Nothing is written!

Rating: Null/10 (10 August 2002)

This review might contain some spoilers. Though I'm not sure anything could spoil this movie. :-)
In a nutshell, "Lawrence of Arabia" is one of the best movies ever made. I just finished watching it this evening for what seems like the umpth time and still found new things I hadn't seen before in it. While it's not flawless--there are few, if any, great works of art that are, IMHO--it's such an engrossing experience that it creates the illusion only a masterwork of art can create: that the viewer isn't merely watching the action, but is immersed in it.
One of the primary ways the movie accomplishes this is with its script. It's brilliant. This is regardless of how historically accurate or inaccurate it may be. (One needn't be a witness to events to create a fictionalized account of them for the enjoyment of the public--Shakespeare did it, and so could "Lawrence" director David Lean.) Robert Bolt's screenplay throws so many curves, and yet they're nearly all warranted. We share with Lawrence his horror and shock when he charges himself with executing a murderer, only to find out it is the same man whom he rescued from death in the desert. We empathize with Lawrence when he finds himself back at the English base in an ill-fitting military uniform, "laying it on a bit thick" to fit in...when we know he can't. And we nod our heads with Ali when he slams Lawrence for warning him about bloodshed, as Lawrence himself is unfit to do so, judging from his previous actions.
It's remarkable. There's nary a line that's not telling, that's not loaded. The dialogue carries the action. It moves it. This is an "action" movie because it's about "action"--if the script was lousy, it would be an "inaction" movie, as it wouldn't lead anywhere. In "Lawrence," you believe it. You're with it. This movie's with it.
I'd like to cite some of my favorite moments, if I have room. One of them is the aforementioned "execution" scene--still harrowing as the camera zooms in to show the pitiful face of the man who was saved from death, only to die by Lawrence's hand. Or Auda's "There is only the desert for you" remark to Lawrence. Or the shock Lawrence and Co. feel when they see the atrocities committed by a Turkish division, only to commit a similar massacre on the fleeing soldiers as retribution...resulting in a reprimand from Ali and the previously insensitive, now disgusted, reporter. And then that flash from his camera...and a cut to a charging man on a horse.
The performances are uniformly spectacular. Special note goes to Peter O'Toole, whose Lawrence is complicated, brooding, sarcastic, genuine. Omar Sharif as Ali is just as brooding, and just as good. Sir Alec Guinness gives a mannered, though usually excellent performance. ("I think you are one of these desert-loving Englishmen" is a standout line.) Jack Hawkins as Gen. Allenby may be somewhat overlooked in this classic cast, but his turn, IMHO, is especially good--gruff, cynical, amused, and perhaps by the end, even somewhat perturbed at his behavior. And of course, Sir Anthony Quayle, Anthony Quinn, Jose Ferrer and the incomparable Claude Rains do fantastic work.
The famous score by Maurice Jarre is mostly wonderful (it's a little overwrought, but it works). And the cinematography is stupendous. All these components add up to a wonderful whole that sits next to "The Seven Samurai," "The Third Man," "Rear Window" (yes, action-movie guy, I'm including that flick in the list of greats...there's more action that occurs in there through dialogue and editing than in the entire Renny Harlin canon :-) ), "The Seventh Seal," "Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II," "Ugetsu Monogatari" and a handful of other films as one of the great cinema masterpieces of the world. "It is my pleasure" to view "Lawrence" again, and enjoy it as much as I do. I hope you do, too. :-)

Simon