Review of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) by Ben L — 12 Jul 2017

I did my best to pace myself and planned a break midway through Lawrence of Arabia, because I can sometimes be biased against long films. I have to grant this movie one thing, unlike most other epic historical films I've seen, it gave me a clear protagonist and a personal story that made me care about all the big events happening around him. Lawrence is a very engaging character, and stands out as unique from the other British officers he works with. Peter O'Toole delivers an spectacular performance.

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't hold interest in this story for the full runtime. If it was only the first half I would have called it brilliant, and a superb historical film. That entire first half seemed to be building towards a specific goal and had some great moments. But the second half seemed to lose direction. It felt like it was split up into a number of vignettes instead of having a singular focus. There were select moments or scenes in the later part of the film that worked but I was in danger of boredom.

The visuals in Lawrence of Arabia are breath-taking. I never thought desert could look so amazing, but they capture the beauty in the scenery. You get a genuine feel of being there in the desert, and can sense the dangers surrounding the characters at all times. Some of these big sweeping shots are truly iconic. And equally as iconic is that music. The score from Maurice Jarre is one I recognized without ever seeing the film. It is a truly legendary piece of music and sets a tone that fits the story well.

I wish I was more of a history nerd so I knew better what was going on in every beat of Lawrence of Arabia. I think I followed most of it, but there were some people (like Alec Guinness' racially questionable character) whose role I kept struggling to figure out. I sensed there were a number of underlying agendas that I wasn't picking up on. But the important part I understood. I certainly didn't actively dislike Lawrence of Arabia, in fact for awhile I was loving it. I just felt with a little more focus and a little less time it might have worked better for me.