This is the first part of three movie reviews I am going to put up and they concern 3 absolute classics
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) *ing Peter o'Toole, Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn Director : David Lean
I had heard of this movie for a long time and even asked my dad on a couple of occasions if he had seen it. But he had said it was a boring movie and he did not like it so much. But the movie buff that I am, I did not take his word and luckily spotted a discounted DVD of this film at Best Buy.
What I saw was an absolute spectacle. This movie, directed by that great British director, David Lean is breathtaking in scale and scope ranging from its wide angle cinematography to its enchanting background music. Technically, the film is just plain fantastic for 1962. Coming to the story, it talks about the life of Lt. T.E. Lawrence a real-life lieutenant assigned to Arabia to assist a Prince and evaluate the Arab’s chances to revolt against the Turks. But instead of assessing, he takes matters into his own hands, and organizes an Arab army to fight against their oppressors. Slowly he unites all warring factions and illiterate Arab tribes into one potent fighting force. It talks about his conflicted loyalties between his motherland and being the leader of the Arabs.
In short the movie is an autobiographical account from T.E Lawrence’s writings. It runs over 3 hours and as with most autobiographical movies, things move slow, certain scenes play on the viewer’s patience and make the proceedings boring. But there is enough brilliance in the scenes to not let take your eyes off from it. Peter O’Toole in his first major role does an okayish job. I wished they had selected a much more powerful actor but O’Toole it seems, looked remarkably similar to the real Lawrence. Supporting cast includes Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn out of which Quinn is just amazing as Auda Abu Tayi, the leader of the tribe.
The mesmerizing locales capturing the harsh landscape of the Middle East, the stupendous music, the fantastic script are all reason enough to watch this classic. But top of all is the character study of an enigmatic personality whose only message was that with unity even the stiffest challenges can be overcome.
