Review of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) by Robin W — 12 Oct 2013

Lawrence of Arabia is without doubt one of the greatest epics and character studies of all time. The story takes place during world war one and depicts the adventures of T.E. Lawrence a talented, but highly arrogant British officer with problems to conform, who gets sent on a special mission to assess the Bedouin armies chances against the Turks, but ends up playing a much bigger role in the war.

As a character study the film is a huge success since Lawrence is one of the most interesting and engaging characters in modern cinema. As an epic it's just as big of a success managing to fill an almost four-hour run time with valuable and relevant content. The setting of the film is perfect and the director brilliantly and effectively uses the desert as an antagonist, a daring move which puts a lot of weight on the shoulders of lead actor Peter O'Toole who rises to the occasion and delivers what I consider to be one of the best acting performances of all time.