Epic , Epic , Epic And Epic

Rating: 9/10 (10 April 2015)

Since I've been watching an absolute ton of recent releases now is as good a time as any to take a step back and watch some old time undisputed epic cinema from the good old days . Nostalgia is never what it was but there was a time when the word "Epic" meant .well "Epic" . Nowadays epic merely means lots of CGI and anyone with a working knowledge of computer software could in effect create an epic film on their laptop . In ye days of olde if you wanted to create an epic scene then you'd have to go to the time and trouble of hiring extras and get round the logistical nightmare this involved . If it's set in an inhospitable location say a desert for example then the problem is magnified ten times . This masterpiece by David Lean is the type of movie I'm talking about and is .... Epic
Lean is the sort of director Britain needs in the 21st Century . The most oft complaint of modern day British productions is of an uncinematic feel better suited to television , Not so with David Lean who perhaps conscious of the way television was eating in to prospective cinema audiences countered attacked by making his films bigger in scope and scale and more beautiful to look at . There is no replicating the genuine beauty of a film unless it's watched in the correct aspect ratio on a large screen . Lean uses the language of cinema as if it were his mother tongue , Editing , cinematography and musical score are perfect but then Lean was a perfectionist . If he was unsatisfied with a shot of the Sun rising he'd get the crew out the next morning just before dawn and if that shot wasn't good enough he'd do the same routine again until he'd captured perfection . I should also repeat for the benefit of those younger film fans blasé about film making over the last couple of decades that if you wanted a shot involving hundreds of men on horseback then the only way you could achieve it was by sticking hundreds of men on horseback
Thomas Edward Lawrence was a homosexual but thankfully the film at the very most just fleetingly hints at this aspect to his character . If this type of bio-pic were made now I suspect that his homosexuality would be at the fore of the story but there's certainly no need to do that . What the film does is tell the story of a deeply complex man thrust in to a situation where killing is an everyday part of life , where enemies are allies one day due to pragmatic reasons but could easily be enemies again tomorrow , and of making promises you can't keep because powers above don't want to keep promises down to once again pragmatic reasons . It is a great performance by a young , unknown , impossibly handsome Peter O' Toole
There a few factual errors but since I recently stated changing the truth is justified to an extent if it makes a better film as in the case of THE IMITATION GAME I won't contradict myself here . I should point out though that Edmund Allenby had the greatest respect for the Arabs in their guerrilla war against the Ottoman Empire and is undoubtedly the greatest British general of the 20th Century . It's also slightly strange watching a film where the Arabs are if not the good guys then perpetual victims of the Turks and later British manipulation . In some ways the portrayal of the Turks doesn't go far enough since they were responsible for the first genocide of the 20th Century against the Armenians which was a direct inspiration for the Nazis twenty years later . Perhaps the most powerful scene of the film involves the suggestion of male rape by the Turks which is every bit as chilling as it is understated
I've not done this film justice . All I have to say it made Scorsese and Spielberg want to become film makers and has been a massive influence on the modern day epic directors like Ridley Scott . Perhaps its only flaw is that it seems a little bit too old fashioned and the scenes are a bit too self congratulatory , but this is a minor flaw in a great film