Lawrence of Arabia Review
Whoa. Let me say right off the bat: that was a long-ass movie.
I'll try not to be spoilerific, since I doubt many people I know have seen the entire thing. I thought it was only 3 hours . . . turns out it was almost 4. Wow. And there's that three minutes of just music with nothing on the screen . . .. Oh hell. There will be spoilers. However, I will mention that this film is not one that will really be "ruined" by knowing what happens. It is based on a real man, after all. It's like a play -- knowing the story doesn't ruin it because it's the production that is the magic of it.
Cutting, for "spoilers" and length.
"Introducing Peter O'Toole." Are there cooler words in the universe? I love Peter O'Toole. I loved him as Henry II in Becket and The Lion in Winter. And he was awesome more recently in Troy. Those piercing blue eyes are out of this world.
Occasionally he reminded me of the "prince" character (?) in Kingdom of Heaven, the one who had to wear the silver mask. But O'Toole's switching around in Lawnrence's character -- from haggard to dandy, from Englishman to Arab, to his bouts of craziness . . . it's, um, hard to describe. I can describe him easily as intense.
The scene where he admits that he's bothered by having to kill the man because he enjoys it -- oh, that was powerful. Where the boys (flutingfrenzy nicknamed them Merry and Pippin, because of the role they seem to play to Lawrence) get killed, his angst. His moving from golden British boy to haggard, ghostly Arabic-inspired . . . it gives me chills.
One of the beginning scenes is that of Lawrence's funeral, and people don't really seem to know what to say, or they're acting as if Lawrence wasn't that important. Thus the film tries to show who Lawrence was.
The answer? I thought, amazingly, that we still don't know. O'Toole's characterization is phenomenal, but we still don't know the key to Lawrence's character. It is implied that Lawrence himself didn't know. He's the illegitimate son of an English lord, well-educated in literature, languages, and (I think) what we would now call Middle Eastern studies . . . he seems to me rather gay at times . . . someone who is at first convinced of a great destiny but then taken down after the torture scene.
The length of the movie really conveys, as flutingfrenzy suggested and I concurred with -- the enormity of the desert. There are many slow desert shots -- for instance, when they first meet Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) -- he appears in the frame blurry at first, far-off, as if he's a mirage. He takes a long time to approach -- there is no time jumping. O'Toole and (actor) react to his slow approach. We often see camels from far away, their legs and still bodies making them look like tiny ants. Lawrence is attracted to the desert, although he's told that the Bedouins don't like the desert -- they like water and green trees. Lawrence's attraction is something that, again, he can't figure out.
I think I'm obligated to mention the slashiness between Lawrence and Sherif. They have a great bond, and Sherif is always staring at Lawrence with his intense eyes. Lawrence has intense eyes, too, but nothing to match Sherif's. And Sharif is pretty, and O'Toole is pretty, so it works.
I started to wonder if Lawrence was supposed to be gay. O'Toole plays him to the upper tune of dandy, but the one site I consulted said that the rumor of his being gay was mostly perpetuated by unscrupulous biograhers and that no one who knew him supported that claim. It did mention that he was deeply afraid of human contact after being flogged and raped at Derea.
Also, Alec Guiness plays an Arabic prince. I thought this was amusing, because it's like pre-Obi-Wan Kenobi.
All right, I'm babbling. But this movie is awesome, clearly a classic, and you should watch it. Not play on the computer most of the time like flutingfrenzy. Har.
I'll try not to be spoilerific, since I doubt many people I know have seen the entire thing. I thought it was only 3 hours . . . turns out it was almost 4. Wow. And there's that three minutes of just music with nothing on the screen . . .. Oh hell. There will be spoilers. However, I will mention that this film is not one that will really be "ruined" by knowing what happens. It is based on a real man, after all. It's like a play -- knowing the story doesn't ruin it because it's the production that is the magic of it.
Cutting, for "spoilers" and length.
"Introducing Peter O'Toole." Are there cooler words in the universe? I love Peter O'Toole. I loved him as Henry II in Becket and The Lion in Winter. And he was awesome more recently in Troy. Those piercing blue eyes are out of this world.
Occasionally he reminded me of the "prince" character (?) in Kingdom of Heaven, the one who had to wear the silver mask. But O'Toole's switching around in Lawnrence's character -- from haggard to dandy, from Englishman to Arab, to his bouts of craziness . . . it's, um, hard to describe. I can describe him easily as intense.
The scene where he admits that he's bothered by having to kill the man because he enjoys it -- oh, that was powerful. Where the boys (flutingfrenzy nicknamed them Merry and Pippin, because of the role they seem to play to Lawrence) get killed, his angst. His moving from golden British boy to haggard, ghostly Arabic-inspired . . . it gives me chills.
One of the beginning scenes is that of Lawrence's funeral, and people don't really seem to know what to say, or they're acting as if Lawrence wasn't that important. Thus the film tries to show who Lawrence was.
The answer? I thought, amazingly, that we still don't know. O'Toole's characterization is phenomenal, but we still don't know the key to Lawrence's character. It is implied that Lawrence himself didn't know. He's the illegitimate son of an English lord, well-educated in literature, languages, and (I think) what we would now call Middle Eastern studies . . . he seems to me rather gay at times . . . someone who is at first convinced of a great destiny but then taken down after the torture scene.
The length of the movie really conveys, as flutingfrenzy suggested and I concurred with -- the enormity of the desert. There are many slow desert shots -- for instance, when they first meet Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) -- he appears in the frame blurry at first, far-off, as if he's a mirage. He takes a long time to approach -- there is no time jumping. O'Toole and (actor) react to his slow approach. We often see camels from far away, their legs and still bodies making them look like tiny ants. Lawrence is attracted to the desert, although he's told that the Bedouins don't like the desert -- they like water and green trees. Lawrence's attraction is something that, again, he can't figure out.
I think I'm obligated to mention the slashiness between Lawrence and Sherif. They have a great bond, and Sherif is always staring at Lawrence with his intense eyes. Lawrence has intense eyes, too, but nothing to match Sherif's. And Sharif is pretty, and O'Toole is pretty, so it works.
I started to wonder if Lawrence was supposed to be gay. O'Toole plays him to the upper tune of dandy, but the one site I consulted said that the rumor of his being gay was mostly perpetuated by unscrupulous biograhers and that no one who knew him supported that claim. It did mention that he was deeply afraid of human contact after being flogged and raped at Derea.
Also, Alec Guiness plays an Arabic prince. I thought this was amusing, because it's like pre-Obi-Wan Kenobi.
All right, I'm babbling. But this movie is awesome, clearly a classic, and you should watch it. Not play on the computer most of the time like flutingfrenzy. Har.