No Prisoners!

Lawrence of Arabia

1962. dir. David Lean. 3 hours 39 minutes.
Starring Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guiness, Jack Hawkins, Jose Ferrer.

The month of epics continued on Sunday with Lawrence of Arabia, which Paddy and I saw Sunday afternoon at the Mayfair. The film is the story of T.E.. Lawrence, a British officer assigned to Arabia who helps the Arabs overcome and defeat the Turks during World War I. Lawrence won the respect of the Arabs by leading them through vast deserts that were believed to be uncrossable, and by uniting different Arab tribes against a common enemy, something that may have been a mistake in hindsight.

Lawrence of Arabia is based upon the memoirs of T.E. Lawrence himself, and a later book, written after Lawrence’s death, shows that those memoirs were somewhat exaggerated. That seems likely from watching the film, which is almost entirely about the man’s deeds, but very little about his motivation. Still, it is the kind of film that is only concerned about deeds, and they are dramatized excitingly. The film has an epic scope that few films have match, before or since, and some of the shots, such as Omar Sharif’s character materializing out of the desert, and simply amazing.

4 stars.