"Lawrence of Judea"

The movie The Ghost and the Darkness misses the best part. The plot in a nutshell, according to Wikipedia:

The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 Oscar-winning film about the Tsavo maneaters, two lions who attacked the builders of the Uganda-Mombassa Railway in 1898, and the subsequent hunt to kill them. The attacks, which took place in Tsavo, Kenya, were recounted by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.

OK, I guess, but not the kind of movie I would go and see.
But who was John Henry Patterson? Again, from Wikipedia:

Although he was himself a Protestant, he became a major figure in Zionism as the commander of both the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (aka Jewish Legion of the British Army) in World War One, which would eventually serve as the foundation of the Israeli Defence Force decades later. He was promoted to the rank of full Colonel in 1917, and retired from the British Army in 1920 after thirty-five years of service. His last two books, With the Zionists at Gallipoli (1916) and With the Judeans in Palestine (1922) are based on his experiences during these times. After his military career, Patterson continued his support of Zionism as a strong advocate toward the establishment of a separate Jewish state in the Middle East, which became a reality with the statehood of Israel on May 14, 1948, less than a year after his death.

Now that is a movie I would go and see.

Check out The Jerusalem Post: The man who became 'Lawrence of Judea'.

Yanky Fachler writes in The Zion Mule Corps, the Jewish Legion, and their Irish Commander, Colonel John Henry Patterson (PDF), an article in The Jewish Veteran magazine (the official publication of Jewish War Veterans of the USA):

Patterson became highly critical of the anti‐Semitic policies of the British authorities, describing these policies as “a foul stain on our fair name.” This prolific soldier/writer wrote two books about his experiences with his Jewish soldiers, With the Zionists at Gallipoli and With the Judeans in the Palestine Campaign. For the next three decades, Patterson’s dedication to the Zionist cause never wavered. He moved to the US, where he became a staunch supporter of Jabotinsky. In 1941, a year after Jabotinsky’s death, Patterson helped establish the Emergency Committee for an Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews. [Hat tip: IceViking]

And to think that the best they could do about the life of this man was make a fictionalized account about killing lions.

Technorati Tag: John Henry Patterson and The Ghost and The Darkness.