A very great film, excellent as both a character study and in historical insights

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2006)

There have been some intelligent comments made on this - and the most I can do is to show why this is my favourite film. Not having been born when it was made, I have only once had the privilege of seeing it on the big screen - when the restored version went on limited release around the country.
As a boy, I undoubtedly appreciated it on the level I appreciated other films about adventure and war. As I have watched it again, I have appreciated and marvelled at the film-making techniques and tricks others have drawn attention to - for example, the lighting of a match in an office leading into action in the desert heat.
However, it is now as a character and historical study I most appreciate it. Reviewers have sometimes complained that the film really helps us understand nothing about Lawrence's motivations and that the desert atmosphere and action are what is paramount. However, that is precisely the point - the T.E. Lawrence of the film does not understand himself. After his early victories and his working of the 'miracle' he was told was needed he sees himself as a prophet, someone for whom 'nothing is written', someone like Moses who is 'beloved of God'. His insecurity about his identity is, however, reflected in his conversation with Ali about being born out of wedlock. And towards the end of the film, after his torture and also after his discussions with Allenby, he has changed from someone for whom mercy is 'a passion' into someone guilty of a massacre of Turks and then contemptuous of the responsibility to care medically for Turkish prisoners. He has assumed some of the barbarism the British, French and Americans have accused the Arabs of - and yet there have been his statements about how his white skin have meant Arab robes could not hide the fact he was not a true Arab! He is indeed a man who does not understand himself - who cannot settle comfortably into the role of either prophetic uniter and deliverer of the Arabs or else the ordinary soldier he sometimes aspires to be.
In terms of history, I find the film interesting in reflecting the divisions between different Arab peoples. Although no expert on Middle East affairs, I wonder if that is a lesson Westerners have failed to learn about the Arab world. And I am also intrigued by the light it casts on colonial interests during World War One - on how, for example, Lawrence was also at the mercy of the politicians. And again, I suspect those are factors whose bearing remains to this day.