Line #11 YMMV/LawrenceOfArabia


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Were the Arab tribesmen proud warriors who were manipulated into exchanging Turkish masters for English ones? Or backwards, amoral thugs who were incapable of administering Damascus, much less a country of their own?
3	** Is Allenby a callous, manipulative villain or a good but conflicted man "just following orders"? The finished film leaves it ambiguous; several [[AllThereInTheManual deleted scenes]] point to the latter.
4	** Lawrence himself - a good albeit eccentric man fighting for a just cause, or a ManipulativeBastard out for personal glory?
5	** Brighton. His actor Anthony Quayle thought he was an idiot, while director Creator/DavidLean thought he was noble. Due to Brighton's CharacterDevelopment, it's probably fair to say that he starts as the former and ultimately becomes the latter.
6	* AwardSnub: A tricky one. While winning almost all the major awards, it won none for acting, leaving Creator/PeterOToole (regarded as some of the best acting ever in film) empty handed. Of course, Creator/GregoryPeck won that year for ''Film/ToKillAMockingbird'', so it was either giving it to the newcomer (O'Toole) doing (in hindsight) the role of his career, or the veteran doing the role of his career. Essentially, no matter who won, the other would have equally deserved it. What makes it HarsherInHindsight is that this was very much a ToughActToFollow for O'Toole: He holds the record (8 nominations) without ever winning an Academy Award.
7	** Similarly, the heavily-acclaimed script lost in Best Adapted Screenplay (again, to Horton Foote for ''To Kill a Mockingbird''). Without slighting Foote, the main reason appears to be co-writer Michael Wilson being denied credit by Sam Spiegel. His involvement, though unacknowledged by Columbia (and denied by credited screenwriter, Robert Bolt), was an open secret (and minor scandal) in Hollywood due to Wilson's former blacklist status.
8	** Additionally, Creator/OmarSharif was seen as the frontrunner to win Best Supporting Actor, even winning the Golden Globe that year. However, in a stunning upset, he lost out to Ed Begley for the film adaptation of Creator/TennesseeWilliams's ''Theatre/SweetBirdOfYouth''.
9	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/MauriceJarre's sweeping orchestral score (originally recorded by the London Symphony) has long been regarded as one of the best in cinema history.
10	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The inexplicable Mr. Perkins, who praises Lawrence on a job well done while only being shown from the waist-down (and is never seen or heard from again). Odd in and of itself, doubly so as MoodWhiplash during a very tense scene between Lawrence and Allenby.
11	* EstrogenBrigade: There are many stories of women flocking to the theaters because of the very alluring Creator/PeterOToole and Omar Sharif appearing in the film. The fact that [[ChromosomeCasting all the main characters are men]] and there's a great amount of HoYay may also [[GuyOnGuyIsHot have helped attract them]].
12	* FairForItsDay:
13	** When originally released, ''Lawrence'' was considered fairly progressive in making the Arabs not only sympathetic, but drawing fairly complex characters in Ali, Feisal and Auda. In contrast, modern reviewers often complain about alleged stereotyping due to the emphasis on Bedouin looting and political discord, and the casting of English Creator/AlecGuinness and Hispanic Creator/AnthonyQuinn as Feisal and Auda. That said, their characters and performances are mostly free of stereotyping, making it less egregious than many other films from the same time period.
14	** Later audiences have come to appreciate the film for being one of the few big-budget films about an AmbiguouslyGay man that refused to hide it with a female love interest. The intense friendship between Lawrence and Sheriff Ali (who is played by Omar Sharif, an Egyptian) is also rare for portraying them as true equals, and Sheriff Ali is a highly complex character who actually ends up becoming Lawrence's conscience and arguably the most heroic figure in the film.
15	* GeniusBonus: [[ViewersAreGeniuses The film doesn't feel the need to go out of its way to explain many of its references.]] In their first one-on-one conversation, Feisal compares Lawrence to "Doughty, Stanhope, Gordon of Khartoum," referring to British explorers Charles Doughty and Lady Hester Stanhope, as well as General George Gordon who was sent to govern the then-colony of Sudan, and failed at the cost of his life. Later, when talking with Lawrence, a throwaway line has Allenby remark that "You fight like Clausewitz, I fight like Saxe," referring to writers Carl Von Clausewitz and Maurice de Saxe, both of whom wrote influential texts about military strategy.
16	* HarsherInHindsight:
17	** While there has long been historical animosity between Europeans and Middle Easterners, this film brings to the forefront an alliance between the British Empire and Arab tribes, which is rendered complicated due to British and French colonial ambitions. This conflict was only magnified in the decades after the movie was made, further detailed in pages like UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror.
18	%%** Daud, Farraj, and Gasim are all introduced as comedic characters. Good luck with that.
19	* MagnificentBastard:
20	** [[TheWisePrince Prince Faisal]], the [[FrontlineGeneral leader of the Arab Revolt]], is a calm and brilliant man who intends to unite the fractious Arab tribes into a nation while overthrowing the Ottomans. Launching a series of attacks and keeping pace with numerically superior forces, Faisal [[GoodIsNotSoft takes advantage]] of eponymous protagonist T. E. Lawrence's skill and mental state to use him for his rebellion. Stoking the flames of nationalism to unite the tribes under his banner, Faisal is able to even keep pace with the British in political negotiations before deciding Lawrence has outlived his use to him.
21	** [[WickedCultured Mr. Dryden]] is an official of the Arab Bureau, using his wit and apparent reasonability to [[BitchInSheepsClothing cover up his plans]] to lay claim to Arabia. Having sent T. E. Lawrence into Arabia to serve as a spy, Dryden makes use of Lawrence's growing instability and status as a military leader to push him into greater acts of war against the Turks. Orchestrating an agreement between England and France to split Arabia once the Turks are out, Dryden [[ObstructiveBureaucrat ensures the Arabs don't receive proper armaments]] to become independent once the war is over, and correctly deduces that the Arab clans' conflicting ideologies will prevent any united front once they drive out the Turks. Dryden then organizes a final deal with Faisal himself, splitting Arabia between their forces while [[DeadpanSnarker snarkng]] that all of the double-dealing has left him wishing he had stayed home.
22	* OneSceneWonder:
23	** Creator/JoseFerrer's scene-stealing cameo as a [[DepravedHomosexual perverted]] Turkish general. Ferrer himself reportedly considered this his best film performance, while Creator/PeterOToole claimed that he learned more from Ferrer's five-minute role than he could from years at a drama school.
24	** Hugh Miller's R.A.M.C. Colonel has less than a minute of screen time and is the last character in the credits, but openly protests how Allenby is refusing medical treatment to the Arabs and Turkish prisoners, [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight threatening to treat them in spite of Allenby's orders]]. Upon being sent to Lawrence, he makes an emotional appeal to him about how overwhelmed the medical facilities are, with Lawrence's visit to them completing his DespairEventHorizon.
25	%%* SignatureScene:
26	%%** Lawrence's journey across the desert, with its soaring signature theme music.
27	%%** The taking of Aqaba.
28	%%** The attack on the (first) Turkish train.
29	%%** The noteworthy shot of Lawrence standing on top of the train in his flamboyant white robes, framed against the bright sun with his arms outstretched, as his men cheer him on.
30	* StrawmanHasAPoint: While Murray is caricatured as an unimaginative martinet he makes a reasonable point: why encourage an Arab uprising when the British plan to rule over them anyway?
31	* TearJerker: The whole film becomes this with RealitySubtext. Despite Lawrence's efforts, the British and French went behind his back and carved up the middle east with little concern for the native groups there. The region is still dealing with the fallout today.
32	* ValuesDissonance: Casting white and Latino actors to play Arabs and Turks, especially historical characters, would be met with far more controversy today.
33	* ValuesResonance: In the wake of the UsefulNotes/TheArabSpring and the Arab Winter, the film's criticism of imperialist meddling and fomenting uprisings for short-sighted political gains regardless of the feelings of the people on the ground has made it timelier than ever. This is especially the case since many people cite the Sykes-Picot Agreement discussed in the film as one of the main underlying causes of the crisis in Syria.
34	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: In Britain, many critics treated the movie as a reaction to the Suez Crisis of 1956, which marked the end of Britain's dominant role in the Middle East, and ongoing Western tensions with the Pan-Arab movement led by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser. This may well have been intentional, as Michael Wilson's original script included several pointed references to the Crisis, and the Suez Canal itself plays a not-insignificant role in the finished movie.

Context YMMV / LawrenceOfArabia