Review of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) by Gavin S — 21 Aug 2012

David Lean was the master of the Epic film (this & Dr. Zhivago alone would have cemented him as a legendary director). The film won 7 of 10 nominations for Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Score, Cinematography and others, as well as nominations for Peter O'Toole [1st of 8 for him] and Omar Sharif).

There's absolutely no way this movie would be made today: it's nearly 4 hrs long, there's no love story, the action is sporadic, and at the time O'Toole was virtually unknown. The fact that despite these hurdles, the film was made and was such a triumph is nothing short of astonishing.

Much like Zhivago (shot after this) Lawrence features heavily on the cinematography of it's environment (here the deserts of the Arabic World). The imposing size, heat, barrenness and death of the desert is put on display gorgeously by having been shot in 70mm film (one of the last to do so).

O'Toole is an unconventional hero (especially for 1962) but that's probably one of the best things about him here. O'Toole lost out on the Oscar to Gregory Peck in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' which is no great shame at all.

The supporting cast is fantastic, primarily : Omar Sharif, Sir Alec Guinness, and Anthony Quinn all as Arabs who Lawrence wins over through sheer force of will and sometimes pure logic. Just as watching Zhivago makes you cold, watching Lawrence makes you feel the sweltering desert heat and feel thirsty.

The desert really is a character in the film, shot so impressively on such an Epic scale, there's no way you'd see that these days, and no way CGI could accomplish the same. Fantastic score by Maurice Jarre (who also composed the Zhivago score) and you can definitely hear shades of what John Williams later used for the Indiana Jones films.

A landmark experience in film making, but make sure you set aside enough time to watch it all. On it's 50th anniversary, it is just as epic and awesome as it ever was.