Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sherif Ali, Lawrence rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port.
Don't usually like these so called classics...i find the acting in those days stiff BUT this was a Great story with action and top notch acting!
A reminder that on a long enough timeline, heroes are merely human. O'Toole takes you for a ride. Merciful, blood thirsty, conflicted.
Lawrence of Arabia took me on a mesmerizing journey through the desert
"I had to execute someone, and there is something about it I didn't like... I enjoyed it."
The strong character arc of T.E. Lawrence and the beautifully shot desert made me feel like I was right there, experiencing the rise and fall of T.E. Lawrence. A person that, in the end, didn’t belong to either the Arabs or the British.
The cinematography visualizes the characteristics of the desert in a beautiful and mesmerizing way. The use of stunning symmetrical, rule of thirds, pyramid and other compositions, combined with amazing blocking and framing really impressed me. Especially the rule of third composition, with the visual elements like the horizon aligned at the lower third of the image, beautifully visualized the huge openness of the desert in a minimalistic abstract way.
In one shot you see multiple women sitting on a rock in the foreground, looking at the huge group of men riding camels in the background. Staging the women close to the camera to look in the distance, places the focus on the group of men in the distant desert. This creates a huge amount of depth and shows the vast emptiness and distance the men have to travel.
In another shot you see T.E. Lawrence arriving at the camp where men horizontally lining up in the fore- and background, firing their rifles in the air while they cheer and look at T.E. lawrence. Staging these men to create a golden section composition and blocking them so they all look at T.E. Lawrence, places the focus on him. Staging the camera to follow T.E Lawrence inbetween the lined up men, shows how they praise him and how important he is.
The beautiful cinematography, combined with the mesmerizing score by Maurice Jarre, turned the desert into a visually beautiful, powerful and dangerous character.
The match cut in the beginning is one of the most impactful cuts i’ve seen in a film. The cut went from a close-up shot of something (T.E. lawrence and the match), to a wide-shot of nothing (the sun and endless open desert). This creates a composition contrast, but remains interlinked through the absence of a color contrast, because we went from the orange match to the orange desert.
In the first shot we see that T.E. Lawrence has power and control over the heat, because he blows out the match. In the next shot we see that the heat has the power and control, because we see a rising sun over an endless desert. This visualizes an emotional connection between T.E. Lawrence and his admiration for the desert.
Pre-intermission we see, in a dreamlike visualization, how T.E. Lawrence has a strong admiration for the desert and the Arabs. He got the respect from multiple tribes and wants to help them reach their freedom. During this process he lost people, causing him to lose control over himself.
Read full review at Letterboxd: Mike_v_E
A fantastic film,with incredible cinematography, incredible editing, and superb acting, the story is not a cleaned up version of history, it will not please the people that want to believe lies, men are men and no utopias exist specially out side our western civilisations .
I could die happy after seeing this in 70mm. One of the all time great film scores.
A classic master piece, one of the greatest ever of the 7th art 👍
Lawrence of Arabia definitely lives up to it’s reputation. Peter O’Toole is mesmerizing as the complicated T.E. Lawrence, a British officer credited with leading the Arab revolt against the Turks during World War I. Without reading into the true history, it’s obvious there’s likely tremendous liberties being taken here. Looking past some of those faults maybe haven’t aged so well (like Sir Alex Guinness as Prince Feisal) this is clearly a cinematic achievement and I can only imagine a 15-16 year old Steven Spielberg seeing this on the big screen for the first time. Cinematography and score work wonders here. It definitely feels long in parts. In fact, at the end when screen fades to black, I thought “damn that was long….and that ending kind of sucked”. Then the word Intermission came on the screen. “Aaaaahhhh, that makes more sense, but damn this is really long”. So, I skipped the intermission to save myself 4 and a half minutes, but I’m very glad to have crossed this off my shame list.
A little drawn out and tepid by modern standards, but probably one of the most important historical epics ever put to film.
The cinematography, composition and lighting are masterful. Every shot is thoughtfully crafted and impeccably executed.
On top of all that, it's pretty damn accurate to the real events.
A bit brutal in length but definitely a good movie based on a true story. Undoubtedly worth the watch and still carries the charm that any classical film fan as well as history buff could appreciate. A true classic of yesteryear.
Truly epic. I love the cinematography, the costumes, and the gigantic battles with real men, camels and horses. Although, the pacing is quite slow. If the movie were 1 hour shorter, it would be nearly perfect.
The cinematography is obviously great but this is a film for a place in time that increasingly people have no interest in, me included.
That said Peter O'Toole features as one of the most striking looking people I've ever seen on screen.
Reviews
Lawrence of Arabia
Mike reviewed
Lawrence of Arabia
October 11, 2024Lawrence of Arabia took me on a mesmerizing journey through the desert
"I had to execute someone, and there is something about it I didn't like... I enjoyed it."
The strong character arc of T.E. Lawrence and the beautifully shot desert made me feel like I was right there, experiencing the rise and fall of T.E. Lawrence. A person that, in the end, didn’t belong to either the Arabs or the British.
The cinematography visualizes the characteristics of the desert in a beautiful and mesmerizing way. The use of stunning symmetrical, rule of thirds, pyramid and other compositions, combined with amazing blocking and framing really impressed me. Especially the rule of third composition, with the visual elements like the horizon aligned at the lower third of the image, beautifully visualized the huge openness of the desert in a minimalistic abstract way.
In one shot you see multiple women sitting on a rock in the foreground, looking at the huge group of men riding camels in the background. Staging the women close to the camera to look in the distance, places the focus on the group of men in the distant desert. This creates a huge amount of depth and shows the vast emptiness and distance the men have to travel.
In another shot you see T.E. Lawrence arriving at the camp where men horizontally lining up in the fore- and background, firing their rifles in the air while they cheer and look at T.E. lawrence. Staging these men to create a golden section composition and blocking them so they all look at T.E. Lawrence, places the focus on him. Staging the camera to follow T.E Lawrence inbetween the lined up men, shows how they praise him and how important he is.
The beautiful cinematography, combined with the mesmerizing score by Maurice Jarre, turned the desert into a visually beautiful, powerful and dangerous character.
The match cut in the beginning is one of the most impactful cuts i’ve seen in a film. The cut went from a close-up shot of something (T.E. lawrence and the match), to a wide-shot of nothing (the sun and endless open desert). This creates a composition contrast, but remains interlinked through the absence of a color contrast, because we went from the orange match to the orange desert.
In the first shot we see that T.E. Lawrence has power and control over the heat, because he blows out the match. In the next shot we see that the heat has the power and control, because we see a rising sun over an endless desert. This visualizes an emotional connection between T.E. Lawrence and his admiration for the desert.
Pre-intermission we see, in a dreamlike visualization, how T.E. Lawrence has a strong admiration for the desert and the Arabs. He got the respect from multiple tribes and wants to help them reach their freedom. During this process he lost people, causing him to lose control over himself.
Read full review at Letterboxd: Mike_v_E
thehave1 reviewed
Lawrence of Arabia
March 22, 2026A fantastic film,with incredible cinematography, incredible editing, and superb acting, the story is not a cleaned up version of history, it will not please the people that want to believe lies, men are men and no utopias exist specially out side our western civilisations .
Kevin Ward reviewed
Lawrence of Arabia
July 7, 2025Lawrence of Arabia definitely lives up to it’s reputation. Peter O’Toole is mesmerizing as the complicated T.E. Lawrence, a British officer credited with leading the Arab revolt against the Turks during World War I. Without reading into the true history, it’s obvious there’s likely tremendous liberties being taken here. Looking past some of those faults maybe haven’t aged so well (like Sir Alex Guinness as Prince Feisal) this is clearly a cinematic achievement and I can only imagine a 15-16 year old Steven Spielberg seeing this on the big screen for the first time. Cinematography and score work wonders here. It definitely feels long in parts. In fact, at the end when screen fades to black, I thought “damn that was long….and that ending kind of sucked”. Then the word Intermission came on the screen. “Aaaaahhhh, that makes more sense, but damn this is really long”. So, I skipped the intermission to save myself 4 and a half minutes, but I’m very glad to have crossed this off my shame list.
Cubane reviewed
Lawrence of Arabia
April 22, 2026A little drawn out and tepid by modern standards, but probably one of the most important historical epics ever put to film.
The cinematography, composition and lighting are masterful. Every shot is thoughtfully crafted and impeccably executed.
On top of all that, it's pretty damn accurate to the real events.
Rowan Krzysiak reviewed
Lawrence of Arabia
February 13, 2025The cinematography is obviously great but this is a film for a place in time that increasingly people have no interest in, me included.
That said Peter O'Toole features as one of the most striking looking people I've ever seen on screen.
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