Lawrence Of Arabia: A Milestone in Cinema
Mayur Doshi writes about David Lean’s 1962 classic Lawrence Of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
T.E Lawrence who is played by little known (at the time) Shakespearean actor Peter O Toole, gives the performance of a lifetime which would rank amongst one of the all time great acting performances in cinema history. The story begins with Lawrence’s unfortunate demise (a rather odd way to start a film), the rest of the film then proceeds as a flashback depicting how he went from being an insignificant cartographer in the British army to inspiring and leading the Arab resistance against the Turkish might.
Lawrence is sent to convince Prince Faizal (played by Sir Alec Guinness) to follow the directives of the British army but after the meeting with him a spark of boldness and inspiration transforms Lawrence. He convinces Faizal to allow him a small squad of Arabs to set out on a treacherous journey through the desert to wage a surprise attack on a Turkish base of strategic importance. The journey is a success as he manages to capture the base with help from sherif Ali (played by Omar Sharif) and Auda (played by anthony quinn).
Lawrence is by now a hero amongst the Arabs and they are now convinced he is their military leader. Amongst all the war, David Lean is able to capture the essence of the desert quite magnificently in all its endless immensity. His camera techniques have been studied closely ever since and the desert sequences are now part of film folklore.
Lawrence’s next mission is to convince the British general Allenby of his plans. Allenby who is cunning recognizes the value of Lawrence’s acumen for strategy along with his special relationship with the Arabs and hence lavishly praises him and encourages him to continue his operations by leading the Arabs.
Why Lawrence of Arabia succeeds in its depiction is that it quite remarkably treads the fine line between glorifying the heroic accomplishments of Lawrence, the bloody minded barbarism of the war machine and last but not least the greedy politics ever so prevalent during any war. Lawrence is at times a contradictory figure who is often torn between preaching against cruel ways of the Arab tribes and displaying his own sadistic tendencies in the battle field. He is at times a mysterious personality who displays reclusive tendencies and yet does little to stop himself from proclaiming his demi-god status amongst his Arab followers. “They wont be coming for money, they’ll be coming for me…” he says in one of the movies most pivotal and memorable scenes. ‘They’ of course is a reference to the Arab tribes who will revolt to win over Damascus if he calls on them.
The movie progresses with Allenby convincing Lawrence to lead this final charge on Damascus but under Lawrence’s terms that he would win the city and give it back to the Arabs. This is where the story unravels its darker political undertones and after the successful capture of Damascus the ‘politicians’ lead by Allenby and Dryden (played by Claude Rains ) step in to carry out the intent of England and France to break up the kingdom of Arabia and retain the pieces for themselves. Prince Faizal also makes a return at this stage with the intention to be the next king of Arabia and thus begins a power struggle. What is interesting is that all along Allenby and Faizal attempted to use Lawrence as their puppet to make their agenda a success. The movie thus ends with anti-war overtones and Lawrence returning to England a war hero.
The movie which is about 4hrs long has all-round great acting performances by O’Toole, Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif and superbly shows the transition in character of the principles. At one point in the movie, Lawrence preaches to sherif ali about the cruel deeds of the Arab tribes, progresses to show his own barbaric side during wartime. Sherif Ali who needlessly shoots a fellow Arab, progresses to become more passive as the movie unfolds. Lean’s treatment of this subject matter is done quite superbly and seamlessly. In my opinion this movie is a standalone in terms of its ambition, direction and acting by the lead role. This is a true masterpiece with a host of Oscars including best picture (1962).
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I entirely agree that this film was David Lean’s master piece. I have seen this movie countless times and have enjoyed. I first watched it in a cinema and this was an experience in itself.
A few years back, I did TE Lawrence for a media project - radio documentary and during the research, I came across some information on how this film was made and also on some information as to how some of the Arabs felt. Not all but some felt that he had betrayed them and all this because of an agreement that came into existence at the time, known as the “Sykes - Picot” agreement which was to divide Palestine between Britain and France and that there was no mention of Arab independence at all. But the fact was that Lawrence never betrayed them as he himself was not aware of this agreement until the very end of the campaign. This agreement, was not between two countries but two, rich and powerful individuals. As General Allenby, played by jack Hawkins, says in the movie: “I am only obeying orders but he is riding the wind.”
Lawrence, however, never returned to Arabia.
This movie is the one that has to be watched on large screen to be appreciated in every technicalities in terms of movie production and viewing.
One actor that I think needs to be mentioned here, though he had a small role but quite significant and that is Bollywood actor the late I.S. Johar.
Sorry! I.S. Johar played the role of “Qassim” in the movie, who Lawrence saves but later has to shoot in the movie.
David Lean is in some of his greatest elements in this film. The long, slow, painful, thirsty shot when Omar Sharif first appears on screen is something unparalleled in whatever I’ve seen of cinema ever. And the whole film stylizes so dry a history so very well. Especially well undertaken is the mental disintegration and increasing bloodlust of TE Lawrence with time, with incidents like his rape, and with the realization that the British used him only as a pawn and his word finally stood for nothing for the Arabs.
There are only two things probably which I can find fault with in the movie. First and foremost is of course the serious miscast of Alec Guiness as Prince Feisal. The second is the unnecessary length of the movie; it could easily have been edited a 40 minutes less. Of course, I would keep the first 70 minutes as they are; they are the best. Another minor thing is the cynicism at the beginning of the film, at Lawrence’s funeral. When the rest of the film projects a person as a legend, it’s not wise to raise aspersions about his place in the history first of all.