"Florence of Arabia"

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2014)

My reaction after seeing this desert epic is one of conflicted perception. We have a grandiose visual story that is written for a man who leads men into the untried and untrue. Most cast were standouts and need no further immortalizing here. I enjoyed their clear approach to their characters. But while T.E. Lawrence was certainly not Moses, as was adeptly noted by his detractors, the role certainly was one of a leader, a defiant one, but still one whom men would follow into battle. How it was cast with Peter O'Toole, and effeminate English boy trying to be noble beyond country affiliation, seems to be a contradiction of that absolute requirement. I wouldn't follow him into a bar, no less the dessert. Who does he serve? Petulance, adventure, intuition and self-righteousness. A well-spoken scholar with ideas outside of the box makes for a great strategist, not a war general. Politics are also in the same realm of books read by Lawrence, yet he was so overcome with himself that the subject of oil could not be breached? Who could be so naive to think the English would leave Arabia to the Arabs once they had it in their hands. I watched the film as a boyish fantasy, and enjoyed it as the mis-cast adventures of T.E. Lawrence