Still a film of substantial impact

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 1999)

The film's cumulative impact is substantial. Sometimes it still feels extremely modern - like the famous cut from the match to the red sky, or in the detailed study of Lawrence's psychological disintegration, or just in the vivid depiction of the moments of darkness and brooding at the heart of his grand achievement. Then at other times it tends to descend into men talking in rooms or to the over-mannered portrayals of the likes of Guinness, although the theme of the young impetuous leader contrasted with the weighty cynical calculations of the true ruling class is powerful. O'Toole provides a subtle, bravura picture of Lawrence as a man tormented by his own desire for achievement and grandstanding, yet barely able to bear his weaknesses and fears and also increasingly haunted by very real and dark demons. The movie is of course a visual splendor and a great feat of coordination and assembly - every scene is constructed like a paining or a great tableau, sometimes other-worldly ghostly or strange, sometimes sheerly magnificent, always attuned to the grand contrast between the messy culture of the Arabs and the clipped, calculating British - a line that Lean himself walked quite eloquently and fluidly in this film. It sometimes strikes me as lying too much on the side of hero-worship, but no matter.