Lawrence of Arabia (film)
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Lawrence of Arabia is an Academy Award-winning film based, with some licence, on the life of T. E. Lawrence, starring Peter O'Toole as the title character, directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, from a script by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. (Lean and Spiegel had recently completed the acclaimed film The Bridge on the River Kwai). The score by Maurice Jarre and the on-location, 70 mm widescreen, color cinematography are especially acclaimed.
The film revolves around Lawrence's attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Apart from the film's depiction of Lawrence's life while in World War I Arabia, major cinematic themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with violence in war (especially between Arabic tribes and while slaughtering so much of the Turkish army), personal identity ("Who are you?" is a recurring line throughout the film), and devotion to either his native Britain, and its army, or his newfound comrades within the Arabian desert tribes, to whom he is profoundly and personally drawn.
Nearly everyone had an opportunity to express their amazement with the scale and spectacle of the film, as it was always shown with an intermission in the middle of the 70 mm version, where patrons went outside to smoke. Audiences were mesmerized by the haunting widescreen scenes of the desert and the 6 channel stereophonic, sound & music score. "You would expect to comb sand out of your hair after the show," typified the palpable buzz that built up about the film.
Shooting began on May 15, 1961 and ended on October 20, 1962. The desert scenes were shot not only in Jordan and Morocco, but also in Almería and Doñana, Spain. The film premiered in London on December 10, 1962, and was released in the USA on December 16, 1962.
The film runs 216 minutes (in the most recent Director's Cut) and includes no women in speaking roles.
The style of filming was an inspiration for Richard Attenborough's 1982 film Gandhi. Both films open with the lead character's death and then move into a flashback into their lives.
As an interesting bit of trivia, Kenneth Alford's piece The Voice of the Guns (1917) is prominently featured on the soundtrack. One of Alford's other pieces, the Colonel Bogey March, was the theme song for Lean's previous film, Bridge on the River Kwai.
Upon its original release, Lawrence was (like Kwai) both a stunning critical and box office success, and remains very popular with the public and critics alike to this day. Its visual style has influenced innumerable directors, from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese. It is today regarded as a masterpiece of world cinema and is often featured highly among 'best-of' critical lists.
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Historicity
The historical accuracy of the film, and particularly its portrayal of Lawrence himself, have been called to question by numerous historical scholars [1]. Most of the film's characters are either real or based on real characters, to varying degrees. The events depicted in the film are largely based on accepted historical fact and Lawrence's own writing about events, though they have various degrees of romanticization. Some scenes (such as the attack on Aqaba) were heavily fictionalized, while the scenes dealing with the Arab Council were inaccurate, inasmuch as the council remained more or less in power in Syria until France deposed Feisal in 1920. The theme (in the second half of the film) that Lawrence's Arab army deserted almost to a man as he moved further north was completely fictional. Most of the historical errors, however, are minor and understandable given the need of the filmmakers to tell a dramatic, compelling story.
The main perceived problems with the portrayal of Lawrence begin with the differences in his physical appearance: 6 foot 2 inch Peter O'Toole was quite a contrast with the real Lawrence, who was almost nine inches shorter. His behavior, however, has caused much more debate. The screenwriters made prominent Lawrence's alleged masochism, which did not become apparent until after his capture at Deraa, and egotism. The real Lawrence actually shunned the limelight, as evidenced by his attempts after the war to hide under various assumed names. Even during the war, Lowell Thomas wrote (in With Lawrence in Arabia) that he could only take pictures of Lawrence by tricking him (though he did later agree to pose for several pictures for Thomas' stage show). Thomas's famous comment that Lawrence "had a genius for backing into the limelight" referred to the fact that his extraordinary actions prevented him from being as private as he would have liked to have been, not anything to do with self-promotion or egotism at all. Others disagree with this view, pointing to Lawrence's writings in Seven Pillars to support the argument that Lawrence was egotistical. Lawrence's homosexuality, the evidence for which has mostly been gleaned through his writings, is also broadly hinted at.
The theme of Lawrence's feelings towards violence (being repulsed by it, but also impulsively enjoying it) appears to have been a creation of the screenwriters. Lawrence, unlike his depiction in the film, was far from a pacifist before the war; indeed, he was a crack shot with a pistol (his preferred weapon being a Colt .45 Peacemaker) and enjoyed practicing at shooting ranges when he could. There is no record of his feeling any particular remorse over the Tafas massacre in his writings or other correspondance (it was, after all, retaliation by the Bedouin for the Turks' sack of the village).
The film's portrayal of General Allenby as a cynical, manipulative superior to Lawrence is not entirely accurate either. Allenby and Lawrence respected and liked each other, and Lawrence once said of Allenby that he was "an admiration of mine". [2] and later that "[he was] physically large and confident, and morally so great that the comprehension of our littleness came slow to him". [3] Allenby, for his part, remarked upon Lawrence's death that "I have lost a good friend and a valued comrade. Lawrence was under my command, but, after acquainting him with my strategical plan, I gave him a free hand. His co-operation was marked by the utmost loyalty, and I never had anything but praise for his work which, indeed, was invaluable throughout the campaign," [4] (Contrast this to the fictional Allenby's words at Lawrence's funeral in the film.) and spoke highly of him on numerous other occasions. It seems likely that this characterization of Allenby is in large part due to the screenwriters' anti-war sentiments. While Allenby admittedly did serve a function as Lawrence's manipulator during the war, their relationship lasted for years after its close, indicating that Allenby and Lawrence's real-life relationship was friendly, if not terribly close.
It should also be pointed out that Feisal, far from being a middle-aged man as depicted in the film, was in reality in his early thirties at the time of the revolt. [5]
Real Characters
- T.E. Lawrence
- Auda ibu Tayi
- General Allenby
- Prince Feisal
- Tafas (Lawrence's guide to Feisal)
- Farraj and Daud (Lawrence's servants)
- General Murray
Fictional/Fictionalized Characters
Sherif Ali - A combination of numerous Arab leaders, particularly Sherif Nassir, Feisal's cousin who led the Harith forces involved in the attack on Aqaba. The character was created largely because Lawrence did not serve with any one Arab leader (aside from Auda) throughout the majority of the war; most such leaders were amalgamated in Ali's character. (He was, however, almost certainly named after Sherif Hussein ibn Ali, Feisal's father and the instigator of the revolt, who is alluded to, albeit not by name, by Feisal early in the film.)
Mr. Dryden - Dryden, the cynical official from the Arab Bureau, was based loosely on numerous figures, including colonial governor Ronald Storrs (head of the Arab Bureau, who would become governor of Palestine in the 1920's) and Lawrence's archaeologist friend D.G.Hogarth. He was created by the screenwriters to "represent the civilian and political wing of British interests, to balance Allenby's military objectives."
Colonel Brighton - Based very loosely on numerous British officers who served in the Middle East, including Lawrence's good friend Stewart F. Newcombe. Newcombe played much the same role as Brighton does in the film, being Lawrence's predecessor as a liaison to the Arab Revolt; he and many of his men were forced to surrender to the Turks in 1916, though he later escaped. Like Brighton, Newcombe was not well-liked by the Arabs, though he remained friends with Lawrence.
Turkish Bey - The Turkish Bey who captures and rapes Lawrence in Deraa was based on an incident believed to be factual (Lawrence recounted it in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom), though some historians believe the incident may never have happened. According to Lawrence himself, the Bey was Turkish General Hajim Bey, though he is not named in the film.
Jackson Bentley - Based fairly closely on famed American journalist Lowell Thomas, who did help make Lawrence famous through his accounts of that man's bravery, though Thomas was (at the time) a young man who spent only a few days (or weeks at most) with Lawrence in the field, unlike Bentley, who is depicted as a cynical middle-aged man who is present during the whole of Lawrence's later campaigns.
Cast
- T. E. Lawrence - Peter O'Toole
- Sherif Ali - Omar Sharif
- Prince Feisal - Alec Guinness
- Auda ibu Tayi - Anthony Quinn
- Mr. Dryden - Claude Rains
- General Allenby - Jack Hawkins
- Turkish Bey - Jose Ferrer
- Jackson Bentley - Arthur Kennedy
- Colonel Harry Brighton - Anthony Quayle
- General Archibald Murray - Donald Wolfit
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1963, and won seven, including Best Picture. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it #5 on its "100 Greatest Movies" list. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 1999 it came 3rd in a BFI poll of British films, while in 2004 the magazine Total Film named it the 8th greatest British film of all time. In the recent Sight and Sound poll, it came in the top ten Best Films of all time as voted by directors.
Academy Awards
Cuts and Restored Version
The original version of Lawrence ran for 228 minutes (including intermission). The current "restored version", undertaken by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, was re-released in 1989 with a 227 minute length (including intermission). The theatrical release ran for about 200 minutes; an even shorter cut of 185 minutes briefly surfaced in the '70s.
Most of the cut scenes were surprisingly not of the travels of Lawrence and the Arabs through the desert, but mostly dialogue sequences, particularly involving General Allenby and his staff. Two whole scenes - Brighton's briefing of Allenby in Jerusalem prior to the Deraa scene and the British staff meeting in the field tent - had been completely excised, and the former still has not been entirely restored. Much of the missing dialogue involves Lawrence's writing of poetry and verse, alluded to by Allenby in particular, saying "the last poetry general we had was Wellington." Lawrence's first meeting with Allenby in Cairo was significantly shorter, and the scene in Jerusalem where Allenby convinces Lawrence not to resign existed in only fragmented form. These scenes have been restored to the current edition; most of the still-missing footage is of minimal import. The actors still living at the time of the re-release dubbed their own dialogue, though Jack Hawkins's dialogue had to be dubbed by Charles Gray (who had already done Hawkins' voice for several films after the latter developed throat cancer in the late '60s).
A full list of cuts can be found here. Reasons for the cuts of various scenes can be found in Lean's notes to Sam Spiegel, Robert Bolt, and Anne V. Coates, which are available online here.
Trivia
- In the 40's, Alexander Korda was interested in filming Seven Pillars with Laurence Olivier as Lawrence, but had to pull out due to financial difficulties.
- Albert Finney - at the time a virtual unknown - was Lean's first choice to play Lawrence, but Finney wasn't sure the film would be a success and turned it down. Marlon Brando was also offered the part.
- The role of Jackson Bentley was meant for Edmund O'Brien, who became ill and had to be replaced at the last possible moment by Arthur Kennedy.
- Lean reportedly watched John Ford's film The Searchers (1956) to help him develop ideas as to how to shoot the film.
- Anthony Quinn got very into his role as Auda and spent hours applying make-up to himself, using a photograph of the real Auda, so he could look as close to the real thing as possible. Alec Guinness was also made up to look as close to the real Feisal as he could.
- When it was first announced that a film was going to be made on Lawrence's life, Lowell Thomas offered producer Spiegel and screenwriters Bolt and Wilson a large amount of research material he had produced on Lawrence during his time with him during the Arab Revolt, as well as afterward. Spiegel rejected the offer.
Sequel
In 1990, a made-for-television film, A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, was produced as a semi-sequel to this film, featuring Ralph Fiennes as Lawrence and Alexander Siddig as Prince Feisal. The movie dealt primarily with the attempts of Lawrence and Feisal to secure independence for Arabia during the 1919 Versailles Conference following the end of World War I. The movie was generally well-received and deals more with the political ramifications of Lawrence's efforts in the Middle East.
External links
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Template:AcademyAwardBestPicturebg:Лорънс Арабски de:Lawrence von Arabien (Film) es:Lawrence de Arabia (película) fr:Lawrence d'Arabie (film) it:Lawrence d'Arabia (film 1962) ja:アラビアのロレンス (映画) pt:Lawrence of Arabia simple:Lawrence of Arabia zh:阿拉伯的劳伦斯 (电影)