Lawrence of Arabia (film)

This article is about the motion picture. For the historical figure known as "Lawrence of Arabia", see T.E. Lawrence.

Lawrence of Arabia is an Academy Award-winning film based, with some licence, on the life of T. E. Lawrence. The film stars Peter O'Toole as the title character. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, from a script by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson (Lean and Spiegel had recently completed the acclaimed film The Bridge on the River Kwai). The score by Maurice Jarre and the on-location, 70-mm widescreen, color cinematography (photographed by Freddie Young) are especially acclaimed.

The film revolves around Lawrence's attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Apart from the film's depiction of Lawrence's life while in World War I Arabia, major cinematic themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with violence in war (especially between Arabic tribes and while slaughtering so much of the Turkish army), personal identity ("Who are you?" is a recurring line throughout the film), and devotion to either his native Britain, and its army, or his newfound comrades within the Arabian desert tribes, to whom he is profoundly and personally drawn.

Shooting began on May 15, 1961 and ended on October 20, 1962. The desert scenes were shot not only in Jordan and Morocco, but also in Almería and Doñana, Spain. The film premiered in London on December 10, 1962, and was released in the USA on December 16, 1962.

The film runs 216 minutes (in the most recent Director's Cut) and includes no women in speaking roles.

Upon its original release, Lawrence (like Kwai) was both a critical and box office success, and it remains very popular with the public and critics alike to this day. Its visual style influenced many directors, including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, and Martin Scorsese. It is today regarded as a masterpiece of world cinema and is often featured highly among 'best-of' critical lists.

Historicity

The historical accuracy of the film, and particularly its portrayal of Lawrence himself, have been called to question by numerous historical scholars.http://www.telstudies.org/film/index.htm Most of the film's characters are either real or based on real characters to varying degrees. The events depicted in the film are largely based on accepted historical fact and Lawrence's own writing about events, though they have various degrees of romanticization. Some scenes (such as the attack on Aqaba) were heavily fictionalized, while those dealing with the Arab Council were inaccurate, inasmuch as the council remained more or less in power in Syria until France deposed Feisal in 1920. The theme (in the second half of the film) that Lawrence's Arab army deserted almost to a man as he moved further north was completely fictional. Most of the historical errors, however, are minor and understandable given the need of the filmmakers to tell a dramatic, compelling story.

The main perceived problems with the portrayal of Lawrence begin with the differences in his physical appearance: 6 foot 2 inch Peter O'Toole was quite a contrast with the real Lawrence, who was almost nine inches shorter. His behavior, however, has caused much more debate. The screenwriters made prominent Lawrence's alleged masochism, which did not become apparent until after his capture at Deraa, and egotism. The real Lawrence actually shunned the limelight, as evidenced by his attempts after the war to hide under various assumed names. Even during the war, Lowell Thomas wrote (in With Lawrence in Arabia) that he could only take pictures of Lawrence by tricking him (though he did later agree to pose for several pictures for Thomas' stage show). Thomas's famous comment that Lawrence "had a genius for backing into the limelight" referred to the fact that his extraordinary actions prevented him from being as private as he would have liked to have been, not anything to do with self-promotion or egotism at all. Others disagree with this view, pointing to Lawrence's writings in Seven Pillars to support the argument that Lawrence was egotistical. Lawrence's homosexuality, the evidence for which has mostly been gleaned through his writings, is also broadly hinted at.

The theme of Lawrence's feelings towards violence (being repulsed by it, but also impulsively enjoying it) appears to have been a creation of the screenwriters. Lawrence, unlike his depiction in the film, was far from a pacifist before the war; indeed, he was a crack shot with a pistol (his preferred weapon being a Colt .45 Peacemaker) and enjoyed practicing at shooting ranges when he could. There is no record of his feeling any particular remorse over the Tafas massacre in his writings or other correspondance (it was, after all, retaliation by the Bedouin for the Turks' sack of the village).

The film's portrayal of General Allenby as a cynical, manipulative superior to Lawrence is not entirely accurate either. Allenby and Lawrence respected and liked each other, and Lawrence once said of Allenby that he was "an admiration of mine".http://www.castlehillpress.com/plates/pl01.htm and later that "was physically large and confident, and morally so great that the comprehension of our littleness came slow to him".http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/allenby.html Allenby, for his part, remarked upon Lawrence's death that "I have lost a good friend and a valued comrade. Lawrence was under my command, but, after acquainting him with my strategical plan, I gave him a free hand. His co-operation was marked by the utmost loyalty, and I never had anything but praise for his work which, indeed, was invaluable throughout the campaign,"http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/allenby2.html (Contrast this to the fictional Allenby's words at Lawrence's funeral in the film.) and spoke highly of him on numerous other occasions. It seems likely that this characterization of Allenby is in large part due to the screenwriters' anti-war sentiments. While Allenby admittedly did serve a function as Lawrence's manipulator during the war, their relationship lasted for years after its close, indicating that Allenby and Lawrence's real-life relationship was friendly, if not terribly close.

It should also be pointed out that Feisal, far from being a middle-aged man as depicted in the film, was in reality in his early thirties at the time of the revolt.http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/feisal.html

Real characters

T.E. Lawrence
''Auda ibu Tayi
General Allenby
Prince Feisal
Tafas (Lawrence's guide to Feisal)
Farraj and Daud (Lawrence's servants)
Gassim (man Lawrence rescues from the desert)
General Murray

Fictional/Fictionalized characters

Sherif Ali - A combination of numerous Arab leaders, particularly Sherif Nassir, Feisal's cousin who led the Harith forces involved in the attack on Aqaba. The character was created largely because Lawrence did not serve with any one Arab leader (aside from Auda) throughout the majority of the war; most such leaders were amalgamated in Ali's character. (He was, however, almost certainly named after Sherif Hussein ibn Ali, Feisal's father and the instigator of the revolt, who is alluded to, albeit not by name, by Feisal early in the film.)

Mr. Dryden - Dryden, the cynical official from the Arab Bureau, was based loosely on numerous figures, including colonial governor Ronald Storrs (head of the Arab Bureau, who would become governor of Palestine in the 1920's) and Lawrence's archaeologist friend D.G.Hogarth. He was created by the screenwriters to "represent the civilian and political wing of British interests, to balance Allenby's military objectives."

Colonel Brighton - Based very loosely on numerous British officers who served in the Middle East, including Lawrence's good friend Stewart F. Newcombe. Newcombe played much the same role as Brighton does in the film, being Lawrence's predecessor as a liaison to the Arab Revolt; he and many of his men were forced to surrender to the Turks in 1916, though he later escaped. Like Brighton, Newcombe was not well-liked by the Arabs, though he remained friends with Lawrence.

Turkish Bey - The Turkish Bey who captures and rapes Lawrence in Deraa was based on an incident believed to be fictional and made up by Lawrence himself (Lawrence mentions it in his Seven Pillars of Wisdom), and historians believe the incident never happened.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/14/nlawr14.xml Lawrence tore out the pages for the date of the alleged rape in his diary. According to Lawrence himself, the Bey was Turkish General Hajim Bey (Turkish ; Hacim Muhiddin Bey), though he is not named in the film.

Jackson Bentley - Based fairly closely on famed American journalist Lowell Thomas, who did help make Lawrence famous through his accounts of that man's bravery, though Thomas was (at the time) a young man who spent only a few days (or weeks at most) with Lawrence in the field, unlike Bentley, who is depicted as a cynical middle-aged man who is present during the whole of Lawrence's later campaigns.

Cast

T. E. Lawrence - Peter O'Toole
Sherif Ali - Omar Sharif
Prince Feisal - Alec Guinness
Auda ibu Tayi - Anthony Quinn
Mr. Dryden - Claude Rains
General Allenby - Jack Hawkins
Turkish Bey - Jose Ferrer
Jackson Bentley - Arthur Kennedy
Colonel Harry Brighton - Anthony Quayle
General Archibald Murray - Donald Wolfit

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 1963, and won seven, including Best Picture. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it #5 on its "100 Greatest Movies" list. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 1999 it came 3rd in a BFI poll of British films, while in 2004 the magazine Total Film named it the 8th greatest British film of all time. In the recent Sight and Sound poll, it came in the top ten Best Films of all time as voted by directors.

Academy Awards

Award	Person
Best Director	David Lean
Best Art Direction	John Box John Stoll Dario Simoni
Best Cinematography	Freddie Young
Best Picture	Sam Spiegel
Best Film Editing	Anne V. Coates
Best Music	Maurice Jarre
Best Sound	John Cox
Nominated:
Best Actor	Peter O'Toole
Best Supporting Actor	Omar Sharif
Best Adapted Screenplay	Robert Bolt Michael Wilson

Cuts and restored version

The original version of Lawrence ran for 228 minutes (including intermission). The current "restored version", undertaken by Robert A. Harris and James C. Katz, was re-released in 1989 with a 227 minute length (including intermission). The theatrical release ran for about 200 minutes; an even shorter cut of 185 minutes briefly surfaced in the '70s.

Most of the cut scenes were surprisingly not of the travels of Lawrence and the Arabs through the desert, but mostly dialogue sequences, particularly involving General Allenby and his staff. Two whole scenes - Brighton's briefing of Allenby in Jerusalem prior to the Deraa scene and the British staff meeting in the field tent - had been completely excised, and the former still has not been entirely restored. Much of the missing dialogue involves Lawrence's writing of poetry and verse, alluded to by Allenby in particular, saying "the last poetry general we had was Wellington." Lawrence's first meeting with Allenby in Cairo was significantly shorter, and the scene in Jerusalem where Allenby convinces Lawrence not to resign existed in only fragmented form. These scenes have been restored to the current edition; most of the still-missing footage is of minimal import. The actors still living at the time of the re-release dubbed their own dialogue, though Jack Hawkins's dialogue had to be dubbed by Charles Gray (who had already done Hawkins' voice for several films after the latter developed throat cancer in the late '60s).

A full list of cuts can be found at the Internet Movie Database.http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/alternateversions Reasons for the cuts of various scenes can be found in Lean's notes to Sam Spiegel, Robert Bolt, and Anne V. Coates.http://www.davidlean.com/articles/director_notes1.html

Trivia

In the 40's, Alexander Korda was interested in filming Seven Pillars with Laurence Olivier as Lawrence, but had to pull out due to financial difficulties.
Albert Finney - at the time a virtual unknown - was Lean's first choice to play Lawrence, but Finney wasn't sure the film would be a success and turned it down. Marlon Brando was also offered the part.
The role of Jackson Bentley was meant for Edmund O'Brien, who became ill and had to be replaced at the last possible moment by Arthur Kennedy.
Lean reportedly watched John Ford's film The Searchers (1956) to help him develop ideas as to how to shoot the film.
Anthony Quinn got very into his role as Auda and spent hours applying make-up to himself, using a photograph of the real Auda, so he could look as close to the real thing as possible. Alec Guinness was also made up to look as close to the real Feisal as he could; Guinness recorded in his diaries that while shooting in Jordan, he met several people who had known the real Feisal, and they actually mistook Guinness for the late Prince.
When it was first announced that a film was going to be made on Lawrence's life, Lowell Thomas offered producer Spiegel and screenwriters Bolt and Wilson a large amount of research material he had produced on Lawrence during his time with him during the Arab Revolt, as well as afterward. Spiegel rejected the offer.
When Lawrence wrote the promissory note for 5,000 golden guineas to Auda ibu Tayi in Aqaba, his writing hand moved from right to left, as it should if he were writing Arabic script.
The style of filming was an inspiration for Richard Attenborough's 1982 film Gandhi. Both films open with the lead character's death and then move into a flashback into their lives. Before filming Lawrence of Arabia, Lean and Spiegel had considered making a movie about Gandhi's life.
Noel Coward, speaking to Peter O'Toole about his performance, commented, "If you'd been any prettier, it would have been 'Florence of Arabia'."
Kenneth Alford's piece The Voice of the Guns (1917) is prominently featured on the soundtrack. One of Alford's other pieces, the Colonel Bogey March, was the theme song for Lean's previous film, Bridge on the River Kwai. Coincidentally, both "Lawrence" and "Bridge" were mentioned in Billy Joel's history themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".
The chorus in the main music theme is identical to the one used in the film Troy, released in 2004.
Alec Guinness had previously played T.E. Lawrence in the play Ross, and was briefly considered for the part of Lawrence, but David Lean and Sam Spiegel thought him too old. Feisal was originally to be portrayed by Laurence Olivier, and Guinness got the part when Olivier dropped out.
The Aqaba set was constructed in a dried river bed in southern Spain; it was made up of over 300 buildings and was meticulously based off of Aqaba's real appearance in 1917.
The use of the locations in Almeria, Spain for the train sequences and others made that region of the country popular for international film makers. Most famously, Almeria would become famous as the frequent setting of virtually all of the Spaghetti Westerns of the '60s and '70s, specifically the films of Sergio Leone. (The oasis set from Lawrence briefly appears in Leone's For A Few Dollars More (1965).)
Peter O'Toole was nearly killed during the filming of Aqaba scene; he fell from his camel, but fortunately for him his camel stood still over him, preventing the horses of the extras in the scene from trampling him. A very similar thing happened to the real Lawrence at the Battle of Abu El Lissal in 1917.

Sequel

In 1990, a made-for-television film, Lawrence After Arabia, was produced as a sequel to the film. It featured Ralph Fiennes as Lawrence and Alexander Siddig as Prince Feisal. The movie dealt primarily with the attempts of Lawrence and Feisal to secure independence for Arabia during the 1919 Versailles Conference following the end of World War I. The movie was generally well-received and deals more with the political ramifications of Lawrence's efforts in the Middle East.

References

External links

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