Summer of Movies #5: Lawrence of Arabia

Today's film is another I've had a hard time with. The first time I watched it, everything was keeping me from doing just that. I had stuff to do, had to help my sister, and somehow everything in my room was a distraction. I kept pausing the movie so much that I lost track of names, places, and motives. I decided to watch it again, and I'm very happy I did. This is my review of...

PLOT
The film tells the story of T.E. Lawrence and his efforts to unite the Arabian tribes against the Turks in WWI.



PROS
Peter O' Toole is simply amazing as T.E. Lawrence. This was his first major role, and the role that made him a star, and it shows why that happened. Lawrence is written as a very complex character full of emotions, and O' Toole pulls it off flawlessly.

The film's cinematography is breathtaking at points. I never thought you could make the desert look beautiful, but they found a way.

The orchestral score is simply epic. It really adds to the film over all. The theme, while simple, is still one of, if not the best, movie themes in history, which you can listen to in the video below...

The movie is on a large scale, and does very impressive stuff with that scale. The amount of hard work, dedication, and money that went into making a film this big, is amazing in itself. 

One thing that I was not expecting was for the movie to deal with dark and mature issues, like the horrors of war, where your allegiance lies, and many others. The film overall is not afraid to go into dark places, which I really appreciated.

This film is almost 4 hours long, which may seem like way too long to tell any story. But I realized something, what could be considered filler, which in my opinion is most of the first part, actually adds a lot of atmosphere to the film and depth to the characters. Without those "filler" scenes, this movie would be very empty and not as great as it is now.

CONS

While I do think the long run time is justified, the first hour or so does drag. It can be hard to get past the first part, but stick with it, and your patience is rewarded.

CONCLUSION

This was one of my biggest surprises so far. I knew very little about the film and went in expecting something like "Spartacus", which I hated. What I got was an emotionally gripping, dark, complex, smart, and to this day, daring film that covers a subject that most people don't know about, but certainly should. This is a required viewing for anyone who even enjoys watching movies, and a new favorite of mine.

RATING

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!!!