Nothing Is Written

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 2002)

Lawrence of Arabia is a title people feel almost silly throwing around. It is to cinema what War and Peace is to literature: contemporary audiences have a dusty, old- fashioned idea of it, yet upon discovering it, they cannot resist its power. What more can you say about this classic?
For starters, forget about its age, the awards, the reputation, none of it matters when the film starts unfolding before your eyes: this is an amazingly enduring film, one that did not aspire to art but became it nonetheless. What we have before us, is the finest that the golden age of craftsmanship in cinema had to offer.
Boil it down to the essentials, and Lawrence of Arabia is a Swiss-watch of a movie: all the components - a subversive script by garlanded playwright Robert Bolt, legendary cinematography by Freddie Young, and a cast to die for led by star-in- the-making Peter O'Toole - work together in perfect unison. Of all his films it is the one that most betrays David Lean's beginnings as one of the best film editors around, judging perfectly as he does not only what to show, but also what need only be alluded to or hinted at.
Its intimidating running time of over 3 hours flies by thanks to a perfectly judged pacing, and expert handling of an incredible story. It also makes a mockery of the naive reputation of classical epics by managing to fit in such broad themes as colonial oppression, the dangers and virtues of terrorism/guerrilla fighting, cultural identity and sexual repression. Not what you'd expect from a desert-bound war epic...
And yet, on one point they are all right, one you cannot emphasize enough. This film is big. It is huge, and frighteningly nimble and agile for its size. It is gigantic in ways contemporary films with their reliance on CGI can only dream of, and it has the virtue of knowing exactly when to deploy the full extent of its grandeur and when to hold back: there's the invasion of the port city of Akaba, handled in one single, audacious panning shot, or the scenes of one of Lawrence's doomed riderless companions racing against the rising sun. Then there are the charging hordes as Arab forces regroup in Waadi Rum. It's more awe-inspiring and immersive than anything legions of pixel-pushers can conjure up today.
In closing, to re-heat another old chestnut: "they don't make them like this anymore". Because they can't. Nobody in their right mind would undergo the financial risk and logistical nightmare it was to put this on the screen, and gathering the caliber of talent assembled here is the kind of miracle you can't so easily repeat.
See it, and do so on the biggest screen you can find!