Awesome film

Rating: 10/10 (13 December 2007)

David Lean created a film that has already stood the so-called test of time  in fact moreso, it has itself become the test and the measure against which all other war melodrama is compared. It has more to tell us about the struggle between the West and the Middle-East than any contemporary film I've seen. Here we have a strong contrast between the cynical career soldiers and diplomats (most memorably, Claude Rains in one of his last good roles) and an idealistic young man Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) who wants to "help" the Arab people establish their own state. But even with all his hope and his good intentions, Lawrence ends up destroying himself and perhaps leaving the Middle-East in a worse position than he found it. Lessons are to be learned from this film that still haven't been learned by all that many, despite its status as a revered "classic." There's simply too many strong elements in this film to talk about within the space allowed here  there are so many ideas floating around and so much beauty to behold on screen that every time I see it, it's like I'm seeing a slightly different movie that speaks to me about different things and inspires wonder in me that I've never felt before. With that in mind I advise anyone who hasn't seen it to stop reading, and also to try to see it in a theater if possible. Just to overview. Maurice Jarre's score is perfect; the instant you hear it you will always remember the images and characters of this movie. Freddie Young's photography has never been surpassed in terms of desert cinematography, and Lean manages not only to elicit deft performances from these actors but also to somehow keep the visual momentum flowing so that we're impressed with the monotonous nature and the isolation of the desert and yet never allowing the film's look to become totally static. For example when we see Lawrence sitting on the hill trying to decide if he should go South with Feisal (Alec Guinness) or lead some men West with Sheriff Ali (Omar Sharif) we get a kind of night-time blueish color and a kind of slow breeze moving the sand in ripples that makes the scene totally unlike anything in the rest of the film. When Lawrence, Sheriff and Auda abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn) reach Acuba, there's a stunning shot that pans all the way from the desert through the city and to the ocean, at the same time breathtaking its scope and beauty and strangely depressing and isolating because it communicates the idea that the ocean is just a desert made of water, and we humans are the unfortunate ones who must make a living in the tiny spaces between.
The performances are astounding, all around. Guinness is capable of doing more than he's required to here in this film, but he has the proper majesterial presence and his face is like a riddle. Quinn is all fire and passion, perhaps representing the most limited version of Arab identity in the film but doing so with so much force that his character is unforgettable. But the first time I saw this movie as an adult, I was most impressed with the performances of O'Toole and Sharif and the way those characters were developed in tandem  Lawrence begins with noble intentions and ends up caught up in destructive and violent ego-fantasies, while Sharif begins as perhaps a petty and jealous man, shooting another Arab who dares to drink from his well, and becomes a politician with an appropriate amount of self-loathing and cynicism but who cares about the future of his people and believes in such a future more than Lawrence. The look on Sharif's face as O'Toole contemplates the fleeing Turkish army between his host and Damascus is one of the most haunting moments I've seen in any movie.
I just can't say enough about how impressive this film is and how moved I am after watching it. It's really one of the most powerful films I've seen, worthy of comparison to other great epics like Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon." And perhaps more than any other acclaimed war epic, this film succeeds as a character drama and really illuminates the character of Lawrence and his relationship to the war and to the people around him. I keep thinking of that scene where Lawrence has to shoot the man he rescued from the desert  great direction, perfect use of the "reveal" with the way he builds up the tension in the scene and then shows that it's the same man from the desert, multiplying the tension of the scene a hundredfold. Lawrence asks him if he did it, and seems to take solace in the fact that the killing is justified in some sense because of the man's guilt, but later confesses to great guilt because he felt pleasure in the violence. This scene prepares us for the crucial scene on the road to Damascus, and that look on Sharif's face represents the bitter recognition of what Lawrence has become. As long as this film is, there's not a wasted image or line of dialog. There's no feeling of self-indulgence on the part of the director or the writers; absolutely everything adds to the complex drama and helps us understand Lawrence and how he relates to the world around him. Perhaps people watch this movie and think it's a flawed film because Lawrence is a flawed hero  I think quite the opposite, that it's a great film because Lawrence is a flawed human being and not a hero at all.