Lawrence of Arabia/Django Unchained review mashup - A Russell V. Porter/Robert D. Ruplenas collaboration (though to Robert's oblivion lol :))

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2013)

Author: Robert D. Ruplenas/Russell V. Porter
15 June 1999/July 2013
It is, in a way, depressing to watch Lawrence of Arabia today. One winds up contrasting it with the sort of technologically slick and aesthetically shallow spectacles, like "Titanic", that garner the sort of adulation that a truly great movie like "Lawrence" received in its day, and one realizes how far we have fallen.
Ignore David Lean's painterly technique, the way he fills the screen like a canvas. Ignore Freddie Young's stunning cinematography in fulfillment of Lean's vision. Ignore the fabulous score by Maurice Jarre. Ignore the stupendous cast. Ignore the topnotch script.
What we have, beyond all this, is an absolutely gripping and psychologically perplexing character study of a uniquely enigmatic individual that keeps us on the edge of our seats for the full length of the movie. "Lawrence", at over 200 minutes, goes by faster than many a movie of half its length, due to Lean's brilliant pacing and direction, and superb acting all around. To make a comparison in the world of music, this movie, like Mahler's 8th symphony, is a universe contained within itself.
Of course, it is an exercise in self-denial and philistinism to watch this movie in anything other than the wide-screen - or "letterbox" - format, due to Lean's complete use of every inch of the wide screen. To watch it otherwise is to miss half of Lean's intention.
To use a hackneyed phrase, they simply don't make 'em like this anymore... but then along comes Django Unchained. As a movie themed in the time of slavery this one is just striking as one that truly does justice as an unearthing of that golden time with that operatic quality with unforgettable characters and a larger than life story as a movie that was supposed to have been made in that time but wasn't, and when it comes to the anachronistic music, the only explanation that can be given is that Quentin has a gift for taking the most unlikely music and making it work like the perfect puzzle piece [(like a parallel universe where that kind of music was actually common back then if you will) Particularly the use of Tupac while he's mowing down racist scumbags, just the action accompanied by the message in the lyrics just made it true cinematic poetry].