Well shot, huge in scope.

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2016)

I had seen this movie a few times on broadcast TV when I was growing up, but never caught the whole thing. It was simply too long, and when the ending did come it seemed rather anti-climactic.
The cinematography is quite impressive, and being shot on 65mm one can't help but be impressed with the capturing of images. Beyond that I don't have too many things to say about this film. Really good movies that I like I tend to heap praises on, but for all of the superior quality this film retains, I'm not a huge fan of it other than from a technical standpoint.
Thomas Edward Lawrence tackles Arabian tribalism and factionalization as he fights the Ottoman Empire and its allies in the First World War over chunks of the Middle East. The area that would become Isreal, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and so forth. The film looks at the emotional trials and tribulations of a British army officer attempting to tackle and mend ancient rifts in order to form a cohesive functioning Arab political unit.
And we all know how well that worked out. But, to be fair, the movie can only give us so much as to the hows and whys of why we have the Middle East as it is today, and sticks primarily with the emotional saga that Thomas Lawrence went through in fighting wars on all fronts.
In the mid 1990s I saw a documentary that explored Thomas Lawrence's personal life, and apparently, according to either a journal entry or some correspondence, Lawrence had some sexual fetishes which, for the time, would seem to socially unacceptable. The film, if you didn't know this, plays this off as Gitmo-like encounter, where Lawrence is forever changed (negatively) by the experience. According to the film.
And I guess that's why I don't connect with the film. Typically the more damaged a soldier gets the more he wants out of whatever war he's been asked to fight. So, make of that what you will.
I think one of the reasons I don't take a shine to this movie is because it doesn't have a good ending. It doesn't explore Lawrence himself. He's a British subject, and not much else. We're given a stock male from the UK who has a passion to see his mission succeed, but realizes his assignment is fraught with social obstacles. When I think of other epics, like Kurosawa's late comer "RAN" or one of the Civil War films or Roman era epics, you get a sense of who the people are, and identify with them. I'm not so sure that many people identify with Thomas Edward Lawrence. Maybe initially, but certainly not in the latter stages of the film.
So if you come away from the film impressed, but a little empty on a subconscious level, you're not alone.
Enjoy, but watch at your own risk.