History Characters / LawrenceOfArabia

* JerkassHasAPoint: Incompetent blowhard though he may be, Murray is right that the Arab theater is of little consequence to the events of World War I. Also his contempt towards Lawrence is not entirely unjustified as his scenes show him as a bumbling sarcastic slacker in his job as staff officer at the start of the film who baffles his co-workers with his personality. And that point is actually downplayed in the movie- Lawrence admits in his biographies that not only did he intentionally act like a screw up so he can be re-assigned to the Arab frontlines, even before he got interested in this endeavor he already had a tendency of being a weirdo with irritating personality quirks at the office for the fun of it and this before Murray was assigned to Egypt.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Incompetent blowhard though he may be, Murray is right that the Arab theater is of little consequence to the events of World War I. Also his contempt towards Lawrence is not entirely justified as his scenes show him as a bumbling sarcastic slacker in his job as staff officer at the start of the film who baffles his co-workers with his personality. And that point is actually downplayed in the movie- Lawrence admits in his biographies that not only did he intentionally act like a screw up so he can be re-assigned to the Arab frontlines, even before he got interested in this endeavor he already had a tendency of being a weirdo with irritating personality quirks at the office for the fun of it and this before Murray was assigned to Egypt.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Incompetent blowhard though he may be, Murray is right that the Arab theater is of little consequence to the events of World War I.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Despite his manipulation of Lawrence, Allenby never comes across as anything but [[AffablyEvil pleasant and even-tempered.]] However, the real Allenby was reportedly subject to explosive fits of rage over something as minor as a grammatical error, to the extent that the troops under his command nicknamed him "the Bull."

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Lawrence mentions in ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom'' that Faisal's name means "the sword flashing downward in the stroke."

* NiceHat: His turban. At one point, General Allenby is fascinated enough by it to consider trying it on, but then relents, saying it looks better on Lawrence.

* TheArtifact: Originally Bentley was to be the movie's protagonist, but his role was drastically scaled down as the script evolved.

* IgnoredExpert: His first scene has him watching Turkish bombers attack Feisal's camp and Brighton lamenting that he'd told them to move their camp out fo bomber range, something Feisal acknowledges.

* TookALevelInKindness: His debut shows him killing a man who was Lawrence's guide in the desert for simply taking water from his tribe's well. Initially he was shown to be a BloodKnight and had no qualms about Lawrence having to execute a man he just risked his lif to rescue. However he becomes more and more humanistic and Westernized and during the slaughter at Tafas he gives Lawrence a ReasonYouSuckSpeech as well as a criticism about how savage the Arabic tribes are. A somewhat racist ProudWarriorRaceGuy, by the end of the film he began to respect the British as real humans and prefers peaceful methods over violence.

* TookALevelInKindness: His debut shows him killing a man who was Lawrence's guide in the desert for simply taking water from his tribe's well. Initially he was shown to be a BloodKnight and had no calms about Lawrence having to execute a man he just risked his lif to rescue. However he becomes more and more humanistic and Westernized and during the slaughter at Tafas he gives Lawrence a ReasonYouSuckSpeech as well as a criticism about how savage the Arabic tribes are. A somewhat racist ProudWarriorRaceGuy, by the end of the film he began to respect the British as real humans and prefers peaceful methods over violence.

* LightIsNotGood: After his rescue of Daud, Lawrence is gifted with a set of white Harith robes by Ali. While at first, he's an example of LightIsGood, Lawrence's flaws overtake his nobility, and by the end of the film, there's very little about him that could be called heroic.

* {{Bishonen}}: Creator/NoelCoward famously quipped that if Peter O'Toole were any prettier the film would have to be called ''Florence of Arabia''.

* [[DefrostingIceQueen Defrosting Ice King]]: Ali's killing of Tafas and interactions with Lawrence at first make him come across as abrasive and unfeeling (at best). But when Lawrence defrosts him, he is shown to have a more tender vulnerable side to him, particularly where Lawrence is concerned. By the end he seems to be one of the more idealistic and principled characters in the film.

* DefrostingTheIceQueen: He starts off as a bit dismissive of Lawrence but becomes very impressed and friendly towards him after seeing how well he adapts to the desert.

* BrainsAndBondage: Not explicitly stated (it being 1962 and all), but the film implies that Lawrence might have a bit of a kinky streak what with his fondness for putting out matches with his fingers. Also that there might be a [[SexIsViolence sexual component to his love of killing.]]

* AgeLift: The real Faisal was about Lawrence's age, in his early thirties. In the film he's depicted as being middle aged.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Auda will fight with whichever side pays him the best and doesn't care much about whether the Turks or Faisal is in charge.

* StiffUpperLip: Triest to be calm and reserved in the face of adversity.

* DastardlyWhiplash: His appearance has that type of image, with his oily, slicked-down hair and pencil-thin mustache, and the first glimpse of him as he's driven in his staff car includes him wearing a black fez and black winter cloak, (both standard with Turkish generals).

* RapeDiscretionShot: Despite the film's reputation for the infamous scene, nothing is actually shown of Lawrence being molested or raped by the Bey or his soldiers, instead ColdBloodedTorture in which Lawrence is subjected to [[ATasteOfTheLash being whipped by a cane]].

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade[=/=]HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Since just about every aspect of T. E. Lawrence's life is controversial, there's been a lot of debate about his portrayal in this film. When it first came out his brother and some biographers (who were personal friends, it's worth noting) protested the depiction of him as bloodthirsty and narcissistic. Other later biographers felt that the film didn't go far enough in that respect. On top of that the film portrays his policy of taking no prisoners at Tafas as sign of his psychological breakdown and emphasizes it as just how twisted he is by the end of the story. In actuality its much more complex: the man shown doing a suicidal cavalry charge and getting down was one of his closest friends during the war, the Turks have massacred the local Arab inhabitants and as a result the Arab rebels were angry and bloodthirsty for revenge, and everyone under Lawrence's command were quite weary of the war at that point. The film neglects how Lawrence traditionally accepted prisoners of war when possible and in a few battles after Tafas he resumed his policy of humane treatment of prisoners.

* ItsAllAboutMe: How he sees the Arab Revolt to some extent; Faisal calls him on this right away.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Though he's one of the film's most sympathetic characters, Ali's introduction at the well qualifies. The equivalent incident in ''Seven Pillars'' is treated comically, as Ali was traveling incognito with his servant, the two switching roles in Lawrence's presence ([[PaperThinDisguise who easily saw through the ruse]]). Anthony Nutting, the film's historical adviser, objected to Lean's alteration of the scene, fearing that Arabs would find it offensive. He was right, as relatives of the real Sherif Ali attempted to sue the filmmakers for defamation.

* RapeDiscretionShot: Despite the film's reputation for the infamous scene, nothing is actually shown of Lawrence being molested or raped by the Bey or his soldier, instead ColdBloodedTorture in which Lawrence is subjected to [[ATasteOfTheLash being whipped by a cane]].

%%* BadassMustache

* DastardlyWhiplash: His appearance has that type of image, with his oily, slicked-down hair and pencil-thin mustache, and the first glimpse of him as he's driven in his staff car includes him wearing a black fez and black winter cloak standard with Turkish generals.

[[folder:The Turkish Boy]]

* CharacterDevelopment: They start out as fawning comic relief for Lawrence just begin for work, then develop more, with Daud riding back to look for Lawrence and Gasim and Faraj keeping a vigil for them at the camp, and later remain gin an aide to Lawrence through his guerrilla raids.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Justified Lawrence is very angry after his death, and furious with Ali, but doesn't mention this after reaching Feisal's camp to avoid making waves, after which Tafas is never brought up again.

!Lawrence of Arabia

''[[Characters/LawrenceOfArabiaTELawrence See his separate page here.]]''

!! Sherif Ali

!! Jackson Bentley

!! Gasim

!! Daud and Faraj

!! Tafas

!! The Medical Officer

* DastardlyWhiplash: His appearance has that type of image, with his oily, slicked-down hair and pencil-thin mustache, and the first glimpse of him as he's driven in his staff car includes him wearing a black fez and black cloak (standard with winter uniforms of Turkish generals).

* DastardlyWhiplash: His appearance has that type of image, with his shiny, slicked-back hair and pencil-thin mustache. And the first glimpse of him in the film includes him wearing a black fez and black cloak (standard with the uniforms of Turkish generals).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/csm_14_movie_3e089ff506.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"Do you think I'm just anybody, Ali? Do you?"]]
->'''Played By:''' Creator/PeterOToole
-->"My name is for my friends."

* AgentPeacock: Best exemplified by Lawrence blowing up a train then catwalking on top of it like a runway model.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Creator/DavidLean felt that Lawrence's homosexuality was central to his character development. So the film does as much hinting at it as UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode allowed.
* AntiHero: Over the course of the film he becomes this, sliding right down the scale from straightforward hero to NominalHero or at best UnscrupulousHero.
%%* AttentionWhore
* BadassBookworm: The film states that he's well-versed in several languages and shown doing cartography along with being primarily desktop military before he was assigned his mission. For someone who works indoors in a white collar job and from a nation with a very cold climate, he's shown to be quite hardy, able to endure the desert environment and adapt to the nomadic lifestyle rather quick. Before the conquest of Aqaba, no one thought he'd be skilled in waging desert warfare.
* BadassBureaucrat: He starts off as this.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Lawrence wants to get out of his desk job and is excited about being sent to Arabia where he sees helping the revolt as a kind of grand adventure. [[BreakTheCutie It doesn't go well for him.]]
* BelievingTheirOwnLies: Dryden accuses him of this.
-->'''Dryden''': If we've been telling lies, you've been telling half-lies. A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.
* BerserkerTears: He shed these during the final battle.
* {{Bishonen}}: Creator/NoelCoward famously quipped that if Peter O'Toole were any prettier the film would have to be called ''Florence of Arabia''.
* BlasphemousBoast: Lawrence does this so often that Ali actually asks God to please be patient with him.
-->'''Auda:''' In ten days you will cross Sinai?
-->'''Lawrence:''' Why not? Moses did.
-->'''Auda:''' Moses was a prophet and beloved of God!
* BloodKnight: His expressed aversion to violence is in fact an effort to suppress this part of his personality. At a meeting with Allenby Lawrence tells about having to execute a murderer in his army. Allenby expresses sympathy, but Lawrence explains the real problem.
--> "I enjoyed it."
* BrainsAndBondage: Not explicitly stated (it being 1962 and all), but the film implies that Lawrence might have a bit of a kinky streak what with his fondness for putting out matches with his fingers. Also that there might be a [[SexIsViolence sexual component to his love of killing.]]
* BreakTheCutie: The horrors of war transform him into a broken, regretful man.
** At one point, Lawrence notices that a man fell off his camel and was left behind. He goes back to find the man despite Ali's protests. The man later kills a member of a rival tribe that allied itself with his band. Lawrence is forced to execute the man to keep the peace and is visibly shaking as he guns him down.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Lawrence is a foppish egotist, whose comrades in the British army see him as clown, but he proves very well-suited to the desert and helps lead the Arabs to multiple victories.
%%* CelibateEccentricGenius
* CelibateHero: Being an [[TheEdwardianEra Edwardian]] British upper-classman.
* ColonelBadass: He's a lieutenant colonel at the end of the film.
* ConflictingLoyalty: Lawrence is caught between loyalty to his country and the Arab Revolt. In fact he talked much of this in RealLife, though when you think of it, it is inevitable in any officer seconded to an allied force. But in any case it is considerably dramatized here.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Lawrence is viewed to be eccentric and insubordinate in Cairo, so much that the commanding general openly treats him with contempt. All that changes when he gets to Arabia.
* CunningLinguist: Lawrence learned Arabic during archaeological digs in the Levant before the Great War, and apparently went native to some extent.
* EvilFeelsGood: Much to Lawrence's own deep disquiet, he finds executing Gasim to be enjoyable.
* FallenHero: By the end of the film, Lawrence is a broken man, having succumbed to mindless killing and failed to deliver on his lofty aspirations. He breaks down when he sees the state of the hospital in Damascus, and returns home deeply scarred and spiritually defeated, all trappings of heroism gone.
* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}}; Lawrence believes that he can do anything, tradition or legend be damned, and his early victories feed this belief. In the second half of the film, however, it leads him to take dangerous risks, like infiltrating Deraa, leading to defeats that cost him deeply on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. In the end, his ambition to give the Arabs their own country proves to have been too much for one man to undertake, and Lawrence ends the film with a broken spirit, a traumatized mind, and little in the way of real accomplishments.
* AFatherToHisMen: Lawrence impresses the men under his command when he makes a dangerous trek back into the desert to save a straggler.
* GirlySkirtTwirl: A pretty rare example of this trope being played straight with a male character. Lawrence does this after he is given Arab-style robes to replace his British Army khakis.
* GloryHound: To what extent he actually wants to help the Arabs as opposed his desire to be the hero depends on your interpretation of the character.
* GoingNative: His superiors wonder if he's going native, and one of Lawrence's internal conflicts is that he ''wishes'' he could, but he knows he can never be truly accepted by the Arabs as one of them. His friends and colleagues in the Arab Revolt fluctuate between seeing him as an English adventurer GloryHound (Prince Faisal at first, Auda Abu Tayi later) and a genuine Arab sympathizer, who however cannot truly commit to the revolt because of his position and personal character.
%%* GuileHero
* {{Guyliner}}: Lawrence is an AmbiguouslyGay badass and this is Arabia.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: At first he seems like the classic pure hearted blonde hero. It doesn't last.
* HeroicBastard: Literally. He's a formidable soldier whose biological parents were not married.
* HeroicBSOD: Has one of these after he's unable to save Daud from quicksand. After his disastrous foray into Daraa, he crosses the DespairEventHorizon.
* HistoricalBadassUpgrade: The film portrays the Arab Revolts successes as being almost entirely his creation and ignores how there were other many British officers who played just as much a major role as he did in expelling the Ottomans from the Arabic speaking regions including Allenby (see his entry below). On top of that the film also neglected just how much of a role the Arab tribal leaders played in the role in planning military acts and commanding in the battlefield and credits all military brilliance the Arab guerrillas did to his leadership.
* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Not that the real Lawrence was hideous or anything, but he was fairly homely especially compared to the frankly gorgeous Peter O'Toole.
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade[=/=]HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Since just about every aspect of T. E. Lawrence's life is controversial, there's been a lot of debate about his portrayal in this film. When it first came out his brother and some biographers (who were personal friends, it's worth noting) protested the depiction of him as bloodthirsty and narcissistic. Other later biographers felt that the film didn't go far enough in that respect. On top of that the film portrays his policy of taking no prisoners at Tafas as sign of his psychological breakdown and emphasizes it as just how twisted he is by the end of the story. In actuality its much more complex: the man shown doing a suicidal cavalry charge and getting down was one of his closest friends during the war, the Turks have massacred the local Arab inhabitants and as a result the Arab rebels were angry and bloodthirsty for revenge, and everyone under Lawrence's command were quite weary of the war at that point. The film neglects how Lawrence traditionally accepted prisoners of war when possible and in a few battles after Tafas he resumed his policy of humane treatment of prisoners.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: At first but later turns into IJustWantToBeNormal.
* IconicOutfit: His lovely white Arab clothes are ''the'' outfit for any hero crossing the desert. Granted, that's the practical outfit for crossing the desert, but ''still''.
* InnocentBlueEyes[=/=]IcyBlueEyes: O'Toole's eyes almost seem to shift with his character. At the beginning of the film they seem to fit with his naiveté but as the film progresses they start to look much colder.
%%* InHarmsWay
* ItsAllAboutMe: How he sees the Arab Revolt to some extent; Faisal calls him on this right away.
* LargeHam: This was Peter O'Toole's first starring role, and he'd mostly done stage work up until then. As a result, his performance was a little...outsized. Subverted by the fact that Lawrence, as portrayed in the film, pretty much exemplified this trope as well. Of course, the stage doesn't get any bigger than a vast desert.
* LastNameBasis: His full name is Thomas Edward Lawrence, but you wouldn't know that from watching the movie.
* LaughingMad: Several times, most notably the hospital scene near the end.
* LightIsNotGood: After his rescue of Daud, Lawrence is gifted with a set of white Harith robes by Ali. While at first, he's an example of LightIsGood, Lawrence's flaws overtake his nobility, and by the end of the film, there's very little about him that could be called heroic.
%%* LovableRogue
* MachoMasochism: A less flashy example when he pinches out a burning match. Notably, masochism seems to be the one aspect of Peter O'Toole's Lawrence that historians agree is pretty much dead-on.
-->"The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts."
* MagneticHero: His charisma and dramatic successes win him Ali and Auda's alleigance, and his growing reputation serves as a lightning rod, drawing many to his cause.
-->'''Lawrence''': The best of them won't come for money. They'll come for ''me''.
* MajorlyAwesome: Lawrence is promoted from lieutenant to major in charge of leading the Arab guerilla forces against the Turks after successfully taking Turkish-held Aqaba
* MemeticBadass: In-universe.
--> "Don't you know I can only be killed with a golden bullet?"
* MessianicArchetype: Tries hard to invoke this.
* MeaningfulRename: After he rescues Gasim, Ali gives him the name [[ThisIsMyNameOnForeign El Aurens]] to show that he considers him to have earned his place among the Bedouin. Which makes sense since for native Arabic speakers the name Lawrence is something of TheUnpronounceable.
* MightyWhitey: Heavily [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype Deconstructed.]] At first it's played straight; he impresses the Arabs and is made one of their leaders. However it gradually becomes apparent that Lawrence doesn't ''really'' understand their culture, their motivations, or their problems, nor does he fully want to. He vastly overrates his own abilities to inspire and unite them, often conducts actions that compromise and complicate the moderate elements within the Revolt (Sherif Ali) and in the end perhaps sabotaged their cause by unrealistic expectations and promises that, regardless of his sincerity, was beyond his minor position to deliver and uphold. Lawrence's attempts to play this trope straight are summed up in one scene:
-->'''Colonel Brighton:''' They think he's a kind of prophet.
-->'''General Allenby:''' They do, or ''he'' does?
* MrFanservice: Peter O'Toole's PrettyBoy looks get a great deal of attention, and Lawrence even gets a ShirtlessScene (although the context is decidedly a case of FanDisservice).
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** His killing of Gasim, and especially the feeling of pleasure it gave him, deeply haunts Lawrence. He's clearly traumatised while recounting the event to Allenby.
** After the massacre that precedes the battle at Damascus, Lawrence is shown sitting brokenly among the carnage with a ThousandYardStare, clearly shaken by taking part in the slaughter.
* {{Narcissist}}: Lawrence's ego grows over the film from merely vanity and being a bit full of himself to buying his own hype and arrogantly assuming that he can do no wrong. His experiences in Deraa, and later, Damascus, tear his ego to shreds, and he's left a shell of a man.
* NiceHat: His turban. At one point, General Allenby is fascinated enough by it to consider trying it on, but then relents, saying it looks better on Lawrence.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: He seems to play up his eccentricity in Cairo, to the point where the other officers have no awareness of his expertise.
* {{Pride}}: If Lawrence has one flaw it is his belief that he and his army are untouchable and can do anything. For a long time he is right, until he reaches Daraa.
* PrideBeforeAFall: Lawrence consistently takes crazy risks but his insistence that he can pass as an Arab in an Deraa even though it's a Turkish garrison and there's a huge price on his head is when his luck runs out.[[note]]Although it's actually not because they realize he's not an Arab, but that doesn't help him any.[[/note]]
* RapeAsDrama: His ordeal in Deraa is shown as deeply traumatic and causes him to cross the DespairEventHorizon.
* RapeAndRevenge: His slaughter at Tafas could be seen as this.
%%* RealMenGetShot
%%* RebelliousSpirit
* SanitySlippage: Those around him may think Lawrence is nuts to begin with, but he really starts to lose it in the second half of the film:
-->'''Allenby:''' Are you mad?\\
'''Lawrence:''' No, and I'd rather not go mad.
* ShellShockedVeteran: The events at Deraa traumatize Lawrence, and the rest of the film does little more other than break him even further.
%%* SociallyAwkwardHero
* SociopathicSoldier: He grows closer and closer to this trope as the movie goes on, finally culminating in the massacre at Tafas.
%%* TheStrategist
%%* StupidSexyFlanders
* TheStoic: Prides himself on his ability to withstand a great deal of physical pain. [[NotSoStoic But of course being, you know, human, he has his breaking point and realizing this is a big part of what drives him over the edge.]]
* SuppressedRage: In spades. Only observant characters understand this. When he finally lets it out, the results are [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge not pretty]].
* ThousandYardStare: When he gets out of the Sun's Anvil (for the second time in a day), he's too busy blankly staring ahead like a seated corpse to notice people offering him water. And that's BEFORE the traumas start piling up.
* UnwittingPawn: For all his ego and grand ambitions, in the end, Lawrence becomes little more than a pawn to both Allenby and Feisal, and when his usefulness has expired, he's sent away.
* WarriorPoet: How Bentley describes him, though the real Lawrence only wrote maybe one or two poems.
* WhatTheHellHero: Gets a lot of moments like this, to the point where by the end he can't really be called a hero anymore.
* WideEyedIdealist: Lawrence is exceedingly naive about Britain's imperial ambitions in the Middle East, the warring tribes' ability to get along, and his army's ability to hold and govern Damascus. Though there's an element of self-delusion there as well.
%%* WhatBeautifulEyes
* WonTheWarLostThePeace: Him and the Arab Revolt in general.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Lawrence seems to think that he's a KnightInShiningArmor or some kind of prophet, but neither idea works very well in a realistic setting.