The Oscar Project #35: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

by Chris Marshall:

Is it possible to acknowledge a film as great but not particularly like it? To admire a movie for its craftsmanship and the technical skill required to pull it off but not actually enjoy the time you spent doing so? Because that’s the overarching feeling I have after watching Lawrence of Arabia.

As was the case with Mutiny on the Bounty, I have memories of this film from my childhood despite never having watched it before. Specifically, I remember it coming on TV in “letterbox format,” meaning it had big black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, and I couldn’t imagine why anybody would want to watch a movie like that. I was told that you could actually see more of the picture in that format, which was totally baffling to me. How can you get more with less?

Fast forward 18 years to a time when I can make sense of this seeming paradox, and now I won’t watch a movie any other way; full screen DVDs aren’t worth the discs they’re printed (is that the word I want?) on. Now that I’ve watched Lawrence of Arabia, I also understand why it is so critical to watch this film in particular in widescreen format.

It was filmed in 70mm, a relatively rare format[1], which allowed for some truly breathtaking images to be captured. I wrote in my last post that I imagine most people watch West Side Story for the musical numbers, but here I am certain that people watch Lawrence of Arabia for the visual experience. Even if you’re not a big fan of sand and camels, it’s impossible not to admire the beauty of what’s on the screen.

As important as a film’s looks are, though, there should be more than just some pretty pictures to enjoy. And it’s not all bad—I wouldn’t call anything about it bad, really—but I did begin to feel a certain tedium after about the tenth scene in which a camel is walking through the desert. For something that’s ostensibly a war film, there’s hardly any action at all, outside of a couple of battle sequences.

Most of the actors[2] did fantastic jobs, not least of which was T.E. Lawrence himself, Peter O’Toole. It was a cruel stroke of fate that he was nominated for Best Actor in the same year that Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch. He has been nominated seven times since, and he is yet to win a (competitive) Oscar, the most nominations without a win for anybody in the history of the awards.

You will not find the right card. And not finding it, you will die.

This film also introduced Omar Sharif to the English-speaking world as the character Sherif Ali, the somewhat shady man who becomes Lawrence’s traveling companion for much of the movie. I can never immediately think of Sharif as an actor, though, because I always associate him with being one of the best competitive bridge players in the world, even though he says he’s retired from playing now. He’s a man of many talents. Sadly, his last English-language role was in 10,000 B.C., one of the worst movies ever made, and it presumably depressed him so badly that he decided never to act in America again.

Unfortunately, Lawrence of Arabia falls into the same trap as West Side Story, in that they used mostly British actors to play the Arabic roles (Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn). I’m not sanctimonious enough to say this decreased my enjoyment of the film, because it didn’t, but it does seem just a little bit racist in retrospect.

This was David Lean’s second and final film (after The Bridge on the River Kwai) to win Best Picture, and it’s worth noting that both of these efforts are almost universally considered to be all-time classics. What confuses me is how both appear on AFI’s list of the top 100 American films of all time, even though Lean is a British director and both films were British productions. Can anybody explain this to me? I mean, some of Hitchcock’s movies are on the list too, but at least he made those in America.

Coming back full circle to my original point, watching this movie was not what I’d describe as fun, but I’m immeasurably glad that I’ve finally watched it, because it’s a great work of art, and it deserves to be seen. Just don’t ask me to see it again anytime soon.

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[1] Less rare at the time. Fellow Best Picture winners West Side Story and My FairLady were also filmed in 70mm.

[2] And they were all actORs. There is not a woman to be found in this movie.