Summary
The true story of T.E. Lawrence, an English officer who united the Arab tribes to fight the Turks during the first World War.
My Thoughts
This is one of my favorite epic films. It’s long and meandering; beautiful and horrible; exciting and, at times, boring; challenging yet fun; it’s everything an epic should be. This is based on a true story, which makes it that much more interesting. It’s a huge scale character study of a flawed human being; one that did great things and impacted the history of our world, but was also vain, arrogant, and, near the end, slightly crazy. It’s the story of what power and praise can do to any one man, but also of what man is capable of doing when we work together.
(SOME SPOILERS IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH)
The film starts with a motorcycle accident that results in T.E. Lawrence’s (Peter O’Toole, “The Lion in the Winter”) death in 1935. At his funeral, men talk of how great he was, even if they didn’t know him personally. We flash back to the start of WWI, when Lawrence was still a young lieutenant in Cairo where Lawrence’s superior sends him to Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”) to coordinate with the Arab tribes to fight the Turks.
Due to differences among the tribes, squabbles arise and political tensions mount as Lawrence tries to convince them all to attack Aqaba, a port city that could prove an important foothold during the war. As the war drags on, Lawrence unites the tribes and attacks the Turks with guerrilla tactics. His ego grows and he almost begins to think of himself as a sort of god.
(SPOILERS END)
Whenever I think of this movie, the first thing that comes to mind is the way the film is shot. It’s beautifully shot in rich Technicolor and glorious cinemascope. The film takes place primarily in the desert and was shot on location in Jordan and Morocco. The whole film is filled with wide sweeping shots of the desert, sometimes showing how desolate, lonely, and utterly empty the place can be, and other times showing how beautiful even the most extreme places in the world are.
Peter O’Toole does a great job as our titular character. In the first half of the film, Lawrence is a pretty standard hero. He’s a likeable lead, charismatic and bold. It’s easy to believe the Arabs would be convinced to follow this man. It’s in the second half of the film that O’Toole really shines though. Here we see both his growth as a leader and the growth of his ego. Instead of a likeable man he becomes brash and ignoble, but he also becomes more interesting as a character.
The production design is just as impressive as the cinematography; hundreds of extras are covered in multicolored robes, adorned with ornamental daggers and authentic looking WWI rifles and pistols. Though much of the film is set in the harsh deserts or in the lavish tents of the Arab princes, the scenes in Aqaba or Jerusalem are vibrant with the myriad clay tiles lining the walls and ceilings of the temples and courtyards.
Perhaps the only weakness of the film is also one of its greatest strengths: the length. The film gives us a long time to know Lawrence; we understand why he feels the way he does about the deeds he’s done- both the good and the bad. But more than just spending time with our protagonist and getting to know him better, we also feel like we’re experiencing what he experienced.
For example, there’s a scene in the first act where Lawrence convinces a number of men to cross the impassable Nefud desert. During this scene, there are long takes where no one says much of anything; we see blinding shots of the bright, sandy, rolling dunes; desolate cracked landscapes; craggy rocks peaking out from their sandy beds. The scene seems to go on for forever- we feel trapped in the desert like Lawrence does.
They realize, after crossing this place for a while, that one of their numbers has fallen from his camel, and Lawrence returns into the desert to get him. Here, the shots are long and wide, and they fade slowly from one to the next. When Lawrence finally appears on the horizon again, he’s only a small black dot; barely visible. We see almost his full approach as he returns to his coterie. This use of long, wide shots shows the scope of the desert; it’s a wonderful way to build the world of this film, because it forces us to acknowledge how big it really is.
Yes, some of the scenes are long and dull, but they are done so purposefully. This film is crafted in a way that drags you into the desert with Lawrence, lets you revel his successes, and hurt with is failures. Movies like this need to be given a chance to say what they’re trying to say, but when they are given that chance, they proclaim profound truths about the human heart, as well as show us stories of heroism and bravery.
Verdict
I love this movie; it has one of the most interesting characters in epic stories, and what’s even better is its based on a real person. I know it’s a cliché, the cinephile lamenting that they don’t make movies the way they used to, but you know what? They don’t. This is a jewel from the golden age of Hollywood, back when the words ‘epic film’ meant more than just the size of the explosions they showed you (looking at you Marvel and DC). It really spoke to the scope of the characters, the sets, the story itself, and the amount of work that went into creating an artistic vision this brilliant.
This is one movie that I think everyone should see. It’s more than fifty years old, but it still has more impact than ninety-nine percent of the epic films that come out today. Yes, it’s long; yes, it takes patience. So what? Wait for a rainy Saturday, a frigid snowy Sunday, and make a day out of watching this movie. I promise you wont regret it.
Review Written By: