Jackson Bentley:What is it, Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert? T.E. Lawrence:It's clean.
Lawrence Of Arabia is a historical epic film directed by David Lean about British officer T.E. Lawrence's activities leading the Arab revolt against the Turks during World War One. Producer Sam Spiegel bought the rights to Lawrence's own account of his experiences in the Middle East, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom for Lean to direct. Previously Lean had directed the Spiegel-produced The Bridge on the River Kwai to great success. Lawrence took two years to make, in locations like Jordan, Morocco and Spain. It won a ton of awards when finally released in 1962 including the Best Picture Oscar, and remains highly-regarded by most critics decades later. The movie is intelligently written and well-acted, although some critics have issues with the historical accuracy. On a visual note, it contains some absolutely beautiful desert scenery, and Peter O\'Toole is terribly pretty in the title role.
Contains examples of:
Armchair Military: Played with by British command promoting and supplying Lawrence once his tactics prove effective.
"I say, you have blue eyes." And then it gets worse.
Break the Cutie: The movie is one long string of personal tragedies for Lawrence, as he watches his friends die and does various things that he does not enjoy. And more tragically still, things he wishes he didn't enjoy.
Brick Joke: "You, sir! I'd like to shake your hand!"
Composite Character: Sherif Ali (Ali ibn el-Kharish) was clearly based on Ali ibn el Hussein, the brother of Feisal, but was stripped of his royal identity and made a generic tribal leader.
Many of the British officers are also composite characters.
Mr. Dryden
Conflicting Loyalty: Lawrence is caught between loyalty to his country and the Arab Revolt. In fact he talked much of this in Real Life, 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.
Hollywood History: A very, VERY reliable source for it. For one, the British general staff and Lawrence were on overwhelmingly good terms save for a few exceptions. Lawrence was, however, quite contemptuous of the military rank-and-file and their strategic objectives (he saw it as his aim to subvert the Sykes-Picot agreement which wanted to divvy up Syria instead of creating an Arab state). Secondly, the taking of Aqaba was not a glorious cavalry charge into the town but a prolonged melee for a pillbox a few miles outside of town. Thirdly, the relations with the Saudi-dominated Najd are almost completely ignored when in fact they were a crucial part of diplomacy Lawrence was involved in. And this is before we get into the issue of who exactly liberated Damascus (Western Allies or Arab rebels), which is STILL a matter of pride that is fiercely contested to this day.
To be fair this was because the screenwriter Robert Bolt based the movie off of Lawrence's memoirs because there were too many conflicting sources. The accuracy of his writings has been brought under serious scrutiny by recent historians
Dryden:You give them artillery and you've made them independent. Allenby:Then I can't give them artillery, can I? Dryden:For you to say, sir. Allenby:No, it's not. I've got orders to obey, thank God. Not like that poor devil. He's riding the whirlwind.
Large Ham: Lawrence was Peter O'Toole's first film, and he'd only 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.
The stage doesn't get any bigger than a vast desert.
Anthony Quinn is hammy as Auda. He roars around like a big child, and at one point he walks across a table to yell at someone. And Jose Ferrer shows up for a whole scene to be a big, creepy, creepy ham.
Also, so a lesser extent, Lawrence and Daud/Farraj.
Magnetic Hero: Lawrence. Ali and Auda both are both good examples, as well.
Mooks: Ottoman Turkish soldiers. They drop like flies in just about every altercation.
Match Cut: A particularly famous one, when Lawrence blows out a match, cutting to the sun rising over the Arabian desert.
Meaningful Echo: Early in the film, Lawrence's Bedouin guide is shot by a man from another tribe (Sherif Ali), for drinking from his well. Angry, Lawrence yells at his retrieving back:
So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people; greedy, barbarous and cruel, as you are.
Later in the second half of the film, Lawrence's men slaughter a unit of Turks in revenge-fuelled lust (in which Lawrence himself snaps and kills at least two dozen Turks himself). Later, when Mr. Bently arrives at the scene, stunned, Sherif Ali essentially parrots what Lawrence had said to him before:
Does it surprise you, Mr Bentley? Surely, you know the Arabs are a barbarous people. Barbarous and cruel. Who but they! Who but they!
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Lawrence takes his pubescent assistants into the desert with him on his way to Cairo to announce his victory at Aqaba, brushing off any objections. On the way, one of them drowns in quicksand.
No One Gets Left Behind: Lawrence going after one of his men stranded in desert. Managing to save him. Inverted possibly by being forced to execute him
Subverted in another instance. Lawrence's servant has to be given a Mercy Kill because it is impossible not to leave him behind.
No Woman's Land: It is a World War One movie, but still - no women are shown on screen, except for a handful of veiled extras here and there. There are no women with speaking roles.
Plunder: The sack of Aqaba. Also the ambushed Turkish train.
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.
Shoot the Dog: Lawrence has to shoot a man guilty of murder to prevent his alliance falling apart.
Which is also an example of Shoot the Shaggy Dog, since beforehand Lawrence went across the desert to save the man, though it did earn him the respect of some of the tribesmen.
Starts With Their Funeral: Starts with Lawrence crashing his motorcycle, his funeral, and then flashes back to before he became famous.
The Stoic: Discussed. In the very start of the film Lawrence insists on practising his resistance to pain by holding his hand on a burning match.
And how can this be? Because he is the Kwisatz Hadera- oh wait.
Or alternately, an implication of the real Lawrence's suspected masochism.
"The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts."
Putting a match out with your fingers only hurts if you hesitate, so in a sense the trick is not minding that it hurts. Okay, maybe it hurts a little...
The line might also double as a quiet Badass Boast.
This Is Sparta: "I. Don't. Want. To be. Part. Of your. BIG. PUSH!"
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Although he would do it when he had no choice, Lawrence was known for being highly averse to bloodshed ("I've never seen a man killed with a sword before." "Why don't you take a picture?" // "Prisoners, sir, we took them prisoners, the entire garrison. No, that's not true. We killed some; too many, really, I'll manage it better next time."). That is, until Daraa; he returns a "changed man", despite Sherif Ali's claims to the contrary.
Throw It In: Once Lawrence receives the white robes, he strolls off and tries to find a way to admire the new clothes. O'Toole didn't know how else to review himself, until he pulls out a knife and uses the steel as a mirror. As he tells it, Lean whispers off-camera "Clever lad."
Warrior Poet: Lawrence, who is even described by a journalist who knew him, as "a poet, a scholar, and a mighty warrior" (as well as some less flattering things) in the opening.
Widescreen Shot: So many, it showed Lean was a master of them.
Word of Gay: David Lean on the film's homoerotic subtext: "Yes. Of course it is. Throughout. Lawrence was very, if not entirely, homosexual. We thought we were being very daring at the time: Lawrence and Omar, Lawrence and the Arab boys."
Except a lot of people wouldn't notice until they were told, which kind of takes away the "daring". After all, just from watching Lawrence and Omar could be just Heterosexual Life Partners and Lawrence and the Arab boys could be Parental Substitute.
Or unless they watch the scene where Lawrence is alone after he first puts on his white Arab clothes.
Still: "You love him!" "No, I fear him." "Then why do you weep?" "I love him, but fear him." Not to mention the fact that its 1962 and this film had to be approved by the censors
0 reviews 