Peter O'Toole should have won an Oscar

Rating: 7/10 (22 May 2018)

With only a few television credits and bit parts in Hollywood, Peter O'Toole made his breakthrough performance in Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence of Arabia is one of those movies that everyone remembers a scene from even if they haven't seen the four-hour epic all the way through. Between the famous theme from Maurice Jarre, the iconic rooftop silhouette, "No prisoners!", the appetizing order of lemonade, Omar Sharif's entrance, Peter O'Toole's beautiful blue eyes sparkling in the middle of the desert, and the hundreds of fight scenes, there are plenty of memorable moments to choose from when you relive the movie as you talk about it with your friends.
In case you don't know, David Lean's sprawling, dazzling epic is about T.E. Lawrence's time fighting in the Arabian Peninsula. This is much more than just another WWI movie. Peter O'Toole is not a gung-ho commanding officer who joyfully leads his men into battle. He's incredibly conflicted and disgusted by war. To him, a dead soldier is not a statistic, it's a man. During the famous "No prisoners!" scene, in which he only utters those two words, his face shows an incredible array of emotions. If you watch that scene and don't simultaneously think he was robbed of his Oscar and fall in love with him, well, watch it again. Guys, feel free to develop a man-crush; no one will blame you. After all, Noel Coward famously quoted, "If *he* had been any prettier, the film would have been called Florence of Arabia."
Unfortunately for Peter O'Toole, this incredible epic was released during the same year as To Kill a Mockingbird, and no one else stood a chance come Oscar time. He was in pretty good company, though, since Burt Lancaster and Jack Lemmon also lost out that year after giving excellent performances in Birdman of Alcatraz and Days of Wine and Roses, respectively. The good news is Lawrence of Arabia did win Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography, among others.
This a great compromise movie for date night, if you don't mind a four-hour running time. Ladies will get to drool over the ridiculously handsome Peter O'Toole-as Robin Williams said in Aladdin, "Pick a feature!"-and gents will get lost in the endless fighting and strategy scenes with nary a woman in sight. This is definitely a man's movie, and if it weren't for the perfect piece of eye candy, no woman in her right mind would probably watch it. If you're considering renting it, check out the preview. Usually, old movies were chopped into terrible previews, but this one is pretty good. It gives a pretty good representation of the film and shows off the supporting cast, including Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Arthur Kennedy, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, and Claude Rains.