unbelievably Terrible & boring

Rating: 2/10 (11 July 2010)

I've loved all the other epics which came out. In fact, this is the first epic I've disliked. This movie was the most boring, uninteresting movie I have seen in 50+ years. I guess you would have to be one of those people who think a smashed soup can qualifies for modern art... in order to like this movie. Pretentious with no sense of genuine taste.
Other than Alec Guiness and Omar Shariff, I didn't see any exceptional acting skills portrayed in this movie either. O'Toole's role came across as an idiotic, insincere dandy. I don't know which was worse... the actor's portrayal of the role of Lawrence or the writing of the dialogue and direction for his character.
As for cinematography, most of the movie was showing the same section of the desert from different angles... over and over again... ad nauseum. Just look for the dark pyramid shaped mountain in nearly every scene.
The entire movie and story positively bored me to tears. I can't think of a single redeeming moment or aspect of the entire movie. It might help a little if you read about TE Lawrence on Wikipedia before watching the movie... since the director filmed scenes out of context without explanation for those who were not familiar with the life and death of the main character... but that doesn't make it any less boring. When someone mentioned it was like watching paint dry... they weren't kidding. This movie is painfully boring from start to finish.
I can see why this movie might have upset the Arabic audiences. The movie depicts Lawrence in a very lopsided view as the conquering hero leading confused, blundering minions. Not to say there weren't internal problems but deifying Lawrence as a superhero saint in this manner would have been insulting to any nation depicted under these conditions.
But politics aside... this movie was painfully boring and doesn't do justice to anyone portrayed, including the title character. Perhaps if they had cut out about an hour and a half from the middle of the movie, it wouldn't have been as bad... but it needed some serious rewriting and new direction to make it tolerable.
I really feel the most sorry for the crew and cast who had to endure the desert heat for over 2 years. No movie is worth subjecting that kind of hardship on anyone. Even these days, these egocentrical directors seem to think it is perfectly fine to place celebrities and stunt crews in terrible jeopardy and dangerous conditions just to make a movie... especially now when they have the option of using graphics and green screens instead. It reminds me of the 2006 remake of the Omen where they actually dropped a living person off the roof of the mansion with a noose around her neck... just to do a movie scene! What were these idiots thinking? That the audience would rather have a real person injured instead of a green screen or CGI? I realize we did not have CGI in 63, but they were able to superimpose scenes and use matte paintings and many other effects instead of having to drag the entire cast and crew into the sweltering desert... not to mention the dust in their lungs.
Despite what the twisted minds of these megalomaniac directors think... the audience does not want their celebrities or anyone else to be injured or endangered just to make a movie... and that not only includes dangerous stunts... it also includes forcing them to endure sweltering heat or other horrible conditions which could have easily been avoided. That's how we lost actors like Clark Gable and John Candy as well as Jeffrey Hunter and Tyrone Power. Even on Lawrence of Arabia, O'Toole was nearly killed falling from the camel and Edmond O'Brien suffered a heart attack. Yet these kinds of travesties continue in filming movies today such as the stuntman for Harry Potter, now paraplegic because of a stunt which could have easily been done with green screen or CGI without a snap harness rigging required. When is someone going to stop these directors from subjecting our celebrities and crews to such harmful and dangerous conditions? It is a miracle that more actors did not die from the heat while making Lawrence of Arabia.
Perhaps we can't do anything about a boring movie which is more than 47 years old, but we can start boycotting movies with crazed directors like this who insist on endangering cast and crew with dangerous stunts and harsh conditions. Perhaps they will get the hint when they fail to make money. A few protests wouldn't hurt either.
But as far as this movie is concerned, I have thousands of movies in my personal library and none come close to being as boring as this movie. The closest I can come to it would be "Stop the world, I want to get off" as being as boring as this movie. Unless you are a fan of British military history or a WWI buff, I would not recommend this movie.