Lawrence of Arabia

I watched this movie this week after having had it on my list for at least a year. David Lean along with Alfred Hitchcock has to be one of my favorite directors. This movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Dr Zhivago ( which will be reviewed soon) all have that Lean style which for me make them masterpieces.

I told my son that when I was a child I saw the Bugs Bunny cartoons and heard the " Overture, curtain, lights' song and it was these David Lean movies that made me know what that meant. Overture was the musical score that started to let people know the movie was about to start in a few minutes.

Lawrence of Arabia tells the story of T E Lawrence who led the Arab revolt in WWI against the Turks. Lawrence has to get the various tribes to work together to realize their potential to overthrow the Turks. The Arabs do not even realize that they are Arabs, to them it is a term they do not know, they think of themselves as whatever tribe they are. In truth this is much the same today in some of the countries of the middle east and leads to some of the governmental problems that exist.

The cast led by Peter O Toole, Omar Shariff, and Anthony Quinn is stellar.

Lawrence in his naivety however does not realize that should he help the Arabs kick out the Turks that the Brits and French already have plans to divide the spoils.

In the first half of the movie Lawrence earns the trust of his Arab armies and reports the success to his superiors in Cairo. The first half of this movie is a 10 if there ever was one.

The second half of the movie is very good. For an idealist like me however the real world seeps in. Lawrence after being captured and beaten, though not identified as his true self and thus released by the Turks goes a little mad. He is filled with bloodlust, this from the man who could not bear the thought of violence from his own hand. He develops a cult of personality around himself even as he realizes that in the end he is leading the Arabs to another doublecross from his own superiors. He rationalizes this to himself as he pushes for his goal of getting to Damascus first so that the Arabs can claim it as their own. At the first Arab council meeting it is apparent to him that though they have taken Damascus that they still consider themselves as individual tribes and that they have no capacity to govern.

In the end his time he is going home. Worse for wear, a little less of an idealist but a hero to many.

The second half of the movie rates an 8

Final rating 9.5. Fantastic