Lawrence of Arabia
(1962), directed by the
much-lauded David Lean, is an old-school cinema epic in every sense of the
word. It features magnificent wide shots of the sprawling desert, thousands of
extras simulating the carnage of war, and a cast of stellar actors all at the
top of their games. This is also the first big-screen role for the legendary
Peter O’Toole, who commands the screen throughout and got his first of eight
Academy Award nominations for the role. Not bad for a young man who, so I’ve
read, drank a bottle of champagne every night during the shoot.
To everyone who was worried
about sitting through Avengers: Endgame earlier this year because it has
a running time of 181 minutes, I challenge you to watch the restored version of
Lawrence of Arabia currently available on Netflix. Running time: 220
minutes. To be fair, part of that running time includes an overture and an
intermission, but we are still talking about over three hours of story here. Both
Avengers and Lawrence of Arabia feature epic battle scenes, however
one could easily argue David Lean had a harder job than the Russo brothers since
he shot his movie on location in the desert while most of the Avengers’ battles
were shot on set in front of green screens. No such tools in the 1960s.
The story itself is set
during the First World War, mostly in Arabia where British Army Lieutenant T. E
Lawrence has been sent to work with the local tribes against the Turkish army.
Lawrence is a character with a lot of layers and quite a few flaws, but he
manages to thrive in this foreign environment. Being gifted at diplomacy helps,
since unlike some of his fellow British officers he tries to learn the customs
of the people around him and respectfully shares his opinion with Arab leaders
while listening to what they have to say. He is also boldly ambitious, deciding
to lead a group of men across a seemingly impassable section of the scorching
desert in order to organize a surprise attack against a key Turkish outpost.
His ambition lead to
victories and the respect of Arab leaders such as Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness)
and Auda abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn), so much so that they allow Lawrence, a
foreigner in their land, to command their soldiers. There is however a price to
pay for all this success. For one thing Lawrence often finds himself stuck
between two worlds, wearing Arab clothing while also taking commands from
British commanders and politicians who have colonial ambitions for the region,
despite claiming the contrary. Then there is the toll of war, which weigh more
and more on Lawrence with each man who dies under his command or in one case at
his own hand during an execution. As he explains it, it’s not the killing that
bothered him. It’s the fact that he enjoyed it.
O’Toole rightly
deserved his award nomination, and any award he might have won for the role. In
his early scenes as Lawrence he is cocky and charismatic, such as when he
impresses his fellow officers by burning out a match with his fingers and ignoring
the pain. Over the time he becomes a legend, thanks in part to the articles of
an American reporter (Arthur Kennedy), but at the end of the day he is a just a
man who suffers and bleeds like anyone else.
With movies set in New
York City people often say the city is like a secondary character. With the way
Lean shot the landscape in Lawrence of Arabia it seems he also considered
the desert a secondary character. In this land people can be shot for drinking
from the wrong well because water is such a precious resource. The sun is
always present and can be the cause of your death if you are left behind. Lean
captured many beautiful shots of this land, such as one where Lawrence’s
sometimes friend Sheriff Ali (Omar Shariff) slowly emerges from the horizon
atop his camel. I really wish I could have seen this movie on the big screen
instead of on my laptop to truly appreciate the cinematography.
I wonder if such an
epic could be made today. Setting aside the difficulties of shooting in the
baking desert, this is certainly not a politically correct film since you have
Alec Guinness, a British actor, portraying an Arab leader. Plus, there are
barely any women in the entire running time of the movie, and they have zero
lines of dialogue.
However, there is no
denying the film’s influence on other artists. Frank Herbert’s Dune novel
is basically Lawrence of Arabia in space; both Star Wars and Raiders
of the Lost Ark have wide shots reminiscent of David Lean’s cinematography;
and David, the android in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, chooses to model
himself after O’Toole’s portrayal of Lawrence. The line “big things have small
beginnings” have a much more sinister connotation in Scott’s film than in Lean’s
film though.
Next time I have more
than three hours of free time I think I would like to revisit Lawrence of
Arabia, but it would have to be on a big screen, and I mean big. If anyone
knows a cinema where they play classic films, please let me know because this
is not the kind of movie that is to be watched on a screen small enough to fit
inside a bag.
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