Lawrence of Arabia (Superbit Collection)

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Summary: : )
Review: T.E. Lawrence lived

Life enough for twenty men

Blue eyes and desert

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Summary: The two best movies ever made
Review: "Lawrence of Arabia" was made at a time when films still had intermissions and with films as long as this, they needed it.

Here, though, that inevitable break in the movie is put to good use: "Lawrence of Arabia" is really two great movies. The first is about how an ordinary guy becomes a hero, with derring do that's an unacknowledged precursor to both the Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies as much as it influenced more "serious" works.

For my money, though, the second half is where it really gets interesting, because I don't recall seeing many other films that actually tackle what happens when someone has to live up to being a hero -- especially a film that will take the question seriously, rather than use it as a chance for Movie of the Week schmaltz. The decline and fall of Lawrence is as gripping as any other film I've seen, and would stand on its own as a film classic even without the lead-in.

Together with beautiful vistas -- not seeing this in letterbox is a flat-out crime -- the greatest moments of some classic actors (see why Omar Sharif actually deserves his big name recognition) and amazing set pieces decades before "Braveheart," "Lawrence of Arabia" has something for everyone: It's a serious art piece, it's an action movie, it's an adventure.

And it's a well-deserved classic that should be seen by everyone.

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Summary: A Ten Star Movie
Review: The best movie ever shot. I do not have words to express about this movie. As many said, this is the way to take movie. Such movies are valuable as diamonds. I wonder why DVD has not yet come out..!. This is for VHS version of the movie.

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Summary: The greatest movie ever made!
Review: Lawrence of Arabia is filled with the mystery that was T.E. Lawrence which include his being very sharp, intelligent, a mascohist for both the English and the Arabs,but in very diffrent ways, and being gay, which in the desert becomes his salvation, but with the British his torment. .

T.E. Lawrence was very essential in reminding the British of their obligations to the status of the Arab tribes that they dismnissed as so much sand from the deserts. He incluturated himself with the desert dwellers, knowing their tribal customs, sharing his spirit of comraderie and eschewed the British mandate to exploit and draw Feisal into a web of political intrigue that even Feisal could not escape frpom. Lawrence knew how tricky the British could be, how deceitful. When Feisal falls in with them, and Lawrence perceives that he himself has been used, he knows it clearly, and then we see his romantic idea of desert solidarity with the predatory British register as a sad delusion from which he wakens, which takes us back to the beginning with his motorcycle mysteriously crashing on a road as he tries to avoid on=-coming bikers. Or is this first scene of death to be coupled with the final scene, which is a kind of death...a visionary who knows when to turn out the ligts when there is nothing more to be seen?

The sweep of this film reflects the deep Romantic pull that Lawrence so painstakinly details in the 7 Pillars of Wisdom..a must for those who love this film. The desert sequences are part of his love for Arabia, and the music of Maurice Jarre increses that sense of nostalgia and scared memory of the desert for Lawrence that made him dedicate himself to the Arab people and become so identified with them, as he could not as an illigitimate child in rejecting England. In the face of Peter O'Toole you can read the fascination at finding at last a still point, if you will, a place to suffer for, and not just be a politicalk pawn for the British, whose interest in Arabia was only for profit and power.

The film details the personal life Lawrence lived there, his friendship with Ali, a love affair of chaste proportions in the film, but much more one hopes off camera. In this Lawrence found a way to express himself, be accepted, dress up in feminie gear, the long white gown, the headdress, etc. and be saluted and praised as a man who could do it all. He played gender games and sexual politics to the hilt, and he reveled in the desert that made it all possible, and the open-minded Arabian men, for him at least, who allowd him his sexual orientation and cared nothing about his illigitimacy. When he has to shoot Gassim in the film, the sense that he is ill with his homosexuality seems to come to the fore..contact with violence western style drives him into thinking about himself as perverted, a sexual toy for the Turkish, no longer the lover by the oasis with the guiless arabs who admired his ambiguities and loved him because he was not really British, but an adopted child of the tribes he encountered without condescension or cynicism. Lawrence of Arabia is filled with these actions and subtexts, and it is all perfect in scope and cinematography and acting. Perfection , and more even, with the director's cut edition.

This film I have seen over 100 times in the theatre only, and here is where it must be seen. But with DVD perhaps a semblace of the richness of its backdrops and the vitality of the character of Lawrence himself will come through.

Buy this film, watch for it at cinemas..it shows up from time to time. It is an stupendous event!

Also, purchase the Soundtrack..a great piece of music that will bring you back into the film time and again.

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Summary: Absolutely fantastic.
Review: The words needed to properly describe the grandeur, the flat-out SIZE of this film have simply not yet been coined. Sorry.

Buy the movie and mayhaps you can come up with some of your own.

I give it a 67 out of 5. Need a better review? Read Lawrence's biography by J. Wilson. In a month you will either be ready to cement-over the Sahara or buy the movie. My hopes are with the latter. =)

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Summary: Mystery in the desert.
Review: *Lawrence of Arabia* is the last word on movies that take place in the desert, for now and all time. David Lean rigorously shot the film -- you feel as if he omitted nothing . . . geographically, at least. At times it's as if the entire Sahara was captured by the camera lens. There's that famous wide, wide shot of the lone figure of Lawrence as a speck trudging along the razor-thin horizon of blinding sand and azure sky. Visually, it's all very magnificent. Thematically, it's problematical. I'm not so sure that T.E. Lawrence needs to be so dang "mysterious" -- does this personage really warrant such mythic ambivalence? I, for one, would've liked to have known WHY this Englishman was so driven to gratuitously interfere in conflicts of which he had, in the final analysis, no business interfering in. This subject matter demands answers, not "hey, this dude was mysterious, so YOU figure it out" laziness. The "director's cut" issued in 1989 only added more magnificent desert waste. (And Peter O'Toole's rather hysterical interpretation -- dancing on the boxcars and such -- doesn't help to clear things up.) A firm interpretation would have made this movie great. On the other hand, its imprint on popular culture has been indelible, and it still may be the most majestically beautiful movie ever made.

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Summary: A Classic Movie about a Classic Hero
Review: This is probably the best movie I've ever seen! David Lean was superb in directing this biography about T.E. Lawrence, a British intelligence officer sent to the Middle East during World War One. I consider him a hero because of his dedication and accomplishments he made in the middle east during his journeys. The cast used in this movie is outstanding in playing their roles. I just find it very hard to believe that it isn't available on DVD at this time. I look forward to its release!

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Summary: Lawrence of the World
Review: See it in a theater!

A vastly experienced guerilla leader with a gifted political and cultural understanding of the the desert... sad that he died shortly before England's entrance into World War II. They could have used him. This movie caused me to read Lawrence's wordy Seven Pillars of Wisdom, an ordeal painstakingly describing every piece of sand and plant in the vast Arabian desert. But the book, just like the lengthy movie, is worth the effort for a peek into the desert nomad's mind. Amazing how the movie reflected Lawrence's personal accounts! Alec Guiness' Prince Faisal and the Sheik portrayed by Anthony Quinn bore remarkable likeness to pictures of the actual people found at the library.

After visiting some parts of Arabia and United Arab Emirates, I find the movie still holds true to the geopolitical area it covers. The Arab world is unique and fascinating: a barren, unforgiving land that creates basic, philosophical, and spiritual human conditions- stark beauty, hardship, violence, survival, devout worship, and completely vivid memories.

If more subject matter experts such as Lawrence were in positions where a deep personal knowledge of native culture could be applied, the world might have better peace, and a reality-based understanding of war and violence.

Lawrence the movie and related literature are still applicable today in the complexity of the Muslim cultures which constantly clash yet somehow co-exist. Stretching from Morocco to Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and beyond, this part of the globe has an enormous influence on the rest of the world, both the past and right now.

Tank of gasoline, anyone?

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Summary: Deserves its accolades
Review: "When was the last time you saw a movie with an overture?" I asked my friend, as the lights went down in the theatre. We shared a nervous laugh, hoping that what followed could live up to this grandiose introduction, not to mention its reputation. It does.

David Lean managed to make a tight three and a half hour movie. There are no wasted moments, no superfluous scenes. The story moves forward with impeccable thrust, never offering a dull moment. The greatest testament I can offer is that I didn't look at my watch once; and for someone with an attention span as short as mine, that's a major accomplishment.

I was awed by this movie's epic beauty. That sounds like an odd statement to make about a David Lean movie, but I was still surprised at how beautiful it managed to be. The man really knew how to use a horizon. The shots of the slow sunrise, of the Howitat and Bedouin caravan crossing the Nefud desert, of the fallen train, and especially of Sherif Ali's entrance riding his camel in from the distance, are all magical in their composition. Not to mention the way he photographs Lawrence's piercing blue eyes and shiny blonde hair. He looks the part of an angel.

Besides being a skilled visual director, Lean also manages to be a great storyteller as well. In a movie so full of drama, sometimes the evils of melodrama set in. Lean manages to avoid this. Even in the tensest of scenes, such as the ironic killing of Gasim or Lawrence's torture, he is very economic in what he chooses to show, never forcing the drama. It is a very effective narrative.

What surprised me most about the movie is its perfect use of comedic relief. This comes from both the wit of Robert Bolt's script ("You're a clown, Lawrence," he is told early on by a superior officer. "Ah well, we can't all be lion-tamers," he glibly replies. A great line, that), and the foolish actions of some of the characters (such as Audar's perfect over-the-top buffoonery, and Allenby's gross military pomposity). The humour is paced perfectly. It never gets in the way of the narrative, and provides opportunity for further character development.

All that being said, the greatest aspect of this movie is its impressive cast of actors. What a great group of legendary actors we have here. Omar Sharif is cool and majestic; Alec Guinness offers his wit and dignity; Anthony Quinn (almost unrecognizable) brings brutishness and charisma. Even Jose Ferrer and Claude Rains in supporting roles add key elements to the picture. And of course, Peter O'Toole is perfect as Lawrence, capturing all of his boyish charm, beauty, and British snobbery. And eventually, he manages to capture his courage as well.

For all of these reasons and more, this film manages to live up to its reputation as a great and entertaining work.

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Summary: Some Details Which May Alter Your Vision...
Review: I have read several biographies of Lawrence. This film, of course, is the best ever made (in my opinion). But instead of my going on and on about it with rants and raves, I think that some points can be pointed out that will enhance your viewing and even help you to wear a different pair of glasses (a more accurate pair) as you watch this film. Lawrence loved castles. Before World War I, he would bicycle all around Europe examining castles. Making maps and writing details about them. Then an opportunity arose. Oxford offered him a chance to be a real archeologist! To go to Arabia and dig up Sumerian pottery. He did so and loved it. Because of his experience, "Ned" (what his friends called him) was therefore sent to Egypt to be, of all things, a spy! I'm sorry to say, he was not like James Bond. This was hard "detail" work. Decoding. This is what he is doing in the beginning of the movie. And you can tell from his history, he didn't like it! He wanted to be active like his brothers (2 out of 4, I believe, died on the front). The movie is an entirely accurate portrayal of Lawrence. Even the blood. War is a little different than a John Wayne movie. The torturing that he received at the hands of the Turks would stay with him until the end of his days. There were no abberations in regards to his being "a violent man". When people start killing, it has a "herd" effect. Everybody goes crazy. He does seem to have done the entire Arab Revolt alone. There is one slight "flaw" in the movie. Not really a flaw. But it is easily viewed as such. Lawrence liked Allenby and Fiesal. If you can view this movie again, try to look through their eyes. Fiesal knew that Lawrence could go English at anytime. Allenby knew that Lawrence could go Arabic anytime. He was a threat. But he met the challenge. He worked as an aide for Winston Churchill after the war. Then he joined the ranks as an ordinary soldier. He was offered the Victory Cross. He turned it down and gave it to the Arab Republic. He was offered a knighthood. He turned it down, and once again, dedicated it to the Arab Republic. He was not gay. He was celibate from the day he was born until the day that he died. Except for many incidents afterwards. After Arabia when he joined the armed services for the rest of his life. He always made friends through kindness. He would have friends in the service beat him until he had an orgasm. Oddly enough, this was almost an exact enactment of what happened in Arabia when he was tortured. They would whip him hard on the back under the directions of an "alledged uncle" who would send him letters. The soldiers loved Ned. Not in a "carnal fashion". But because of his kindness and generosity. So they would follow the orders at Ned's requests. To be punished. They, of course, were written by Lawrence himself. Lawrence was very short! About five feet and he had a "high-pitched" giggle. O'Toole and director Lean do an uncanny job with his characterization. In one of the early scenes of the movie, I could swear that they had gotten rid of O'Toole and put Lawrence in as a stand-in. The resemblence is remarkable! O'Toole even handles the high-pitched giggle well. Listen carefully throughout the movie. O'Toole will have a "high-pitched" giggle (actually a middle "range statacco laugh") to measure Lawrence properly. For all purposes, the movie is flawless. No. He was not illegimate. That part is very complicated. But you can be sure that from the beginning of the film to the entire end, the portrayal of Lawrence as a man during this period is 100% accurate. View it again. And if I helped increase the movie's enjoyment for you, this review was well worth writing. Thank you.