Lawrence of Arabia

I watched Lawrence of Arabia last night. I've been wanting to watch this for a long time. I rented from library once. The DVD disc was not watchable at the time. I had a conversation with one of my uncle's friends about movies she watched in Taiwan last week. She mentioned that her favorite movie was Lawrence of Arabia. Thus, I decided to rent from the Library again. The disc worked this time, and I was a happy man!

This movie was really long, it's three hours and more. After the movie I was so exhausted. This was however, a good sign. I can not believe a movie made in 1962 could have such a grand scale! This movie could be called truly an Epic! The whole thing was done in Arabic Desert near Jordan. The director, trying to give audience a feeling of desert, shot many scenes from afar. The distinct comparison of men riding camels and the landscape was magnificent. Director David Lean did not just show the depth of desert by putting landscape and men riding camels side by side. He was not afraid to extended movie length by shooting riders from afar closing in through a prolonged period of time. That was amazing to me. One of reasons the western genre was dying today was because some stupid people complaining that the riding a horse was much slower than driving a car! And yet, I've never seen any western movie dare to do what David Lean did here!

It's a biography movie about T. E. Lawrence. He served in English army as an intelligent officer who successfully led Arabic tribes rose up to fight the Turks, the Ottoman Empire during the WWI. The scripts of the movie was incredibly delicate in many places. In the tent scene when Lawrence first met Prince Faisal, for example. The conversation between the two clearly revealed the situation, and more importantly, it showed off both characters to the audience. It seemed easy, yet, the simple thing usually was very hard to do. Many of the Characters were amazingly acted out by incredible actors. I specifically loved Prince Faisal, Ali, and Abu. And when I found out that two of the three were not Arabics, I was even more amazed.

I find it's interesting that I'd compare this one with Riddley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven. Because I liked the supporting cast a lot more than the protagonist. I felt both center character was murky, however, Lawrence had much much more depth than Balian. Lawrence was tormented throughout the movie. He was a sad man with a cause. A cause that's much bigger than himself. Although he became a war heroe, the scar of the war on him was clearly shown at the end of the movie. It was to me a very sad story.