One of the most prominent classics of world cinema of all time, it ranks fifth on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 best American films, and some critics classify it as one of the greatest that directors have presented to the cinematic screen throughout its long history. Lawrence of Arabia, a joint American-British film, is based on the book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom written by the spy officer Thomas Edward Lawrence, in which it tells the story of his life in the Arabian Peninsula during World War I, his relationship with the Arab tribes he met, and the extent of their belief in Arab nationalism and one alignment, but colonial intentions appear in the end; It destroys what he was able to achieve.
About the movie
The film was directed by: David Lean, and co-starred with the wonderful Anthony Quinn (star of the films The Message and Omar Al-Mukhtar), Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Jose Ferrer… in addition to the unique participation of the Arab creator Omar Sharif, whose 216-minute film is considered the greatest he has presented in his long history in world cinema. The film was produced in 1962 and won twenty-six cinema awards. It dominated the films nominated for the Academy Award, and won seven of them: Best Film, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, won by Peter O’Toole, the British actor who played Lawrence, and Best Supporting Actor went to the Egyptian artist Omar Sharif, for the role of Sharif Ali, in addition to the awards for cinematography and editing and best sound engineering.
Movie story
The events of the film revolve around the life story of the spy officer Thomas Edward Lawrence, who worked for British intelligence, and was sent during World War I to find out the position of Prince Faisal Al Saud towards the Ottoman Sultan, to whom the British alliance was hostile at the time. Lawrence was fluent in Arabic and spoke it fluently, which helped him adapt to the Arabs and gain their trust. The events of the film begin with the killing of Lawrence and his fall from a motorcycle in mid-1935 AD when he was 45 years old. During the memorial service in the church, a journalist tries to pull back the curtain on the life of that mysterious officer in order to know the secret of his death, by talking to those who were around him. The events are narrated in a way that goes backwards since the outbreak of World War I, and Lawrence was assigned to come to the Arabian Peninsula to incite the Arabs against the Ottoman Caliphate, and to reshape the issue away from religion, to turn it into a conflict between the Arabs and the Turks, but the film, of course, did not present the events in this way, but rather showed Prince Faisal giving fifty of his men to Lawrence to cross the desert with them, and go to occupy the strategic port of Aqaba, and extract it from the hands of the Turks, who hated the Arabs, for their class superiority, and their bad treatment. For the sons of Arabs, and their plunder of Arab wealth, as they appeared in the film. Sherif Ali, played by the Egyptian artist Omar Sharif, accompanies Officer Lawrence on his journey, and they wage a guerrilla war against the Turkish forces, but after a while Lawrence falls into the hands of the Turks, and they succeed in regaining the city of Damascus, and the dream of Arab unity that Lawrence dreamed of and seeks to achieve with the Arab tribes is lost, as the movie says.
The white man…always the hero
Despite the rarely repeated creativity that the work presents, and the victory of the Arab character that it tried to export through the course of events, the film – like most American productions – did not escape from employing the white man’s superiority and guidance that other peoples need to decide their fate. In the work, the white man appears as a hero from all angles, in good and evil, while the Arabs (the owners of the land and the story) are only secondary elements in the story when compared to the presence of the “white characters.” Florence (the European) is the one who guided the Arabs to the decision to unite, and the colonizer (the European) is the one who also destroyed Lawrence’s plans. This matter appears clearly in one of the strongest and most exciting scenes of the film, when the Arab tribes meet in a tribal courtyard in Jordan to decide their position on standing against the Ottoman Empire in response to the expanding Arab Revolution. In the scene, the Arab leaders appear as uncivilized savages, climbing up tables and stomping papers randomly…until the expected savior appears, Lawrence, who shouts at them to pay attention to the Turkish danger, and gives them the genius idea that had never occurred to anyone of them: What do you think if you unite!? At the end of the film, the colonial intentions that the British were planning behind the events become clear, and Lawrence is disappointed when he learns that the purpose of sending him was to covet the wealth of the Arabian Peninsula, and not to unite the Arab ranks. Lawrence is then assassinated, causing the fall of the one who fought for an imaginary cause that the leaders planted in his imagination. The film was nominated for six Golden Globe Awards and was able to win five of them. The film’s production costs amounted to $15 million, which is a huge amount compared to the year in which it was produced. The film generated revenues of $70 million. A large portion of the scenes were filmed in Jordan, and other scenes were filmed in Morocco, Spain, Britain, and Hollywood, and it became famous in Arab circles. It became one of the most important films to hit theaters at that time.
