Lawrence Of Arabia

(This is by way of settling an old score. Just because someone once told me I knew nothing (or at least the very close cousin of nothing) about film, I am going to keep on inflicting my analyses on the world.)

The film opens with its main character's death and we are clumsily left in no doubt that Lawrence was unknowable. That opening is practically the film's final missed step. Three and a half hours do not drag. There are lengthy scenes and enigmatic silences but no longeurs. The most cited shot is undoubtedly that in which Omar Sharif makes his entrance from the sun-blurred desert horizon but one can equally note the battle sequences - spectacular to a purpose.

My trusty Halliwell's (2007 edition so therfore before the publishers butchered this magnificent work of reference) properly gives it the maximum four stars but complains that the film does nothing to explain the enigma of Lawrence. That is harsh. The unknowability of extraordinary men is their very point. Besides there is a very strong suggestion in the film that self-knowledge became an uncomfortable burden to Lawrence. That is enough.

Epic film making at its sumptuous best. One of the Overgraduate's Top Fifty.