Great work in focusing on the cultures and cultural clashes

Rating: 6/10 (6 November 2014)

The movie sure takes it's time to build on the story. It does so even a little bit too much for me. The opening sequence can be done better with a shorter sequence. The whole story gets pretentious and patronizing even from the very beginning. But it sure does depict the culture differences and the culture shocks Lawrence had very well. Those depictions occur very much at the starts when he was first stationed in the Arabia, the journey to Faisal and the later journey to Aqaba. Lawrence's reactions and his reluctance in doing much of his reactions did very much the justice of one stranger in a new world of culture. The acting is quite an example of a transitioning from a rigid dialog of the old styled movies to the modern style of more fluid conversations in the movies. Peter O'Toole did well as Lawrence, capturing all those diverse and sometimes contradicting emotions and expressions. Anthony Quinn and Alec Guiness did nice in giving the balancing angle to the story as well as giving the Arab taste to the movie. But then again, for me the movies only appeals just as that and not as special as everyone else thinks.