Lawrence of Arabia

Rating:
Summary: Still terrific after all these years!
Review: David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia," starring Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence, is a masterpiece of movie making and surely deserving of its "Best Picture" award in 1962.

As fine and gifted an actor as O'Toole has been throughout his distinguished career, his portrayal of Lawrence was truly magnificent and flawless. From "Lawrence" to "Becket" to "The Lion in Winter" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," and other wonderful performances - which earned him an honorary Academy Award in 2002 for his "remarkable talents [that] have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters" - his performance as Lawrence still stands out.

The DVD contains extra footage detailing the difficulties and Herculean effort required over two and a half years, in brutal heat that reached 135 degrees; however, the end result is Hollywood at its finest, perhaps unequaled by recent movie making. Steven Spielberg, among others, extols the movie's virtues.

For those interested in the pure beauty of its photography, unaided by today's computer-assisted "everything," "Lawrence" is moving making at its best. Lean was a taskmaster, but the results speak for themselves and will endure long after today's films are forgotten. It is a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! The Greatest "Desert Epic" finally comes to DVD!
Review: American Film Institute voted "Lawrence of Arabia" the 5th greatest film out of 100 films in the last 100 years (1998). Winner of 7 Oscars Including; Best Picture 1962 & Best Director - David Lean. The movie is based on the book "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" written by T. E. Lawrence. This was Lieutanant Lawrence's tale of his adventures in Arabia during World War I while serving as a cartographer in the British Army.

T.E. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole -his first major role - Oscar nominee) was a British Hero who brought infamy to himself and his counrty through his deeds in Africa. O'Toole's personifies Lawrence's character to the letter.

In Summary; The period was during the war in Africa against the invading Turks. Lt Lawrence was an eccentric, interlectual & society outcast who joined the military to serve and explore the Arabian culture. He manipulated his way into being a miltary advisor for the Arabs in their fight against the Turks. Up until this time Lawrence was totally incompetent and disliked by all his fellow officers. Well Lawrences genius and ability to befriend & unite the feuding Arab tribes & fight the Turks was nothing but unbelieveable since his fellow advisors had no success at all. Lawrence not only unified the tribes, but was adopted & elected by them (his British Officers hated this because of his independent nature) to lead their revolt against the Turks defeating them continuously. He was treated as a world wide hero & devine leader and the rest is history.

This movie is the grandest in cinematic scale and the desert mesmerizes our senses. We become totally absorbed in its splendor. Digitally remasterd both in picture and sound presents the haunting immense scope of the desert beautifully.

The many extras on this DVD make you understand the complexity of the man & the making of this "Desert Epic". A very long movie and an very slow evolving telling of this long complicated storyline. David Lean is the master storyteller & he does this beautifully.

Rating:
Summary: Conservatives support slavery? This movie makes the case
Review: Hi. My name is Steven Thulen. You might know me from such reviews as "Bowling For Columbine" and "My Life." I am here today to talk to you about "Lawrence of Arabia." While this may shock and astonish you, I will offer a long-winded review without actually discussing this film.

I am that good.

First, a history lesson. In the year 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He landed in Haiti and raped the native there, then enslaved them. Later, many Africans were captured and made slaves by white people. White people continued to terrorize other races throughout the latter half of the 19th Century.

Finally, World War I took place. During that war, many people died, including white people. Some people who were too cowardly to serve in the world fled to California, where they became subpar sports writers. Later, World War II took place. In that war, white people dropped atomic bombs on Asians.

Peter O'Toole was probably gay and acted really well in this movie.

STEVEN THULEN
AUTHOR OF "JIMMY KEY: BASEBALL'S BATMAN"
(...)

Rating:
Summary: Historical Perspectives :::SPOILERS:::
Review: After viewing Lawrence of Arabia, I am not quite sure how I feel about it. Don't get me wrong, the movie riveted me from start to finish. I think it was said best by Steven Spielberg in an interview contained on the DVD. He said that when he saw the movie as a teenager, he left the theater stunned and speechless. He said it just sat on his mind for weeks, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with it. I echo those sentiments. I believe the reason for this is that Lean leaves many clues as to Lawrence's character, but in the end, his motivations are open to interpretation. Here's mine: Lawrence, as portrayed by Lean, is a megalomaniacal adrenaline-junkie who is frightened only by the implications of becoming one. In other words, Lawrence knows his nature all too well, and doesn't want to succumb to it, but in the end, is helpless. Here's some evidence:

1) Lawrence dies at the beginning of the movie riding a motorcycle at excessive speeds.
2) When Lawrence is asked by his army-mate how he put the match out with his fingers, he says the key is "not minding" the pain.
3) Lawrence, on his return-trip to Cairo, informs Allenby about the two people he had killed and that he "liked" it. This following his insistence that he did not want to go back to Arabia; but once Allenby appeals to his "ability," Lawrence swallows the bait and looks excited to return and does so.
4) The unjustifiable folly/suicide mission to infiltrate the Turkish outpost with only Ali.
5) His apparent love of having his picture taken by the American photographer accompanying his army.
6) When he is shot in the arm by the dying Turkish soldier after the successful train-raid, his incredulous look screams genuine surprise. It's as if he couldn't believe that anyone could shoot him in his infinite hubris.
7) The bloodlust he displays during the Arab massacre of the fleeing Turkish army near Damascus.

There are many more such episodes that helps one decipher the enigma that is Lean's Lawrence. One of my favorite episodes was the existential subplot concerning "what is written." After Lawrence and his fifty Arabs traversed the dangerous desert on their way to Aqaba, he noticed that he had lost a man who had fallen off his camel. Ali insisted to Lawrence that the man's death "was written," and attempted to keep Lawrence from going back for him. Lawrence goes anyway, and is successful in bringing the man out of the desert alive. The first thing he says to Ali is that "nothing is written." Who are we to argue at this point? But later, when the same man is accused of stealing from a rival tribesman, Lawrence is forced to shoot him to avert a feud among the tribes he is trying to unite. It was priceless when Anthony Quinn's character bookends the episode after hearing this story with a confident "it was written, then." Absolutely wonderful storytelling! Also, when Lawrence is captured by the Turks, Lean does an excellent job showing the atrophy of the Ottoman Empire. The Commander seems weary and fatalistic. He even remarks how he had been rotting in this outpost for so many years.

The images so many of us have of WWI lie along the Western Front in France and Belgium. Very few realize that the entire world was under at war as well. Truly, this is one of the greatest movies of all time!

Rating:
Summary: An epic classic
Review: This movie, which won best picture in 1962, features soaring desert scapes and an orchestral score that can sweep you away. Peter O'Toole plays T.E. Lawrence, the British major who led Arab tribes against the Turkish occupiers during World War II. A steller supporting cast includes Omar Shariff, Anthony Quinn and Alec Guiness. Lawrence unites disparate tribes of Arabs and leads them into battle, first taking Aqaba and ultimately, leading them into Damascus. His motivation is a mystery. Does he do it because he is an adventurer or, does he have a love of the Arab peolple, or, a hatred of the Turks? Perhaps, he is a bit of a rebel and can only operate in the British military performing a special service rather than serve in the regular army. Perhaps his rebeliousness leads him to compete against his British army superiors as he seeks to outdo them. We never can be sure.

Lawrence goes through experiences that change him. He is not the same person coming out of his experiences, some of which are trying. Indeed, he becomes capable of savagry that even makes some of his Arab allies squirm. As great as this human dimension is, the raw beauty of the desert is what makes this film as great as it is. What an extraordinary job of location filming. A large cast engages in military charges on horseback and camel. These scenes are stirring. The actors had to learn to ride camels and they did so convincingly. It's a long epic and it might ne hard to see in one sitting but, conveniently there is an intermission, which is he point that divides disk one from disk 2. Also, there is a great documentary in the second disk in which Shariff, the late Quinn and others are interviewed. I recommend this great Oscar winner.

Rating:
Summary: Poor nutty man.
Review: Lawrence went down hill after he killed too many men than was good for him! Trying to help his old pals arabs was his aim. In the end it's hard to tell who lost. But T.E.L. certainly did. Riding a motorcycle is tough and Lawrence can't handle it!!!!! He dies. SEEEEEEEEE THIS TERRIFIC FILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: This Here Be Me Favorite Flicky Picture
Review: Lawrence is an all around spectacular film, and the 2 disc set is a must have in any serious film collection. A few of the attention span lacking slack jaws out there may not enjoy the film since it has a cohesive story and there are no boobies or "rel good killins", but for those of us literate enough to read this review, and intelligent enough to install a lightbulb without the written instructions, then there is no finer , grander, or more magnificent film out there than "Lawrence of Arabia"

Rating:
Summary: Nearly perfect
Review: First let me laud the other reviewers who have shared such historical detail with us on this page. They help flesh out the famous story of the blond Briton who made his mark on history among the dark men of the desert. I have nothing to add to their comments in this regard; at age 45 I have just seen the film for the first time, having been recently inspired by the NY Times list of "1000 best movies ever made" to see many of The Great Films I've Never Seen.

From the perspective of a newcomer, therefore, I have to say I'm astonished at how perfect this massive epic is. Two years in the making, on a nearly unheard-of scale at the time, bogged down by the many problems of shooting on location in the actual deserts of the Middle East, "Lawrence of Arabia" was such an ordeal that Peter O'Toole turned down the lead in "Dr. Zhivago," David Lean's next epic, simply because he was so wrung out from playing T.E. Lawrence that he couldn't imagine a similar experience for quite some time. Sure enough, they never worked together again. Even with all of the problems, this film is simply phenomenal in every way.

NY Times reviewer Bosley Crowther, writing in 1962, seemed flummoxed with the fact that Lean chose to leave Lawrence an enigmatic character. It was a simpler time when this movie was made and released, and Crowther seems to have wanted firm answers to the man's character and his motives. As the other reviewers here make clear, that's just not the point. Lawrence was, and is, the embodiment of the phrase Winston Churchill used in reference to Russia, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Time has borne out that Lean was absolutely right to leave it that way, rather than guessing at the man's motivations and hidden life. A larger than life character is almost always ruined when dissected.

T.E. Lawrence came to be known as being as big a character as the desert itself, and Lean's epic drives this point home. On the day after viewing, one is left with two thoughts especially: The desert is vast and unforgiving, and Lawrence was equally immovable and probably a manic depressive. Beyond that, the amazingly rich photography, the loving attention to detail, the perfectly pitched pace of the story and the multiple relationships among the characters, and even Alec Guinness in "brownface" as Prince Faisel, combine to create an incredible work of art that will never grow old. My only nitpick would be that in one of Guinness's scenes a line had to be changed after principal filming, so that his lips move but his voice says something different. In a nearly-four-hour film, that one nitpick is so insignificant that I feel retentive even mentioning it.

At once an epic on a grand scale, an intimate character portrait that leaves us with tantalizing questions, a historical record, and a war film with an anti-war (or at least war-weary) ending, "Lawrence of Arabia" is unique and cherished, for good reason. It may have taken me 45 years to see this masterpiece, but it won't take another 45 to see it again.

Rating:
Summary: Very much an epic drama
Review: Peter O'Toole is just wonderful as Lawrence in this movie. Learning to love Arabia and to inspire the arabs to fight against the Turks, all the while Lawrence is being manipulated by his British Superiors who had their own agenda. The musical score is beautiful. After watching this movie, I normally have the songs in my head for a couple of days.

Alec Guiness as Prince Faisal and Omar Shariff as Sherif do an excellent job in their respective roles, as does Quinn. The movie is larger than life and despite the length, I love to watch it in the comfort of my own home.

Rating:
Summary: A Desert Myth: Perhaps The Finest Epic Film Ever Made
Review: To understand the Middle East as it presently exists, one must understand World War I and its consequences for those who live in the region. In making such a study, one inevitably and repeatedly encounters the name T.E. Lawrence, then and now one of the most controversial military figures of the 20th Century, a remarkably complex man who combined an unassuming manner with an astonishing flair for self-promotion.

Lawrence authored an account of his Arabian adventures following the war. Titled THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM, it has the very unusual distinction of being extremely famous before it was widely available: originally printed in a limited edition of 120 copies, it was widely praised, but it was not given a further printing until after Lawrence's death--at which point both those who served with Lawrence and historians alike noted that the work was much less accurate, much less factual than its first readers supposed. Still, between the press coverage and the man's own gift for self-mythology, it was enough. T.E. Lawrence was enshrined in memory as Lawrence of Arabia, and in the late 1950s and early 1960s David Lean set out to make a film about him, using THE SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM as primary source.

A great deal has been made of the film's factual inaccuracies; a great deal more has been made of the film's failure to explicitly portray Lawrence's covertly sadomasochistic personality and homo-erotic edge. But LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is not a film of mere fact; we must turn to documentary for that. It is the myth, a vision of Lawrence as he himself wished to be seen, and the covert indications of his hidden nature adds greater depth to both his character and the film as a whole: as the story progresses we become acutely aware that there is much more that we do not know, a fact that lends a tremendous sense of mystery to the film. Factual, no; explicit, no. But in its entirety, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA achieves an artistic truth that transcends any mere notation of fact pure and simple.

It is, in my opinion, the single finest film of epic scope to ever reach the screen. The episodic story, scripted by Robert Bolt (author of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS), casts a remarkably wide net, not only following Lawrence's adventures but placing them within a finely drawn context of diplomacy as well. The cast is superb. Led by Peter O'Toole in the title role, virtually every actor involved not only brings the various historical figures to vivid life, but transmutes them into archetypes as well. David Lean's direction is flawless, as is the astonishingly beautiful cinematography, artful yet unobtrusive editing, and truly memorable score.

It is true that LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is best seen on the big screen, where its visual power may be seen a full power; even so, it fares remarkably well on the small screen, much more so than epics that rely on visual power to the exclusion of all else. There have been several releases to the home market, including a double cassette VHS and a two disk DVD with a host of extras--but this single DVD release, a "no frills" release without significant extras, offers a near-pristine picture and excellent sound, and I recommend for those who are not greatly interested in the history of the film itself. Mercifully, the release also preserves the film's original ratio; I flatly state that pan-and-scan versions do a tremendous disservice to both the film and the viewer. An unedited presentation of overture, intermission, and exit music is also included to great effect.

Alternatively languid and violent, beautiful and disquieting, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is a remarkably fine film that deserves every praise heaped upon it since its 1962 release. I cannot recommend it too highly.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer