Lawrence of Arabia Review

I am old. Roan you aren't even 25 yet at time of writing. Good point Buggnutz let me revise that statement. I have an old soul. That is my take away from when I expressed interest in watching Lawrence of Arabia to my coworkers, they all universally asked, "That four-hour long movie? You sure?" Yes, I don't usually like long movies and staying after work to watch this meant I didn't get home until midnight, but I've never seen a proper old Hollywood epic before. One where they had to hire a thousand extras and get a ton of horses and all those thousand of extras had to actually fall off those ton of horse because special effects are all practical still. One where a good 20% of the runtime is just filming locations. A movie from when the Hayes code was still a thing so we have to just heavily imply that Lawrence is gay. (Even though he wasn't. Most compelling theory is that he was an asexual masochist. He just wasn't homophobic.) 

What's the Movie About?

It's a biopic about T.E. Lawrence, an English soldier who embedded himself among several Bedouin tribes in modern day Saudi Arabia and radicalized them against the Turks in World War One.

What I Like.

Well as I implied from the opening, the movie is a spectacle. "They don't make them like they used to" yeah yeah yeah but it some sense it's true. Watching a thousand guys ride around on horses and pretend to be shot and ACTUALLY FALLING OFF A SPEEDING HORSE INTO A HERD OF OTHER CHARGING HORSES is impressive. Not to discredit stunt performers that we have nowadays (Praise the Fall Guy, praise be to Colt Severs), but it definitely isn't the same knowing that it is certainly easier now to cover up any gaffs and the wires. The story is pretty cool. It helps that I think that Lawrence of Arabia looks at the most interesting person to fight in WWI, and he's pretty cool in this movie. I like that he's both badass and pathetic, like he extinguishes matches with his fingers and can pick up survival skills like no one's business, but he's foppish and also likes prancing around in white and gold robes. I like that there is stretches where the movies is just landscape shots. That's something that I kinda wish movies did more often, taking time to build tension and show off pretty places is cool. I guess now that Google Earth and things like it exist, it's unnecessary, but I still thought it was cool. This movie is way funnier than I expected too. There's not only a lot of quick wit between characters, and some savage burns, but there's quite of a bit of silly slapstick too. It probably won't land for everyone, there were certainly times where I was the only one laughing. But I loved it.

What I Didn't Like.

This movie is sixty years old, so of course it's racist! To be fair, it is, uh..., nuanced for a movie from the 60s. I liked the Arab characters more than the English ones and I'm pretty sure that was on purpose. There's a range of motivations among all the characters, and they present both sides of the issue of Arabia's independence. But only one named character is played by a Middle Eastern actor! Alec Guinness plays the prince of Arabia, and while yes, his performance is awesome, IT'S STILL BROWN FACE. (There's a moment that I almost burst out laughing where Lawrence thinks he can pass as an Arab by using a dirty cloth on his face, but he gets caught and beaten by the Turks because they notice he has blue eyes. Like you were thiiiiiis close to a realization we're you Lawrence of Arabia?) 

I have other issues. The set up of this movie is weird. First, it starts with 3 full minutes of a black screen with the score playing. They do the same thing after the intermission too. After the 3 minutes of black screen, they show Lawrence riding his motorcycle, crashing his motorcycle, and then he dies. I thought they were doing a thing like in Citizen Kane where the movie is people telling the titular character's story post-humorously, but they never cut back to modern day. Also, I don't get the ending. It might be because it was hard to hear what people were saying, but it just seems like Lawrence drives off and is sad, and I'm not 100% sure where he's going. 

Final Summation.

I'm glad I saw Lawrence of Arabia. But I don't need to watch it again and probably won't ever again. I don't necessarily even think it's a movie that everyone needs to watch. I thought you liked this movie Roan. I do! I just think it's too clunky to give my full recommendation. Yes, it's mostly because of it's age and that's not it's fault, but Citizen Kane is older. And that film slaps.