An Epic "Lawrence"

Thursday night, with my three sons and our significant others, I had the rare privilege of viewing David Lean's masterpiece of epic storytelling, Lawrence of Arabia at the Arlington theater in Santa Barbara, Ca. I had seen Lawrence many times both on cable TV and on home video but never before in a movie theater, on a big screen, the way director Lean intended it to be seen. This is a film that must be seen on the big screen and as this is an opportunity that doesn't happen every day, I made sure I had my tickets well in advance. In fact I purchased them about a month before the screening and the person that was working the ticket window was somewhat bewildered about what movie I wanted to buy the ticket for. Ignorant 20-something that she was, she had never heard of the movie. I told her very briefly about the film and that she should do herself a favor and purchase a ticket for herself and view one of the greatest films ever made. She looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. I may have. 

The night of the screening I was full of anxiety, mixed with anticipation. I had seen a couple of previous screenings of different classic films in the past year and came away with a somewhat disappointed feeling. I was pleased and grateful that I was able to witness classic films in a theater and on a big screen, this becoming rarer as time goes on, but the picture quality was somewhat lacking. It wasn't vibrant or sharp, the image presented was somewhat muddled, the colors muted. I attributed this as poor presentation and hoped that the screening of Lawrence would get these things right. I was not disappointed. The quality of the picture and sound were magnificent.

Seeing Lawrence in a theater for the first and probably only time, after numerous viewings on home video, I got a different perspective on the vastness of the desert, an almost 3D effect that I was never aware of. Also, the performances! I have always been appreciative of Peter O'Toole's Lawrence [ it surely is one of cinema's great performances ], but Omar Sharif's Sherif Ali, Anthony Quinn as Auda Abu Tayi, Jose Ferrer's perverse and sadistic Turkish Bey and the always great Claude [ I'm shocked, SHOCKED!, to find gambling going on in here ] Rains as Mr. Dryden the architect of the Arab conflict during WWI, come alive as never before on the big screen. The epic sound of Maurice Jarre's magnificent, iconic score, Lean's masterful control of the editing and camera placement are truly astounding when viewed in a theater. The images come alive like never before and jump out at the spectator at certain times: Lawrence blowing out the match followed by the cut of the sun of the Arabian desert, the blowing up of the turkish train carrying rifle's and ammunition, the conquering of Aqaba, Lawrence's return journey to Cairo, all these and more are highlights of an epic film that one cannot praise enough.

Lawrence of Arabia is a magnificent, epic film of tremendous grandeur and sweep, though the time span covered in the film is relatively small, about 1916 to1920. The film was budgeted at around $3 million, however, by the time filming and post production was completed the final cost was $10 million and grossed $70 million per wikipedia. In 2012 dollars that would adjust to $75.2 million for the cost and $526.5 million for the gross. Dare I say any studio today would envy a 7 to1 cost to gross ratio. The epic qualities of the film tend to overwhelm the less sensational aspects of the movie. Indeed,  one of the enduring aspects of Lawrence is the screenplay. The dialogue is memorable and the characters are finely drawn, if not always historically accurate. It is one of the finest examples of filmmaking ever presented and even more so in the kind of large-scale, wide-screen spectacular that is not seen these days and for some critics not appreciated in it's day as much as it is now. In fact two of the most influential critics of the day, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times and Andrew Sarris, were particularly harsh on the film, criticizing it's lack of depth [ think of what they would have made of today's big scale,' wide screen epics ' with their poor script's and shallow or non-characterizations].

Finally, Lawrence of Arabia succeeds or fails on the performance of it's lead actor. Peter O'Toole is more than up to the challenge portraying of T.E. Lawrence. However, he was far from the first actor the filmmakers considered for the part. Marlon Brando was the first choice but decided he couldn't stand being in the desert for a year and bowed out to make Mutiny on the Bounty.  Albert Finney was tested and costumed but ultimately the part went to O'Toole. At the 1962 Oscars, Lawrence was nominated for 10 awards winning 7 including Picture and Director. The only ' losers' were for Omar Sharif in the Supporting catagory, Adapted Screenplay and O'Toole for Leading Actor, the first nomination of eight he would receive, yet he would never take home the Oscar for any one performance [O'Toole, at last, did get an honorary Oscar for his body of work in 2003] This latter omission, it seems to modern eyes, is unthinkable [to quote Lawrence:" the trick is not minding that it hurts"]. In the first leading part of many in a 50 year screen career, O'Toole as Lawrence, is an actor possessed. In nearly every scene of this three and one half hour film, he holds it all together and carries it away. The madness, anger, fragility, hubris, ambiguity, forcefulness, vanity and humanity are all embodied and captured in his performance. For any actor in any role it would be exceptional. In a film of this scope and magnitude it is nothing short of brilliance.