Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 70 221m
Director: David Lean
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle, Anthony Quinn, Jose Ferrer, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy
Synopsis:
A fatal motorcycle accident prompts a reappraisal of the exploits of a British officer who, during the First World War, successfully rallied the Arab tribes into a fighting force and led them against the Turks. Was he a sensitive aesthete desensitized by violence, a violent man awakened by the desert, or a massive egotist in need of adoration?
Review:
Perhaps Lean's greatest achievement is both a supremely well-crafted historical epic and one whose script, by Robert Bolt, is uncommonly pointed and intelligent. In his eyes, Lawrence was a messianic figure, gathering to him the humble and the outlaw, performing miracles of faith and being flogged by his temporal oppressors, while all the time protesting that he is 'only flesh and blood'. This ambivalence leads to some of the screenplay's most memorable exchanges, and much of its resonance and poignancy. It took months to shoot, amid staggering desert locations, but does not let spectacle get in the way of intimate drama: this is a film in which the close-ups are the most memorable shots, and how incredible the colour looks in the hands of Frederick Young. For O'Toole and Sharif it was the bright beginning of years of disappointments, but what a beginning!
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 70 221m
Director: David Lean
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle, Anthony Quinn, Jose Ferrer, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy
Synopsis:
A fatal motorcycle accident prompts a reappraisal of the exploits of a British officer who, during the First World War, successfully rallied the Arab tribes into a fighting force and led them against the Turks. Was he a sensitive aesthete desensitized by violence, a violent man awakened by the desert, or a massive egotist in need of adoration?
Review:
Perhaps Lean's greatest achievement is both a supremely well-crafted historical epic and one whose script, by Robert Bolt, is uncommonly pointed and intelligent. In his eyes, Lawrence was a messianic figure, gathering to him the humble and the outlaw, performing miracles of faith and being flogged by his temporal oppressors, while all the time protesting that he is 'only flesh and blood'. This ambivalence leads to some of the screenplay's most memorable exchanges, and much of its resonance and poignancy. It took months to shoot, amid staggering desert locations, but does not let spectacle get in the way of intimate drama: this is a film in which the close-ups are the most memorable shots, and how incredible the colour looks in the hands of Frederick Young. For O'Toole and Sharif it was the bright beginning of years of disappointments, but what a beginning!
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 70 221m
Director: David Lean
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle, Anthony Quinn, Jose Ferrer, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy
Synopsis:
A fatal motorcycle accident prompts a reappraisal of the exploits of a British officer who, during the First World War, successfully rallied the Arab tribes into a fighting force and led them against the Turks. Was he a sensitive aesthete desensitized by violence, a violent man awakened by the desert, or a massive egotist in need of adoration?
Review:
Perhaps Lean's greatest achievement is both a supremely well-crafted historical epic and one whose script, by Robert Bolt, is uncommonly pointed and intelligent. In his eyes, Lawrence was a messianic figure, gathering to him the humble and the outlaw, performing miracles of faith and being flogged by his temporal oppressors, while all the time protesting that he is 'only flesh and blood'. This ambivalence leads to some of the screenplay's most memorable exchanges, and much of its resonance and poignancy. It took months to shoot, amid staggering desert locations, but does not let spectacle get in the way of intimate drama: this is a film in which the close-ups are the most memorable shots, and how incredible the colour looks in the hands of Frederick Young. For O'Toole and Sharif it was the bright beginning of years of disappointments, but what a beginning!