"I just want my ration of common humanity"

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2012)

Anyone who hasn't lived under a rock has heard about this film and Peter O'Toole's legendary performance. But it's only recently that I've finally seen it. This is simply the Greatest Film ever made, a stunning work of art. What impressed me most is how SUBTLE the film is, and how personal/introspective despite its grandeur.
Surprisingly, it turns out that it is possible after all to have a marvelous film about homosexuality and violence (among many other themes explored here) without characters spouting ad-nauseam words like "fu*k", "fag", "shit" and others like that, which are the "hallmark" of "edgy" cinema these days. Could you have imagined? I can only say, like Sheriff Ali: "The miracle is accomplished". No dirty talk, no gore, no obscenity, yet incredibly powerful and beautiful, a masterpiece on all accounts.
Possible spoilers ahead.
I was absolutely fascinated with the hero's psychology, so much that I had to watch the movie a couple of times. Those images of breath-taking magnificence and O'Toole's mesmerizing eyes lit from inside by his disconcerting turmoil never cease to amaze me. Has Lawrence "gone native"? Does he have a Messiah complex? Is he just suicidal? It's almost as if everything he does is an attempt to affirm his (sexual) identity. But who is he? Is he masculine? Is he feminine? Is he British? Is he an Arab? Is he homosexual? Or asexual? He seems unable to find his place, not sure on how to dress and how to act, shifting from egotistic grandeur to humility and back. His narcissistic rage goes from slight irritation ("Do you think that I'm just anybody, Ali?") to the famous "No prisoners!" episode. And then, there's the subtle masochistic streak throughout the movie, complicating Lawrence's contradictions even more. Never have I seen such a wonderful and subtle depiction of yearning for pain and adventure as the "match trick" cut to the desert sunrise. He starts his journey desperately wanting to be a desert hero, but he's acting like an enthusiastic tourist in an alien world that he's not able to fully understand (watch the sequence where going to battle, Lawrence hears for the first time the strange and haunting howling of distant Arabs).
The movie has a most interesting take on free will. Lawrence's vulnerability is made clear in the opening sequence, and multiple hints on fatality-destiny are made throughout the movie, with a Schopenhauer sound: man can do what he wants, be he cannot will what he wants.
The movie ends abruptly and there is no sense of conclusion, as Lawrence - used and abused, but not entirely innocent himself - is heading home. Where "home" is, he doesn't seem to know. The closing shot of Lawrence's face becoming indistinguishable behind the dusty windshield is incredibly frustrating, but closes the circle perfectly. I actually got closer to the TV screen, hoping to get a better look at him for an "explanation". A motorcycle ominously passes by, foreshadowing his sudden death... The man remains unknowable, and that is the film's maddening genius.
O'Toole and Sharif have superb chemistry together. But no matter how brooding and passionate Omar Sharif is, or how delightfully over-the-top Anthony Quinn is, it's Peter O'Toole who steals the show with his beauty and intensity. His eyes reflect the desert, the vast and mysterious landscape within, because "Lawrence of Arabia" is above all, an exquisite exploration of the mind.