Lawrence Of Arabia

The movie "Lawrence of Arabia" from Columbia Pictures was directed by David Lean and screen played by Robert Bolt. This is another wonderful movie Lean directed, and another classic that presented the biography of T.E. Lawrence, an eccentric British Officer who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks in World War I. The film opens in 1935, with a prologue that shows Lawrence's death as a result of a motorcycle accident, followed by his funeral. The time frame then shifts back more than 20 years to Cairo, where Lawrence is about to begin the greatest adventure of his career. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole), who has a desk job in Cairo, is eager to go to the desert and put his intellectual skills to work. He teams up with a native guide, and starts learning how to ride a camel on his way to the desert, where he has to find Prince Feisel (Alec Guiness). British's interest in the desert is to keep Turks away from gaining control over the Suez Canal, and of little interest the Arab desert tribes, which are fragmented and armed with primitive ways of fighting. On his mission through the dessert, Lawrence is losing his guide who is shot by Sheriff Ali (Omar Sharif), keeper of the intruders of this area. Lawrence denies his offer for help, and with only compass and common sense he reaches the place where his superior Brighton (Anthony Quayle) is settled. Lawrence can not contain himself and presents his opinions to Prince Feisel, even though Brighton reminds him to remember his loyalties. Lawrence's desire to be extraordinary and his ego had led him to team up with Sherif Ali, and to head to the Turkish held port of Aquaba. After exhausting battles, and after constantly rising above the limits of humanity, he is forced to end his attempt to create an Arab state. After the terrifying torture by the Turks he finds out that Arab tribes only unite for pride, money and possessions, rather than for history.

The setting of this movie is the magnificence of the dessert Nefud. The wildness of winds, the merciless of the sun and sand blowing in people's eyes is descriptive enough for the conditions under which Lawrence and the Arab tribes are fighting, not to mention the scarce of water. Sometimes the weather in beyond human expectations and beyond any normal conditions, but it is not something that will not worry the strong-minded Lawrence. The brutality of the dessert and the conditions under which they are fighting are eloquent themselves of the difficulties they experience, and enforce the expressiveness of the scenes.

Peter O'Toole seemed to fit the best for his role. O'Toole was not the filmmakers' first choice to play Lawrence - Marlon Brando was the first one approached, and, after he was out of contention, Peter got this role (Kegel, T., 2004). In addition to Alec Guiness, Anthony Quinn plays the Bedouin Auda abu Tayi; Jack Hawkins is Lawrence's commanding officer, General Allenby; Jose Ferrer is the Turkish officer in charge of torturing Lawrence; and the venerable Claude Rains portrays the oily diplomat, Dryden. It is worthwhile to note that no women have speaking parts (Kegel, T. 2004). All of the authors have merits