Lawrence of Arabia

When I first became a movie fanatic, this was one of the films I looked at rather tentatively. As a kid it always seemed to me to be a surpreme representative of 'boring old movies', and somehow this carried over into my early adulthood and I feared it would be a bloated, dated epic. I was more than pleasantly surprised and impressed with this film when I finally saw it, despite the fact that it clocks in at a weighty and disparaging 217 minutes. Luckily, it came complete with one of those old-school intermissions (a common practice of it’s era), and I feel that such a break in the film is just as important to it’s structure as it is to the viewer’s concentration. I think a lot of newer, 'long' films (such as Avatar) would benefit from intermissions too, there's nothing worse than sitting in a theatre and needing to go to the toilet but being too afraid to leave because you don't want to miss any of the movie. Anyway, when I first watched Lawrence of Arabia (probably nearly ten years ago now) I was just a fledgling film-nerd, but by any rate I’m glad I finally overcame my reservations and watched it as it’s now one of my favourite films.

Lawrence of Arabia tells the tale of the enigmatic British WWI officer, T. E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), who led the Arabs to freedom from Turkish and British oppression. I was initially wary of how frank and realistic such a film could be, considering it was made in the early 60s, but I was relieved to find it unafraid to shy away from the brutal violence inherent in the subject matter. More impressive, perhaps, is the attention the film pays to the complexity and ambiguity within the historical figure, T. E. Lawrence. Peter O’ Toole does much in the way of suggesting the confused sexuality of his character; something that is never really addressed, apart from the way he moves or delivers his lines, and given over in a few subtle hints from the script.

Don’t be afraid to check this film out like I was, I was a very silly boy! O’Toole gives one of the great towering performances of cinema history, and the supporting cast of familiar faces are great too (Alec Guinness, Omar Shariff, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, etc etc) and it’s some of David Lean’s most iconic and memorable direction (see also his other epics Doctor Zhivago, The Bridge on the River Kwai and, to a lesser extent, A Passage to India). Lawrence of Arabia tells the seldom-heard story of a remarkable and fascinating historical figure, and of events that are probably unknown to a lot of people these days, so it’s every bit as important as a piece of narrative as it is as a piece of cinema.

HIGHLIGHTS: After the intermission the film picks up a few months down the track, and we are re-introduced to Lawrence out in the desert, blowing up trains... it's a fantastic opening. Also (a more disturbing highlight), Lawrence, perhaps unnecessarily, leads the Arabs to massacre a party of wounded Turkish soldiers.

TRIVIA: Winner of 7 Academy Awards; Best Director, Best Colour, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Musical Score and Best Editing