A masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2010)

"Greatest biopic ever"..."Genius in 70mm"..."A Miracle of a Movie"...
All these statements were said somewhere about Lawrence of Arabia. And its understandable. It was some kind of madness to make a movie like this. You know, working in the middle of desert for some long time, those extraordinary ways of photography,(Freddie Young kept constant diaphragm for all shots of the movie, Go Figure!) and working with that huge amount of actors...It was real madness.
But it all works in a weird way. Lawrence of Arabia is more than a glorious, expensive, old biopic movie. Its just the ultimate movie about desert. I can feel the rays of the burning sun of Arabia desert every time i watch the movie, even if I'm watching it on a small 17inch monitor. Okay, lets say it doesn't have the greatest script ever, but the script also works because it doesn't try to solve the mystery about Lawrence. At the end of the movie we still don't know much about Lawrence. Compare it with another biopics that try to tell everything about the character they are depicting. Lawrence keeps the mystery and looks fresh every time you see it, just like Citizen Kane.
Lawrence of Arabia is one of those movies that define what great acting is. Some legendary actors play some legendary characters. Peter O'Toole shines all through the movie and shines eternally for the rest of cinema. If this was his one and only movie he still would be one of the greatest screen actors ever. Still, Alec Guinness may be the best of the best here. The way he shows the founder of Saudi kingdom is just unforgettable, funny and awesome all at the same time. Omar Sharif is excellent too as the macho Arabian who falls for Lawrence(yes. Lawrence of Arabia is full of gay themes)and Anthony Quinn arguably plays the ultimate wild, uncivilized man.
Lawrence of Arabia is the perfect movie experience. Its overlong(for some people, you know), there is almost no woman in the movie(radical feminists may also hate the movie for that, believe me i have seen it!)and the ordinary man looking to learn something about history may not like it because it keeps many questions unanswered. Then again, Lawrence is not the ordinary movie for every man, though its utterly enjoyable and utterly watchable, its one of those very special works of art in the history of cinema that may not be very well understood but will always be praised.