Luminous

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2004)

Was ever an actor more happily cast than Peter O'Toole as Lawrence? He seems to give off light, a neurotic angel swept by desert winds to glories he half-loves, half-despises. He's perfect as Lawrence, or rather one of many Lawrences - the mythic creature of Lean's imagination, perhaps as valid as a dozen other personas crafted in the web of T.E.'s tortuous self-recreation. (Incidentally, for a facial resemblance, compare T.E. with Stan Laurel.) Every line of dialogue is at least interesting, and often beautiful, in itself, but almost every line echoes, resonates, elsewhere in the film, or in our memories of Biblical, legendary and desert things. Beautiful, delicate, glittering, harsh - many truths can be told, and this lyrical vision adds colour to more prosaic accounts of the forging of the modern Middle East.