Groundbreaking Account of an Old-Style Adventurer

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2013)

What more can be said about this groundbreaking film from 1962 that has not already been said before? With its gorgeous photography, memorable score (from Maurice Jarré), great script (from Robert Bolt amongst others), meticulous direction (from David Lean), and memorable performances from Peter O'Toole, Anthony Quayle, Anthony Quinn and Omar Sharif, this is a film to savor. Granted its politics might be a bit slanted against the Turks - who are portrayed as uniformly sadistic, led by a particularly oleaginous Jose Ferrer as an army officer with unnatural designs on Lawrence - but this is redeemed by Lean's determination to provide a warts-and-all portrait of the central character. Lawrence might appear attractive with his blond hair and jaunty manner, but he is also obsessive, imperialistic and ultimately dismissive of the Arabs he pretends to support. Despite all protestations to the contrary, he remains neo-colonialist in attitude, adopting Arab dress and Arab mores as a way of furthering his own interests. His fellow-officers understand this - even though they express their disapproval in a particularly supercilious manner - but Lawrence remains blissfully ignorant, determined in his belief that he is fighting on behalf of a just cause. History proved the opposite: as this film reveals, he obtained only Pyrrhic victories against the Turks.