Lawrence of Arabia: Badass in Classical Clothing

Story:

“Lawrence of Arabia” details the story of T.E Lawrence during World War I. Lawrence was a British officer, who while quite intelligent, was also unruly and unorthodox. He is sent to Arabia to find one Prince Feisal, and take account of his intentions in Arabia. Once Feisal is found however, Lawrence ends up leading the various and divided Arab tribes on an epic journey to fight, and ultimately drive out, the Turks from Arabia. Not only is it an excellent story-driven film, but it also an wonderful character study, delving deep into the intriguing character of T.E Lawrence as well as those who surrounded him during his campaign.

This movie is epic. When I was first checking this movie out, I was like, “Four hours? Damn, this is gonna take forever to watch.”

I was so, so wrong— it’s four straight hours of awesome; and when you watch it, it seems more like forty minutes. It’s about this British guy called Lawrence (who is a total badass, as I will elaborate on later) who goes and curb stomps the Turkish Army in Arabia because he feels like it. This movie has everything: motorcycles, air raids, firefights, explosions, machine guns, canons… it’s crazy.

Sound and Cinematography:

Both the sound and visuals of the film are absolutely astonishing. The soundtrack was fitting and memorable, and the wide, beautiful shots of the majestic Arabian deserts and cliffs were simply awe inspiring. Due to circumstances, I was unable to watch this film on the silver screen. However, with the scale of grandeur I felt even seeing this film on a small screen; I can scarcely imagine the magnitude of grandeur when seeing the movie in its intended format.

This movie was made in 1962. 196-freaking-2. You can not tell by the things you see on the screen. I was watching and thinking, “Damn, that’s some nice CGI.” Then I remembered that this was made in 1962, and that there was no CGI. Everything was real. I want movies to go back to filming in real environments. Screw making everything on a computer, I wanna see more scenery in movies that actually exists.

Characters:

Lawrence is one of the most deep and interesting characters in cinema history. Throughout the entire story, we are shown Lawrence’s struggles with both who he is and what he is doing. A peaceful man, Lawrence is thrust into an environment of death and harshness. Yet, Lawrence’s strength is astounding. Each challenge he is faced with he meets with starch determination and resolve. His turmoil of the exterior and of the self is brilliantly portrayed by his actor, Peter O’Toole, who gives us an excellent display of Lawrence’s struggle to decide whether to follow what he feels is right, or what he knows is best.

Lawrence is one of the biggest badasses in film history. This man is virtually immune to pain—actually, ‘immune’ isn’t the right word. He just doesn’t give a shit. According to Lawrence, the ‘trick’ to withstanding any kind of pain is “not minding that it hurts.” This guy puts out fires with his bare hands, is tortured without so much as a grimace, and even brushes off getting shot. Lawrences gets blown off the top of a train, and he just stands up and stares at the guy who shot him. Mind you, this is while the guy continues shooting and him, emptying an entire clip at Lawrence. And the entire time, Lawrence just stands there, staring at him, deflecting the bullets with an aura of sheer awesomeness. I don’t have space to get into all the other epic shit he did, but essentially; if someone said something was impossible, Lawrence just said ‘Screw you,’ and did it anyway.

Overall:

It is easy to see why this movie is considered one of the greatest of all time: an intriguing plot, phenomenal audio and visuals, and fantastic characters and performances. This movie stands the test of time, and remains one of the greatest pieces of film ever made.

5 / 5 Stars

This movie is epic. It’s long, but doesn’t seem long. There is a lot of talking and not a lot of doing in a couple of places, but they get done with that fast. The movie has got a ton of action and it has an epic badass. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should.

4.5 / 5 Stars

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