The hero of Arabia?

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2003)

I do not know whether the story of the film is true. Knowing the Arab people it is difficult to believe this plot, however, it is an extraordinary film about a person with his own personality, pride, willingness and intense feelings of love and hate. Peter O'Toole made his debut in this classic in an extraordinary way; his acting was excellent jointly with those of Anthony Quinn, Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif. One of the best things the film revealed was the intention of French and British to occupy the whole Arab area occupied by Turkey once the first world war would have been over, and it happened in that way. Syria and Lebanon went for France while the rest remained in British possession. The film also illustrates that this whole area was Arab with several tribes without any concept of nationality, and there were no borders between the present territories of Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and others. The borders were invented artificially later with the western occupation creating tiny nations, so you may guess why. Various historical and cultural ingredients make this film interesting. I must acknowledge that at certain point of the film I saw this Lawrence as a kind of Tarzan in the Arab world, but I do not know whether the story is a real one and if this Lt. Lawrence existed.