Rating of
4/4
*Sarah* - wrote on 12/29/08
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in London at the age of 47, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I.
In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and--for two years--leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire David Lean's stunning film is often reffered to as "One of the greatest films ever made" and one of the "greatest British films to cross the pond "and rightly so. So breathtakingly beautiful I even had the stunning colours in my dream last night and that score playing over and over again. As Spielberg said on the DVD" A film which is an inspirational to all" and I totally concur with that as I, like Speilberg won't to try direction in the future. This is the film that inspired Spielberg to make movies and the likes of Scorsese. So this is one film that no-one should miss.
A film of epic proption and stunning visuals is overwhelming when you watch it. In modern film making it's unlikely that you will see a film so authentic as this. With the introduction of CGI, a film like this would not be made today! I doubt I'll give such a detailed review, as I am still spellbound by the film...still thinking about it's greatness. I will most likely repeat myself, so bear with me. It took 2 years to film this, but you can see the attention to detal in every frame. So well directed and so well put together with stunning visuals, which makes most films you've seen recently look average. If only films were like this now, I would be so much more happy! The screenplay has to be one of the greatest ever written. Every bit of dialogue, you want to hear and when there's no dialogue you are still engaged by the landscape and the spacal awareness of the characters-who so wonderful portray their characters, you can't help but feel part of the film.
Each actor's dialogue so brilliantly play off one another...again it's so wonderful to watch. Some outstanindg performances from Peter O'Toole, and Omar Schariff, who rightly gained an Academy Award nomination, and Alec Guiness and Anthony Quale. By the end of the film, I didn't realise it was almost 4 hours long, which again shows how much I enjoyed this film. Perhaps it shows the shot attention span of people today as to some negative reviews I've read on IMDb and here. That annoys me a lot. All I can say to people is this, it shouldn't matter the length of a film! That score has to be one of the greatest I've seen on film. I am still running over in my mind now, so well orcestrated it's unbeliveable. Arabia contains some of the most iconic scenes in cinema history from Omar Scharrif's entrance to Lawrence standing on top of the turkish train with a background of sunlight....it leaves me Wowed. Again that scene with the entrance of Omar Schariff, wow! One of the greatest entrances I've seen. So well photograped and directed, you'll never see such a scene like that again. Superb! Overall, a masterpiece of a film, which every single person on this site such watch. Such an amazing film...outstanding! Gone into my top 100 films 10/10
