Good Film Vault: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

By Adam Bramwell

The first film I have decided to write about is Lawrence of Arabia. This is a film I've always wanted to watch, but due to it's length I've never really found the initiative to sit down and watch it.
During a conversation on a night out the previous week, the question of "what's the greatest film of all time?" arose. Since then I've been asking people what they think just out of interest, because to be honest I think it's one of the toughest questions. When round at my Dad's I asked the question straight up, and Lawrence of Arabia came up alongside Ben-Hur a number of times during the conversation. So right there I decided to watch it. Both films are known as "Epic films", and our friends over at wiki label this as "a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale". So you can gather straight away that this film contains a lot of dialogue and would probably imagine that it drags out in parts. Well to be honest, that is the case and there is no denying it. But you should know this before watching the film. However there is no denying whatsoever that this film stands the test of time for a reason. We go on at how big releases nowadays are great experiences because of the quality of technology and CGI we have, but this film is simply stunning. The first thing that came to my head whilst I was watching it was "how is this a movie from 1962". I can honestly say that I think if this film was re-released on the big screen, people would go and watch it again. The sound, scoping camera shots of the desert and props make the film feel so real and it's a great experience.



Telling the story of how T.E. Lawrence united the Arabs in the First World War, I'm sorry to say but you're not going to get a huge twist at the end, lots of explosions and high speed car chases, but that's far from the point. The film keeps you watching happily at least for the first 2 and a half hours without feeling uncomfortable. Towards the last hour you can't help but think it's dragging on a bit, but that's normal for any film viewer. Nevertheless, I kept watching and when the credits rolled I was pleased I watched it and thought to myself "bring on Ben-Hur". The mood you are in is extremely important when watching this film. You need to be willing to accept it for what it is and be prepared to sit down and appreciate it. Peter O'Toole plays a great leading role as Lawrence with his manner that seems so simply charming yet ruthless at the same time. The main point I'd like to wrap it up with is the cinematography. This film is one of the best I've seen when it comes to the overall quality of it, but it doesn't necessarily make it perfect.

IMDB Score: 8.6 My Score: 8.2