Lawrence of Arabia (Here be Spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

I just finished watching this movie (4 hours! :eek: ) and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I was surprised because it’s after all a movie about a pompous Englishman knowing Arabia better than the Arabs but as I watched I found myself getting drawn more and more into the story. It’s definitely not just a war movie, it’s even less war-like than A Bridge Too Far. Long, but beautifully done.

That being said, I have a couple of questions. First of all, the most obvious, how much truth is there really to this movie? I know moviemakers have a distressing habit of straying far far away from truth to make a good movie. I don’t mind that, but does anyone have a good link regarding Lawrence’s real life, or even better, can recommend a fairly good novel?

Secondly, I liked Peter O’Toole, surprisingly. Did he do well in other movies? Anybody want to recommend me one?

And thirdly, I loved Omar Sharif! I’ve only ever seen him old. But I guess that isn’t a question.
Here’s a spoiler regarding some slash ideas, so anyone who doesn’t like slash probably shouldn’t read on:


I originally considered the movie because in this post and this post mentioned there was a lot of sexual tension between Sharif Ali (Omar Sharif) and Lawrence, hoo boy, they weren’t kidding. I kept expecting (or was it hoping?) for them to kiss. Or do something.

Anyway, when Lawrence returns from the desert with Gausin (unsure of spelling) they have this terribly dramatic scene, where the music swells and everything. It was awful, it was so hugely done - and yet it was wonderful. I loved it, and even felt a tear or two in my eye.

Of course, I’m obtuse, and didn’t pick up that


Lawrence was supposed to have been raped by the Turks
until I came back and read the linked thread again.

Damn good movie. Of course now I have to watch A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia.

And I have learned to link single posts, so watch out!

2

I can’t answer your questions. Just popped in to say that Peter O’Toole is just about the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen (in this movie).

I would have sworn that the scene in the spoiler box was in the original version of the movie. I was too young to have imagined it, the first time I saw the movie, and I’ve never read any books about him, so where did I get it, if it wasn’t there at some point?

3

One of my all-time favorite movies.

As far as the ‘truth’ to it, I’m not 100% sure, but it’s based on Lawrence’s own biography, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I picked it up a few years back and didn’t really get into it; the timing wasn’t right I guess.

4

In the movie,


All they do is talk to him for a while, then the general gets mad and says “Beat him”. The guy starts applying the cane, and now that I think about it, the guy holding him down did have a rather…er…*effeminate * way about him, practically licking his lips. I thought he was just savoring the impending violence. Then the general walks out, leaving the door open a bit, you hear the crack of the cane, and…scene ends.

Unless they cut something out. But it doesn’t say “abridged”.

5

Here is his IMDB entry. I think he is one of those people with so many movie credits that there are bound to be some stinkers in there (King Ralph, anyone?) but I liked him in The Last Emperor (smallish part in a big movie) and My Favorite Year.

If you want a young Omar Sharrif movie rec: Doctor Zhivago (also directed by Lean).

6

Well, now you see what I was talking about! :slight_smile: I’m not big on war stories, but this is one of my favorite movies. It’s a glorious movie on so many levels, and not just about blowing things up.

It’s fairly faithful to Lawrence’s book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom–but there is some question about how faithful The Seven Pillars is to what actually happened to Lawrence in Arabia. Most scholars of Lawrence, for example, doubt that the rape he describes in the book ever really occured.

For early O’Toole, there is Beckett and The Lion in Winter (another of my favorite movies); he plays King Henry II in both. For later in his career, there’s My Favorite Year, in which he plays a Errol-Flynn-type movie star.

Since the conversation you linked to, I’ve watched them both again. I’d love to know what you think of this one once you’ve seen it.

7

I’ve seen Beckett! I loved that movie! I was forced to watch it in high school english but ended up loving it. Hmm…does he play Beckett? That’s another movie about a dichotomy between two allegainces.

Oh no, I just checked imdb and he played King Henry. Perhaps I’ll rent it next weekend, it’s been a long time.

And of course I’ll let you know what I think of the other one.

8

The assault is described in more detail in the book, but they had to tone it down–in 1962, films were still made under the old censorship codes that forbade explicit homosexual references (although the old codes were crumbling at that time and a lot of things got through that wouldn’t have been done 5 or 10 years earlier).

If you watch what happens when the Turkish soldiers pick Lawrence up and bring him in with a bunch of other men, note the soldiers’ smirks, the nervousness of the other men, and the conversation the general tries to have with Lawrence. It becomes pretty clear:

The soldiers aren’t arresting these men on suspicion of anything. They were picking up nice-looking guys to bring back for their general to choose somebody have sex with. It’s because Lawrence fights that he gets beaten into submission.

9

Ha! I’m fairly obtuse when they try to show gay encounters in a subtle way. I never would have picked that up unless you pointed it to me.

10

We older slashers have learned to dig for these things. :slight_smile:

(Although why they didn’t pick up the yummy Omar Shariff is beyond me! Just not their type, I guess… )

11

I dunno, Omar’s cute & all but those gorgeous blue eyes on Peter…

And doesn’t anyone else think “Peter O’Toole” sounds just like a porn star name?

12

One of my favorite movies. I named one of my companies after a reference in LOA.

William Potter: Ooh! It damn well 'urts!
Lawrence: Certainly it hurts.
William Potter: What’s the trick then?
Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.

Auda abu Tayi: Does Auda abu Tayi serve?
Howeitat tribesmen: NO!
Auda abu Tayi: I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies’ tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor! Because I am a river to my people!

13

(Hijack to follow)

Some years ago I started a thread asking if there were any pre-Blazing Saddles movies with frank depictions of flatulence. We were unable to come up with any definitive examples, and, shamfully I ignored the possibilities of non-English-speaking movies, thereby neglecting Ohayo (Good Morning) from 1959, an excellent movie about Japanese suburban life that included the running gag of a wife who comes trotting into the living room everytime her husband breaks wind, asking “did you call me?”

however, some weeks ago, watching Lawrence of Arabia, I noticed that at the opening of the banquet scene in Anthonly Quinn’s tent, as the servants take away the huge platter of food, Quinn rolls over and audibly breaks wind. Is this the cinematic landmark I sought?

Other LOA touchstones are, when, in typical dad fashion I shell out for nice things for my daughter or wife, the “I’m a poor man because I’m a river to my people” quote comes in handy; as is, in response to “how was your day?” the quote “I felt as if the citidel of my intergrity has been irrevocably lost.”

14

I’m delighted to know that this film has acquired a new following, thanks to DVDs. I first saw Lawrence of Arabia in all its expansive, colorful glory on the big screen in 1963, when I was fifteen years old. I was just stunned. This was the first adult-oriented movie that I really “got.” I sat through all three showings of the movie, leaving the theater near midnight and failing to get back to my dorm in time for curfew.

IMHO, the soundtrack has never been equalled. I can listen to that score over and over, and never tire of it.

15

As I remarked in another recent thread on the subject of Lawrence, it’s ostensibly based on Lawrence’s own book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. But when I read that book, was surprised at how far reality deviated from the film. There’s a lot of condensation of events and characters. Don’t look to the movies to learn history. I’ve ben trying to work my way through the authorized bio of Lawrence fr a couple of years, but it’s a tough slog, and I’m not making any headway.

Before the movie, by the way, there was evidently an immensely popular stage play, in which Alec Guinness played Lawrence. I think they wanted him to play the part in the film, but by then he was too old, and he became Faisal. The movie, with its screenplay by Robert Bolt (who also did Dr. Zhivago, A Man for All Seasons, Lady Caroline Lamb, The Bounty, The Mission and a byunch of historical stage plays that never made the Big Screen), owes nothing to the play, as far as I know.

16

When I was 16, in 1971, Peter O’Toole was the first actor I “fell in love” with. Oh, those blue, blue eyes! I didn’t drive yet, so saw the movie three times by riding my bike to the theater.

In “the old days”, kiddies, it was harder to see a movie over and over, no VCR’s or DVD players. Movies, like LOA, would sometimes return to the theater, if they’d been very popular the first time around.

When the Fox Theater in Detroit, an old, ornate movie palace, reopened in the late 80’s, they opened with a run of Lawrence of Arabia. A HUGE screen made it even better than when I first saw it a a muliplex.

17

I forgot to mention, that when I was 16, I caught no hint of gay vibes from Lawrence. But what he told Ali, after the beating, did puzzle me. “The problem is, I liked it.”

18

I thought he said that after he killed Gausin? To his own General Allenby?

(paraphrased) “In Arabia, I killed two men. One died yesterday. The other…some time ago. I had to shoot him. And…I *liked * it.”

19

The scene I remember is when he was alone with Ali, in a small camp, after he was released. Lawrence is kind of huddled into himself, partly in pain, and partly, I imagine, from the shame of what happened. He says those words when Ali speaks to him about the incident.

20

We need spoiler boxes for a film that was released over 40 years ago?

Next thing you’ll be telling me is that the guy in “The Great Train Robbery” who shoots the gun at the camera isn’t really shooting at the audience?

As for the film being long, there aren’t a lot of David Lean films that are short. Historical epics were his speciality at the end of his career. But he managed to bring the film “Brief Encounter” home in 86 minutes!

The name of the man Lawrence rescues from the Nefud Desert and then later kills before the attack on Aqaba was Gasim. The scene where Lawrence brings Gasim backs is one of my favorites along with Ali’s dramatic appearance coming across the desert as a tiny speck.

When I was backing to my car at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena after a match in the 1990 World Cup after a particularly hot day, he said to me “Aqaba … From the land!”