Lawrence of Arabia

Genre: Drama/War/Adventure
Year of release: 1962
Director: David Lean

This was the second time I have watched Lawrence of Arabia I saw it in a store yesterday and today I decided to re-watch it. It was well worth the $15 that I paid for it I liked it this time much more than I did the last. This movie has some of the best cinematography ever. Also this review makes me want to watch it again http://nothingiswrittenfilm.blogspot.com/2008/07/there-is-only-desert-for-you.html has a few spoilers however.

Lawrence of Arabia is a story about T.C. Lawrence and his role in the fight between Arabia and Turkey. Lawrence is a very deep character and you can make your own decisions about his character. This movie however is quite long and although boring is not the right word it does need the intermission in the middle. The use of shots is amazing and the scenery is spectacular no doubt. David Lean did an excellent job this is the second of his movies that I have scene and I will make it my job to make it not the last. The story is very good going through triumphs and defeats. The character work is some of the greatest in history making you decide what type of man Lawrence is whether good or bad straight or queer I like this it adds a level of depth to the film making you form your own personal opinion. Thinking back on this movie is the best part, thinking of the those wonderful beautiful shots used gives me goosebumps and that review opened my eyes a lot.

Lawrence is quite cocky that is the one thing I am almost certain about his character, the way he speaks and moves gestures is graceful and calming a character that could possibly be homosexual. He is in my opinion not entirely good but to say more than that would take further viewings which I will hopeful do. His character in a way enjoys killing which separates him from the category of good however his character deeply wants to give freedom to Arabia so I don't put him in the category of bad either, however deep down is he only trying to do this for personal gain, just because people think that he can not. Lawrence seems to be happy but deep down I believe him to be very troubled and we see this come out in a part of the movie. His character seems to always want to impress for instance how he puts the flaming match out with his fingers and say "The trick is not minding the pain" although this seems to be a very small and unimportant part in the movie however an extremely awesome part I get the feeling that it is more than just a scene it adds to his character. When you ask the question why did he bother to go through the pain when he could have blown it out, I can not give myself a straight answer I get left with he does it for fun just to play and I believe this to be very true Lawrence has a very strange sense of fun and that is a point carried through the entire movie and also he put the match out in this way so that he could impress make the others go wow, even if it is in such a small way it is worth the pain he likes to do the unpredictable and things that people could not believe to be possible and he strives himself to do these things and we see it all through the movie as well. To add to the character being unique all the other characters, who are also very awesome (even the little characters like his guide in the beginning) are very straight characters, there character are clean in your mind and you don't have too many doubts about what type of people the are, what they will do next and etc. This builds a contrast making Lawrence really stand out and the use of shots also adds to this, the ones that occur often an upward mid shot of his head in the way of the sun making a glowing outline of his head with the blue sky around his head making him look like a god, which sometimes I think that he thinks he is. Lawrence was a hard part to play and Peter O'Toole played him wonderfully.

A lot of the scenes in this movie are very beautiful it makes the desert radiate in the sunlight so that we can feel like Lawrence feels and love the desert. Well I love every scene in the desert and I love this film the more I think about it. The battle scenes in this movie are also very good some of the nice long shots which remind me of the way Kurosawa does some of his battle scenes. The long shots in this are some of the long shots that are the best in the film business and sit up with Kurosawa however they are completely different and hard to compare. The scenes of the desert shaking in the distance the horizon waving in the heat. I remember one scene in which it is simply the bottom half is white with the sand and the top half is a nice blue sky and out of it we see a black dot of a man. This scene is beautiful and the whiteness of the sand contrasting against the light blue of the sky makes for a Mona Lisa piece of artwork through it being so simple yet so beautiful. The scenes of the mountains of sand and the wind sweeping off little pieces of it seems poetic and is enhanced by the strong musical touch.

The music in this movie is very nice and thinking of it makes me give that weird type of excited jump that makes you look like a real idiot when your in public. It adds to the scenes very nicely and the scene I always think of and has stayed in my memory from the first sighting of this movie, is the one in which the camera pans across the city and onto the gigantic guns facing the sea.

The beginning of this movie I really enjoy I like this certain technique that is used were we have Lawrence getting on his motorcycle and driving down the street that is lined with trees we have a very good scene of his face smiling at us as he drivers faster and faster until having to swerve
for some cyclists he then goes off a smallish hill and we watch his motorcycle go into some bushes then we cut to a scene of his motorcycle goggles hanging from a branch. Then we change to a statue of Lawrence on a grave stone in Saint Nicholas Church Graveyard a gigantic building and there are people saying did he deserve to buried in a place like this, and people saying he is a great man. One man in this scene says that he once had the satisfaction of shaking his hand in Ciro but did not know him, I found it cool to see a man walk up to Lawrence just to shake his hand in Ciro, I am not sure if this is him because well it was about 2 and half hours since I saw him last, however I find it interesting. After this scene we go back to see for our selves if he really did deserve to be buried in such respect.

In conclusion a great deep movie that only improves when you think back on it. Best cinematography there is artwork in many of the shots many of which you could frame and put up on a wall. Some of the best change in character and character work 3 hours and 40 minutes of being piratically alone with one character and yet we still know nothing about him. Great music that adds to the excitement great storyline and to make this movie even better its a true story written by T.C Lawrence, this man who survived so many amazing miracles actually died in a motorcycle accident. "A miracle of a film"-Steven Spielberg.

9.5/10