O'Toole Is Lawrence

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2013)

I saw the restored version over 20 years ago but in a pan and scan version on television. I watched it again recently with the recent passing of Peter O'Toole, this time on widescreen and high definition.
The film is known for its epic cinematography and vistas of the vast desert landscape. David Lean's film is the dictionary definition of the epic picture.
When John Milius made the Wind and the Lion, he boasted 'look we are making our own epic film just like Lawrence of Arabia.' He then realised why it was so easy, Lean did it first and they were just following in his footsteps.
Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese were involved in the restored version and have also acknowledged the film's influence on them.
The screenplay of Lawrence of Arabia is the prototype that others have used as a template whether its drama, action or adventure.
You do not just go to Aqaba, you take a detour to find a fallen Arab (Gasim) and head to Aqaba. Later when a blood feud is ignited and Lawrence decides things would be better if he was the one who killed the murderer. Who does the culprit turn out to be? Gasim, the man who he risked his own life to save.
The film's opening scenes acknowledges Lawrence flawed character as we get differing opinions of him from the off. Peter O'Toole's Lawrence is perplexing, infuriating, cultured, enigmatic and pig headed.
O'Toole sculptured a character that very much defined his film career. It seems unbelievable that he never won an Oscar for best actor for this film or for any other.
There might be liberties taken with actual events. In reality Omar Sharif's character 'Sherif Ali' was a composite of several people and Anthony Quinn's Auda was more urbane, intellectual and cultured rather than the brute shown in the film.
Maybe there are too many desert scenes in the film with sunrises and sunsets. There are hardly any female characters in the movie.
You do get a vast epic and a literary screenplay that will stand the test of time. It is a deserved classic.