. A couple of things, I haven't seen anybody mention: First is another dimension to this movie and a possible reason Herzog did it. It provides a dramatic perspective on what the Middle East was then, and what it is now. It's an antidote to the Western "crusader" perception of Middle Easterners. The second comment I haven't heard is that this movie at times comes across as a documentary, which is why I think some label it as "dull." But, the line between documentary and "movie" movie is getting blurred these days. I'd rather see a "movie" that comes across as a documentary (which this one does) than a "documentary" that appears to try to be a movie. "Queen of the Desert" is very "educational." I learned a lot, as if that's the kiss of death for a real movie. No problem for me. I was highly informed (I had never heard of Gertrude Bell) and highly entertained.

Poor choice of actors as portrayals were not convincing (mostly just eye candy appeal), and acting seemed to be mostly rote memorization and regurgitate. Writers tried to rescue with emphasis on romantic scenes which were also not convincing. Adding a Lawrence character was almost a charade. No sense of the hard work that Kidman's character, Bell, must have put in/endured. Lots of desert scenes which seemed more Hollywood cute than a sweaty gritty actual depiction

Frankly disappointing. I had expected more of Werner Hertzog but perhaps it was not so surprising for his first feature film - unfamiliar territory ? For years I have studied the exploits of Gertrude Bell in the Middle East. She had a profound political influence in Mesopotamia. In effect she drew the boundaries of present day Iraq. Included within these boundaries were the Kurds , the Sunni and the Shia. We are felling the effects to this day. However Mr Hertzog seemed more interested in her love life - such as it was. I watched with my brother - he is even more interested in Gertrude Bell than me. He has visited the various sites associated with the Bell family - Red Barn in Redcar,N Yorks , East Rounton and Mount Grace Priory. Definite thumbs down from him. I suppose a "romantic" element was inevitable to attract an audience.