4 epic hours of being T. E. Lawrence

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2009)

Almost 4 hours is a very long movie. Very long. So I sat down and watched with great expectations: To gain an 8.6 average from so many people, these four hours will have to seem like 2!
And indeed it did. From start to intermission after 140 minutes I was very pleased. I had enjoyed Lawrences trip to and visit of the Prince, his journey through the Nefud desert, his meeting with tribe-leader Auda, his attack on Aqaba and his voyage to Sinai and back to the Brits. It was beautiful, exciting, entertaining and fascinating. I absolutely LOVED Peter O' Toole as Lawrence! Alec Guinness was excellent as Feisal and the acting was generally great. I REALLY cared for the characters. It was wonderful to really FEEL something strong for them, and it came from the marvelous acting. The scenery, the music and the storytelling was also flawless and breathtaking. The epics first 140 minutes had felt like 60.
Lawrence continues his quest for the Arabs, he leads them into guerrilla war against the Turks, and everything still goes his way. But he starts losing men. The Arabs goes home to their respective tribes after having earned money and goods from robbing the Turks trains. With only twenty men left, he is caught while scouting the enemy-held city Daraa. He is severely beaten and thrown out in the street.
Lawrence, now a traumatized man from this experience, just wants to be an ordinary British soldier again. And I really feel with him. It's like I just wanna go home to. Lawrence is then convinced by his superior general that he needs to go back to the Arabs to take Damascus for their cause. He succeeds in taking the city, but the Arabs are tribes, not a nation, and can't maintain administration over the city together. In the end the Arabs go back to their tribes while Lawrence goes home to Britain a defeated man.
This movie's second part is harder than the first, and that can definitely be seen as negative. But in my point of view it actually SHOULD be like this. Why? Because Lawrence has it so much harder and tougher in the second part, and when it feels longer it's because we feel with him! Everything takes longer time when you're not enjoying it right? And besides the greatness I've mentioned about the first part, that is what makes this movie so great: It takes you so deeply into Lawrences situation that you feel EXACTLY as he does! The movie captures the mood perfectly. Stunning! 9/10