Lawrence of Arabia

Considered one of the greatest films of all time. It was ranked in the top 10 of AFI’s Greatest Movies of all time both in 1997 and 2007 along with almost every other list. The movie is almost 4 hours long. Making it pretty much a tie with Gone With the Wind for longest movie ever to win best picture. Here is the break down from http://www.filmsite.org/


It remains a very close call, a tie virtually, between the top two 'longest' Best Pictures: the total film time (without music) of Gone With The Wind (1939) is almost 221 minutes (3 hours, 41 minutes), and with the Overture, Intermission, Entr'acte, and Walkout Music, it reaches 234 minutes (3 hours, 54 minutes). The total film time (without music) of the "original" Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is just over 222 minutes (3 hours, 42 minutes), slightly longer, while its additional elements extended the film to about 232 minutes (3 hours, 52 minutes). If just counting the film itself, Lawrence of Arabia is the longest of the two contenders.

Being nearly 4 hours long I was surprised to only get one disc from Netflix since I got two discs for Ben-Hur, but they managed to get it all on there and I watched up to the intermission one day and picked back up after the intermission the next.

The movie is about T.E. Lawrence a British officer who fought with the Arabs against the Turks during the First World War. He was both crazy and brilliant and no one really knew which side he was on. The movie follows him as he starts off as a guy who doesn’t fit in with his fellow soldiers and is sent off to Arabia on some unclear mission. He eventually makes friends with the Arabs and helps lead them to victory over the Turks. Along the way we are never quite sure if he is doing it for the British, the Arabs, or just for his own ego to prove he is some god like person.

What I like about this movie is that it is a glimpse into a history that is not well known at least not known by me. And it makes me want to learn more about this guy and find out how much of this movie is true. While the movie is good I don’t think it is the greatest movie of all time or even in the Top 10. This is similar to how I feel about Citizen Kane. Both movies have their good parts but it is usually the technical aspects that get the two movies recognized as the best movies. And I guess the art is just lost on me. The long sweeping shots of the desert are cool and I am sure was very hard to do but it makes the story drag. I am all about story. It takes Lawrence over and hour to cross a desert without much happening to him. I get it he'scrazy for walking across a desert that some say are uncrossable but really a whole hour of him walking is a bit much.

A major plus for this movie is the acting. All the actors are amazing, from Peter O’toole (in his first major film) to Alec Guinness (who was great in A Bridge on the River Kwai and who would go on to play Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars movies) with Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, and Claude Rains in great supporting performances. But, besides Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif the characters just don’t have much interaction between them, I would have loved to see them go toe to toe more often.

While Lawrence of Arabia is usually considered the deserving winner of Best Picture there was a number of other great movies released in 1962. It’s biggest competitor for Best Picture was To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck ended up beating Peter O’Toole for best actor and To Kill a Mockingbird beat Lawrence of Arabia for Best Screenplay. The two movies are again a contrast of large epic movie and small movie with great emotional story. Other movies that came out that year are The Manchurian Candidate, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The Miracle Worker, The Music Man and the first James Bond movie Dr. No.

Random Fact-Lawrence of Arabia has no female speaking parts and is considered the longest movie without any female dialog.