White Man to the Rescue

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 1999)

Golly, I want to like this movie. I keep reading all the rapturous reviews and I'm told that this is a cinematic masterpiece with unforgettable images and a magnificent score and unsurpassed acting and on and on. Maybe I should have seen it in a theater with a big screen. Maybe then I'd have been blown away by the beauty and the majesty and the awe inspiring desert vistas. But I have never seen it in a theater with a big screen. I've seen it only on TV, and that leaves me with little but Lawrence and his story to consider. And I don't like Lawrence. I don't connect with him; I don't understand him; I don't understand why the Arabs seem to be drawn to him; and I just don't believe him as a character. (What's that business about prancing around and waving arms with white robes blowing in the wind? Lawrence seemed to believe himself a much more impressive human being than I found him to be.) And I don't like the story. The Great White Man, the closest thing to God on Earth, brings hope and trust to the poor unenlightened Arab tribes. Spare me. (