Lawrence of Arabia!

[osprey_archer]

Lawrence of Arabia! The university showed it on the big screen yesterday, and I attended with some trepidation, because hitherto David Lean movies have not been my favorite thing. Which is odd, because he makes vaguely homoerotic epics about cross-cultural relations within imperialism - so basically a cinematic version of a Rosemary Sutcliff novel

Comments

[asakiyume]

I remember being blown away by this movie when I saw it, and yet now I can't remember a single thing about it--just that yeah, it was spectacular. (Now I want to see it again.) And, I remember wanting to get the transcript because yeah! Amazing quotes!

At the time we watched it, both amanen and the ninja girl did a bunch of Lawrence of Arabia fanart, but this was back before Tumblr, so I don't think I'll be able to find it...

Oh hey, I did! This is the ninja girl's:

[osprey_archer]

Hahaha MOST ADORABLE LAWRENCE EVER. He has a lot of expression for having a face made of two circles and three lines!

And you should see it again! Especially if they show it on the big screen anywhere near you.

[asakiyume]

And look, I must have found a transcript, because look at this dialogue I found:

Allenby: I believe your name will be a household word when you'd have to go to the war museum to find who Allenby was. You're the most extraordinary man I ever met.

Lawrence: Leave me alone.

Allenby:"Leave me alone." That's a feeble thing to say.

Lawrence: I know I'm not ordinary.

Allenby: That's not what I'm saying.

Lawrence: All right, I'm extraordinary. What of it?

[osprey_archer]

There's some great dialogue in this movie. It's sometimes funny and heartbreaking at the same time, which is quite a feat.

And OH, LAWRENCE, such a massive ego!

[carmarthen]

I have a script somewhere, but it's not quite the same as what ended up in the movie.

And you have hit neatly upon why I've never managed to satisfactorily pull off a fix-it ended.

Have you seen A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia? It's also really good, in a way that is cinematically the opposite of David Lean.

[osprey_archer]

I think that in some way a fix-it is impossible: even if the fix-it could untangle their emotional mess, it would drain the story of some of its power. It would be like writing a fix-it for A Passage to India or Code Name Verity or any other story where the breaking is in a sense the point.

...This does not mean I don't really, really want a fix-it to work, but that's why these stories are all tragedies.

And I haven't seen A Dangerous Man. Maybe after my Lawrence of Arabia high has died down a bit I'll check it out, because I think at the moment the fact that it's not David Lean would get in the way of my enjoyment.

[carmarthen]

Yeah, that.

A Dangerous Man is very intimate and political; it's been ages since I saw it, but I found Ralph Fiennes' Lawrence as riveting as O'Toole's, but in a different way. Plus Alexander Siddig as Feisal! I'm not sure they'd play well back to back, though.

[osprey_archer]

Alexander Siddig was in Cairo Time! /completely random snippet of knowledge. He was really good in that: clearly another reason to see this other Lawrence movie.

Have you read Lawrence's book? Is that worth doing?