Let's talk cinematography. By far this is to me the standout aspect of Lawrence. I have never seen a movie that is more perfectly framed, more expertly focused, and more beautiful in picture. Great care has obviously been taken in the choice of locations, the set up of the shot, and the execution of the camera. Freddy Young, the director of photography, was clearly a master of his trade at the height of his career. The desert simply becomes a living thing, filmed in a wondrous way. We who have grown up in a fat land, a land of hills and trees and lakes could never conceive of what desert living would be like, but in watching Lawrence we have the feeling of being there, of experiencing the heat and wide open spaces. Sand swirls in the wind, rocks stand against the sun, and small shapes of people move far off and barely visible in the vast ocean of the desert. We see it all perfectly, even the trick of the sun making the desert horizon shimmer like water. This is everything that moving images in the movies should be. This is a movie I wish I could see on the big screen, as it was meant to be seen.
The vast spectacle continues as we watch Lawrence build his army of Arabs. Sooner or later it has to hit us that this movie was made at a time long before computer images, so all those people we see are real people, real horsemen in that real place. For once we see what a mounted army must have looked like in World War I; droves of people kicking up insane amounts of dust in vast desolate places. And then the camera will pull back and show us just how small that army is in comparison to the land, the great desert of Arabia. Epic.
And yet in the midst of all the spectacle there is soul; this is a movie that is about a person, not about images or trying to impress the audience. This movie is about a person as mystifying and unknowable as the desert itself. Lawrence was the kind of man able to lead strangers to their deaths, the kind of man who understood and valued the culture of those he led (even though he himself was English), and yet the kind of man who struggled to know himself. This role is played wonderfully and hauntingly by Peter O'Toole. This was one of O'Toole's first films, yet he owned the role and surpassed in brilliance everyone else in the film, which included some of Hollywood's brightest stars (Claude Rains, Omar Sharif, and Alec Guinness, to name a few). And this role would forever define O'Toole. He could never be in another film without bringing Lawrence to mind. When I once saw him in person I recognized him first as Lawrence of Arabia, and only after that could call to mind the name of the actor I beheld. Everyone does a fabulous job in this film, but Peter O'Toole set himself in movie history, doing a job that will forever go down as one of the best roles ever played.
Who can forget Lawrence of Arabia's classic moments? Who can forget Sherif Ali riding in from an unknown distance, from a speck on the horizon toward the camera? Who can forget Lawrence holding that match, extinguishing the fire with his fingers? ("Naturally it hurts! The trick...is not minding that it hurts.") Who can forget the Anvil of the Sun? Who can forget Lawrence standing on the wrecked locomotive, receiving the adulation of the army, with his robes blowing in the wind? Who can forget the look on his face as he screams, "NO PRISONERS!"
This is a movie that makes you sit back and say, "They don't make 'em like that anymore." Today we seem to get plenty of specacle with no soul, stupidity made to sparkle. Lawrence is not that. Lawrence of Arabia is not afraid to hold a shot for a long time without cutting away. It isn't ashamed of its 3 1/2 hour length. Why? Because it has something to say that is worth saying. Lawrence of Arabia is simply epic.
Entertainment: 8/10
Artistic value: 8/10
Technical merit: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
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