History Trivia / LawrenceOfArabia

** Sherif Ali is played by Creator/OmarSharif, an Egyptian of Lebanese descent.

** Creator/PeterOToole and Creator/OmarSharif became fast friends during production. Upon learning his name, O'Toole declared, "You can't be called that, there isn't a movie star in the world named Omar Sharif. Your name must be Cairo Fred". They would often go out drinking together.

* BannedInChina: Most Middle Eastern countries banned the film during its original release, finding its portrayal of Arabs offensive. One exception was Egypt: UsefulNotes/GamalAbdelNasser reportedly loved the movie and it subsequently became a hit in that country.

* UncreditedRole: Creator/JamesHayter as an Arab Shiekh.

*** In [[Recap/BetterCallSaulS1E10Marco "Marco"]], main character Jimmy McGill and his friend Marco directly quote the film after reuniting. ("The Turks pay me a golden treasure, and yet I am poor, because I am a river to my people!")

** In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', Joseph tells his companions that he knows all there is to know about camel riding. Except he can't even make the camel sit and ridicules himself. Finally he admits to Polnareff that his so-called 'experience' about camels comes from watching ''Lawrence of Arabia'' two or three times.

* ReferencedBy: In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', Joseph tells his companions that he knows all there is to know about camel riding. Except he can't even make the camel sit and ridicules himself. Finally he admits to Polnareff that his so-called 'experience' about camels comes from watching ''Lawrence of Arabia'' two or three times.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/DavidLean cast Creator/PeterOToole after seeing his small role in ''The Day They Robbed the Bank of England''.

** Morocco. The crew took up residence at an old Foreign Legion encampment in Ouarzazate, with no air conditioning in 100-plus degree F temperatures. Lean argued with his second unit directors on how to film the battle, firing one (Andre de Toth). note More diseases broke out among crew-members. Procuring camels again proved a problem. The main difficulty however came with the extras. Soldiers from the Moroccan army were employed without pay, which they understandably resented. During off-hours they actually took potshots at cast and crew, Lean included. Others deserted between takes and never came back.[[note]]And even this didn't end the location shooting: Lean reportedly sent a small second unit crew to California to film some additional desert footage just as he began editing the film.[[/note]]
** Having survived an arduous production, the film encountered several PR disasters up to its release. Professor A.W. Lawrence, the title character's brother, threatened to sue the filmmakers, then tried to discredit the movie through interviews and editorials. An ugly scandal arose when Spiegel again refused to credit Michael Wilson. A Writers' Guild arbitration found in Wilson's favor, but Robert Bolt still received sole credit. Creator/PeterOToole attended press interviews drunk, drawing more bad attention. Finally, Lawrence received its American premiere during a newspaper strike in New York, and the few critics who saw it gave overwhelmingly negative reviews note. For all that Lawrence became a smash hit, and eventually an all-time classic, but it overcame a lot getting there.

** Logistics filming in Jordan were a nightmare. For a start, gaining rights to film there required intense negotiation: Spiegel brought in Anthony Nutting, a former British Foreign Office official, to secure King Hussein's approval.note The crew commandeered tanker trucks full of fresh water from Aqaba and airlifted frozen food to the location every day. Creator/DavidLean and the crew had to meticulously sweep the desert sands free of footprints and tire tracks between takes. Outbreaks of illness laid many crew members low. Creator/PeterOToole's on-set drinking caused tension with Arab extras. The Jordanian government initially cooperated with the production but proved leery about filming in cities like Aqaba and Maan.

* DarkhorseCasting: Prior to this, Creator/PeterOToole had an impressive career on the English stage, but only minor film roles. In fact, Creator/DavidLean cast him after seeing his small role in ''The Day They Robbed the Bank of England''.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Movies: #5
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #23
** AFIS100Years100HeroesAndVillains:
*** #10 Hero, TE Lawrence
** AFIS100YearsOfFilmScores: #3
** AFIS100Years100Cheers: #30
** AFIS100Years100Movies10THAnniversaryEdition: #7
** AFIS10Top10:
*** Epic Film, #1

* UsefulNotes/BFITop100BritishFilms: #3.

* AFIS100YearsSeries:

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: T.E. Lawrence declined invitations to film his writings as early as 1926 when Rex Ingram suggested the idea. Later, Alexander Korda tried to launch a version starring Creator/LeslieHoward, written by John Monk Saunders and directed by Lewis Milestone. Over the years, such stars as Sir Creator/DirkBogarde, Creator/RobertDonat, Sir Creator/LaurenceOlivier, Creator/CaryGrant, Creator/BurgessMeredith, and Creator/AlanLadd were all promoted as leads. Bogarde even suggested there was a club for actors once considered for the role. "We have even designed a tie. Dark background with motif of a burnoose and camel." Screenwriter Michael Wilson finally convinced Lawrence's brother to sell the movie rights to Producer Sam Spiegel by submitting his screenplay for approval in 1960.

* CaliforniaDoubling: David Lean originally wanted to shoot the entire movie in Jordan, which is located in the same region where it takes place. Although the Jordanian government was very helpful, this proved to be impractical. In particular, Lean's plan to shoot the first battle scene at the real Aqaba simply wasn't feasible, as Aqaba (which had been a small village in 1917) had grown into a major city by 1962. (The scene was shot on a specially-constructed set in Almeria, Spain.) Many of the desert scenes were filmed in Jordan, but ultimately most of the movie was filmed in Spain. With its abundance of Moorish architecture, Seville plays the part of basically every Middle Eastern city in the movie; the Aqaba battle, the train attack scenes and Lawrence's capture in Deraa were shot in Almeria. The climactic massacre scene was filmed in Morocco and second unit footage of the desert was shot in, yes, California (specifically the Imperial Sand Dunes in the southeastern corner of the state).

** Creator/AlecGuinness had a life-long interest in T.E. Lawrence, and had played him in a production of Terence Rattigan's play ''Ross'' on stage. Guinness wanted very much to play Lawrence, but Creator/DavidLean and Sam Spiegel both told him he was too old. Creator/LaurenceOlivier was the original choice for Prince Feisal, and Guinness was shifted to that role when Olivier turned it down.

** Despite the extensive restoration done in 1989, the currently available cut of Lawrence (216 minutes without overture and intermission) still misses several sequences present in the original 1962 release. The most famous is a longer version of Lawrence's meeting with Allenby in Jerusalem towards the end, the so-called "balcony" or "seduction" scene. According to Robert Harris this scene couldn't be restored because of a poor audio match. It is included in the 2012 Blu-Ray release, with Creator/CharlesGray dubbing Jack Hawkins as Allenby.
** There's also the quicksand sequence from the original 222-minute 1962 cut. This scene was supposed to be a bit of a test of character for Lawrence just before he and Ali head off to recruit Auda Abu Tayi, but was not put back for the 1989 restoration.

* FakeNationality: Kind of. Half-Irish, half-Scottish Creator/PeterOToole, who might have been born in England or Ireland (he had two different birth certificates), as Welsh born but half Anglo-Irish and half Scots Lawrence. At any rate, they're both from the British Isles.

** Edmund O'Brien was originally cast as Jackson Bentley, but had to drop out when he suffered a heart attack. Arthur Kennedy was flown in from New York to replace him.

* SavedFromDevelopmentHell: T.E. Lawrence declined invitations to film his writings as early as 1926, when Rex Ingram suggested the idea. Later, Alexander Korda tried to launch a version starring Creator/LeslieHoward, written by John Monk Saunders and directed by Lewis Milestone. Over the years, such stars as Sir Dirk Bogarde, Creator/RobertDonat, Sir Creator/LaurenceOlivier, Creator/CaryGrant, Creator/BurgessMeredith, and Creator/AlanLadd were all promoted as leads. Bogarde even suggested there was a club for actors once considered for the role. "We have even designed a tie. Dark background with motif of a burnoose and camel." Screenwriter Michael Wilson finally convinced Lawrence's brother to sell the movie rights to Producer Sam Spiegel by submitting his screenplay for approval in 1960.
* StarMakingRole: Creator/PeterOToole and Creator/OmarSharif. O'Toole was an acclaimed stage actor, but only had a few minor film roles beforehand: Lean reportedly spotted him in ''The Day They Robbed the Bank of England'', playing a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist. Sharif was already famous in Egypt, but this movie made him an international superstar.

** First, it's worth noting that filmmakers had been trying to make a Lawrence movie since the mid-'20s. Two of the better known examples were an Alexander Korda epic in the '30s with Creator/LaurenceOlivier as Lawrence, and a '50s Rank Organisation picture starring Dirk Bogarde. Both films fell apart due to political pressure: the former because of fear of alienating Turkey in the run-up to World War II; the latter because of a coup d'etat in Iraq, where the film was set to shoot. Lean and Spiegel narrowly beat a competing project, an adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play Ross, to the screen.

** Eventually shooting in Jordan got so expensive that the production moved to Spain. More difficulties arose: production designer John Box had to build the Aqaba set from scratch. The crew had difficulty finding camels and camel riders. O'Toole nearly died filming a battle scene when he fell off his camel, and injured himself on another occasion. Edmond O'Brien (playing Bentley) had an onset heart attack and Arthur Kennedy was flown direct from New York to replace him. Flash floods in Almeria delayed filming. Lean and his actors grew increasingly tense; Lean once exploded at Jack Hawkins for trying to lighten the mood on-set. Finally, Lean couldn't find suitable locations for the climactic battle and there was a final move to...

** Having survived an arduous production, the film encountered several PR disasters up to its release. Professor A.W. Lawrence, the title character's brother, threatened to sue the filmmakers, then tried to discredit the movie through interviews and editorials. An ugly scandal arose when Spiegel again refused to credit Michael Wilson. A Writers' Guild arbitration found in Wilson's favor, but Robert Bolt still received sole credit. Creator/PeterOToole attended press interviews drunk, drawing more bad attention. Finally, Lawrence received its American premiere during a newspaper strike in New York, and the few critics who saw it gave overwhelmingly negative reviews note . For all that Lawrence became a smash hit, and eventually an all-time classic, but it overcame a lot getting there.

** Several actors were offered the leading role, including Creator/MarlonBrando, but Lean initially seemed set on Creator/AlbertFinney, an unknown theater actor with only a few film roles to his credit. Finney received an elaborate, four day screen test, performing scenes from early script drafts with several actors and reciting passages from Lawrence's ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom''. Finney impressed Lean and producer Sam Spiegel, but Spiegel demanded Finney sign a multi-picture contract. Finney refused, instead performing his StarMakingRole in ''Film/SaturdayNightAndSundayMorning'' while ''Lawrence'' was still in production. Enter Creator/PeterOToole and the rest is history.

** Creator/AlainDelon tested for Ali, but ultimately declined because of the brown contact lenses he would have had to wear.

** The original idea for the score was that it be divided between Music/MauriceJarre for the dramatic score, Aram Khatchaturyan for the Middle Eastern themes and Benjamin Britten for the British Imperial themes. The latter two had to pull out so Richard Rodgers was hired. Then when Lean and Spiegel listened to his contributions and Jarre's, they loved Jarre's so much they gave him the whole job instead.

** Morocco. The crew took up residence at an old Foreign Legion encampment in Ouarzazate, with no air conditioning in 100-plus degree F temperatures. Lean argued with his second unit directors on how to film the battle, firing one (Andre de Toth). note More diseases broke out among crew-members. Procuring camels again proved a problem. The main difficulty however came with the extras. Soldiers from the Moroccan army were employed without pay, which they understandably resented. During off-hours they actually took potshots at cast and crew, Lean included. Others deserted between takes and never came back.[note]And even this didn't end the location shooting: Lean reportedly sent a small second unit crew to California to film some additional desert footage just as he began editing the film.[/note]

* CaliforniaDoubling: David Lean originally wanted to shoot the entire movie in Jordan, which is located in the same region where it takes place. Although the Jordanian government was very helpful, this proved to be impractical. In particular, Lean's plan to shoot the first battle scene at the real Aqaba simply wasn't feasible, as Aqaba (which had been a small village in 1917) had grown into a major city by 1962. (The scene was shot on a specially-constructed set in Almeria, Spain.) Many of the desert scenes were filmed in Jordan, but ultimately most of the movie was filmed in Spain. With its abundance of Moorish architecture, Seville plays the part of basically every Middle Eastern city in the movie; the Aqaba battle, the train attack scenes and Lawrence's capture in Deraa were shot in Almeria. The climactic massacre scene was filmed in Morocco and second unit footage of the desert was shot in, yes, California.

** Morocco. The crew took up residence at an old Foreign Legion encampment in Ouarzazate, with no air conditioning in 100-plus degree F temperatures. Lean argued with his second unit directors on how to film the battle, firing one (Andre de Toth). note More diseases broke out among crew-members. Procuring camels again proved a problem. The main difficulty however came with the extras. Soldiers from the Moroccan army were employed without pay, which they understandably resented. During off-hours they actually took potshots at cast and crew, Lean included. Others deserted between takes and never came back.

* DeletedScenes: Despite the extensive restoration done in 1989, the currently available cut of Lawrence (216 minutes without overture and intermission) still misses several sequences present in the original 1962 release. The most famous is a longer version of Lawrence's meeting with Allenby in Jerusalem towards the end, the so-called "balcony" or "seduction" scene. According to Robert Harris this scene couldn't be restored because of a poor audio match. It is included in the 2012 Blu-Ray release, with Creator/CharlesGray dubbing Jack Hawkins as Allenby.