Despite being the birthplace of our civilisation, the Middle East was usually one of the most ignored areas in modern history. Despite various occasions when Middle Eastern political developments posed a serious threat to the world as we know it – the fuel shortages of the 1970s, the Gulf War of 1991 and the WTC attack – the area remained misunderstood in Western eyes, mostly due to misunderstanding of Islam – a religion that dominates the area and influences politics and way of life with much stronger impact than its Western or Eastern counterparts. In an attempt to explain the roots of recent conflict between Islamic fundamentalism and Western powers, CNN recently gave a brief overview of the most important events in the history of relations between Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Events that occurred during and immediately after the end of World War I – which are often viewed as the source of present-day troubles by most historians – were also mentioned. In order to illustrate them, CNN used clips from one great Hollywood film that just happens to deal with the period - Lawrence of Arabia, directed in 1962 by David Lean.
The protagonist of this film is Thomas Edward Lawrence (1889–1935), one of the most interesting characters of 20th-century history, and the screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson was inspired by his own autobiographical book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The story is set in the second decade of the 20th century, when Ottoman Turkey, after losing nearly all of its European possessions, still held vast areas of Syria, Palestine, Arabia and Mesopotamia – nearly all of today's Middle East – under its control. When Turkey joined Germany in World War One, Britain was forced to maintain a large army in Egypt in order to protect its vital supply line at the Suez Canal. While the Ottoman Sultan, nominal leader of all the world's Muslims, called for jihad against Britain and other Entente powers, some of his own Muslim subjects – mainly various tribes in the Arabian Peninsula – thought of World War I as a good opportunity to end centuries of Ottoman yoke. In October 1916 the British diplomat Dryden (played by Claude Rains) needs someone to join rebel ranks and appraise the situation. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole), a young and insubordinate lieutenant confined to a boring desk job at Cairo headquarters, seems perfect for the job because he had spent pre-war years on various archaeological expeditions and thus gained excellent knowledge of local geography, language and culture. When Lawrence arrives at the camp of rebel leader Prince Faisal (played by Alec Guinness), he sees his ragtag army in disarray after being exposed to modern weapons such as machine guns, howitzers and aeroplanes. While British military advisor Colonel Brighton (played by Anthony Quayle) thinks that Faisal's forces must be brought under British command and trained as a regular army, Lawrence thinks differently – he wants to turn the nomadic lifestyle of Arab tribes to advantage and turn them into guerrillas. To prove his point, Lawrence, acting on his own initiative, gathers a small band of volunteers under Sherif Ali (played by Omar Sharif), makes a perilous journey over the Nefud Desert, recruits the brigand tribe of avaricious Auda abu Tayi (played by Anthony Quinn) and conducts a surprise raid against the heavily-defended Ottoman garrison at Aqaba that would result in the capture of a strategic Red Sea harbour. This stunning triumph and Lawrence's use of nascent Arab nationalism fill the ranks of his ragtag army while General Allenby (played by Jack Hawkins), commander of Entente forces in the Middle East, thinks of Lawrence's guerrilla force as a valuable asset in his planned offensive against Jerusalem. Lawrence is promoted to major, given vast supplies of guns and ammunition and the resulting series of victories turn him into a household name all over the world. Instant fame and glory, however, are going to have dire consequences for Lawrence when he finally faces some unpleasant realities – his own vulnerability, as well as his government's plans for Arabia's future, quite different from his own.
Most of the "larger than life" films of the 1950s and early 1960s – Hollywood's brave, expensive and, in the end, near-suicidal attempt to fight the emerging power of television with CinemaScope, colour and spectacle – are today seen as nothing more than historic curiosities. Only a few managed to live beyond their contemporary fame and maintain their reputation as unquestionable masterpieces. Lawrence of Arabia is one such film, and also one of the rare instances of Oscars ending in the right hands. Its achievement – contemporary and modern popularity – is even greater when we consider its three-hour length (almost four hours after the famous 1989 restoration), lack of action, big stars and women in speaking roles. The reason why Lawrence of Arabia happens to be one of the greatest films of all time can be explained by the more than fortunate combination of various talents that worked very hard to provide great artistic vision with nearly flawless execution.
Screenwriters Bolt and Wilson had a rather thankless task of making an epic out of material that does not seem epic at first sight. The Arab Revolt barely lasted for two and a half years, took place in the most unglamorous of all World War I theatres, rightly named "sideshow of a sideshow" by one of the characters in the film, and, finally, the protagonist was nothing more than a rather minor military officer in a large imperial army, promoted to the rank of deity mostly thanks to his eccentric nature and the public's desire to have a romantic hero in the cynical age of industrial warfare. But the script nevertheless managed to take the best out of this material and make Lawrence of Arabia as grand as the films that dealt with the rise and fall of great empires or the life and times of great statesmen. The dialogue is simple but effective, allowing even those unfamiliar with the complex circumstances of World War I in the Middle East to understand the plot.
Another great talent responsible for the long-lasting impact of this film is Peter O'Toole. This was his first major role and he seemed perfect for it, with good looks that embodied Lawrence's charisma of self-proclaimed warrior king and even greater acting talent that portrayed the vulnerable, insecure man behind the godlike façade. The weaknesses and contradictions of Lawrence – his futile attempt to reconcile the Arab nationalist cause and his country's interest, as well as his own sadomasochistic and bloodthirsty urges with chivalrous ideals and common sense – all of this is given in such a subtle yet powerful way, making this role one of the best in the history of cinema. Other actors are more than fine too, although few of them can match O'Toole. That includes Claude Rains as a cunning diplomat, Jack Hawkins as a no-nonsense soldier and Anthony Quinn as a larger-than-life brigand leader turned into an amateur politician. All those who might find Lawrence of Arabia objectionable because of the racist stereotyping of Arab characters as tribalistic and savage could be countered with the rather sympathetic and humanistic portrayal embodied in two great actors and two great roles. Alec Guinness is excellent as a wise statesman, while the great Egyptian actor Omar Sharif in his first major Hollywood role shines as an Arab prince who starts as a stereotypical savage only to end as Lawrence's voice of conscience and common sense.
However, the greatest talent of them all was undoubtedly David Lean. While shooting in Jordan and Morocco – lands so different from the jungle locations of his previous masterpiece The Bridge on the River Kwai – he simply fell in love with the desert, seeing its vast artistic potential and great beauty, so much in contrast with its unforgiving deadliness. Magnificent scenery which dwarfs and humbles any human character serves as an excellent background which gives epic scope to this story by itself. The beauty of desert landscapes is well-matched by the magnificent musical score by Maurice Jarre, with its recognisable theme that later became used in various other films.
The only possible flaw of the film might be found in the way Bolt, Wilson and Lean dealt with Lawrence's homosexuality, including the notorious incident with Turkish soldiers at Dera. The filmmakers, however, cannot be blamed for that due to tighter censorship in the early 1960s, so the issue is simply ignored, even without subtle hints so popular among contemporary viewers who have great fun in discovering various sexual or homoerotic contexts in old Hollywood films. The only exception is the character of the Turkish bey, played by José Ferrer, whose homoerotic desires are so obvious that Lawrence looks heterosexual in comparison.
However, the more interesting and more important context of this film is political. Lawrence of Arabia owed its popularity partly due to the emerging importance of the Middle East as a major source of energy supply for the world's economy. In the late 1910s, when the film takes place, the Middle East was not so important because the world's economy was based on steam engines powered by coal. In the early 1960s, when the film was made, almost the entire world had switched to internal combustion engines based on oil, thus becoming vulnerable to the endemic political crisis of the region. Lawrence of Arabia in its final scenes gives hints of those future developments by showing British and French governments becoming aware of the importance of oil and making sure that the lands with these precious resources remained under their control. Instead of free Arab states, victorious Entente forces created their own protectorates, playing various local factions against each other and thus planting the seed of the Arab–Israeli conflict that plagues world politics to this day. This dimension of Lawrence of Arabia looks sinister after recent events, but this film really did not need a global crisis in order to remind people of its greatness.
RATING: 9/10 (++++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on December 1st 2001)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/947-lawrence-of-arabia?language=en-US
Critic: AAA