• David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia is both the smartest epic (not a description you’d give to many in the genre actually) and the most epic of epics. Lean’s ability to capture the breathtaking locations with  65mm/70mm photography is simply unmatched in cinema history.

David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia is both the smartest epic and the most epic of epics.

  • It is a masterpiece made of the long shot. There are 50-100 of these shots

truly a brilliant shot here- foreground and deep background, staggering the figures on the front right — Visconti meets the epic

  • Like Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia starts with the titular character’s death and others, in an interview, are asked to describe him. It is a biopic—one of the best—and certainly Peter O’Toole’s work is rightly cited as one of the greatest performances in cinema. Lawrence is so richly complex—it is a grand scale for such a detailed character study

Lean’s ability to capture the breathtaking locations with  65mm/70mm photography is simply unmatched in cinema history.

  • The screenplay and the acting could have been shot in a barn and been compelling. It is one of the 50 or so screenplays I would happily print out and read it on a beach somewhere. “The trick is not minding that it hurts” and “nothing is written” in the dialogue.
  • At the 17 minute mark—like 2001’s falling bone to spaceship edit—we get O’Toole’s Lawrence blowing out the match dissolving into the dessert and the sun rising on the horizon with Maurice Jarre’s masterful score accompanying

At the 17 minute mark—like 2001’s falling bone to spaceship edit—we get O’Toole’s Lawrence blowing out the match…

…then dissolving into the dessert and the sun rising on the horizon with Maurice Jarre’s masterful score accompanying

  • As O’Toole’s Lawrence arrives in the desert we get about 10 straight minutes (17-27 min mark) of almost all long and medium long shots of the desert with crisp clean photography

As O’Toole’s Lawrence arrives in the desert we get about 10 straight minutes (17-27 min mark) of almost all long and medium long shots of the desert with crisp clean photography

  • Most of the film in the 2.20 : 1 super-wide aspect ratio
  • Omar Sharif’s arrival is one of the 5-10 best sequences in the film—the far off distance with the telephoto lens—Lean uses a special 482mm lens from Panavision here. It was built and use specifically for this shot

Omar Sharif’s arrival is one of the 5-10 best sequences in the film—the far off distance with the telephoto lens

  • Lean cast Sharif and O’Toole as the two leads. They were unproven and unknown (the film even boasts that this is the “debut” for O’Toole though it isn’t (at last as far as when the film premiered). But Lean casts a very savvy veteran supporting cast from Claude Rains to Arthur Kennedy.
  • O’Toole’s performance is transcendent. Lawrence is mercurial, angry, vain. He has a Christ complex, an out of control ego. He does have some charisma, believable as a brilliant strategist.  Anthony Quinn, Sharif and Alec Guinness in particular don’t back down or blink at all. This is some of their best work from those three (it is surely Sharif’s best) –absolutely going for it
  • the air attack on Faisal’s camp is yet another standout sequence. Hundreds of tens—this is a film of such size and scale . It’s worth nothing that in the 70mm run of films in the 2010’s—The Master, Interstellar, The Hateful Eight—all by all-time great filmmakers—none capture Lean’s scope and size.

Lean uses hundreds of extras, massive 65mm photography, a high vantage point… this is actually a shot from the attack of Aqaba

  • This just didn’t happen in 1957-1962—five years off between films for David Lean – The Bridge on the River Kwai won best picture in 1957 so he must have had a ton of clout

It is a biopic—one of the best—and certainly Peter O’Toole’s work is rightly cited as one of the greatest performances in cinema. Lawrence is so richly complex—it is a grand scale for such a detailed character study

  • At 52 minutes the footprint in sand at night—a jaw dropper—wind as Lawrence has his great epiphany about the attack
  • At 73 mins to 82 mins—the rescue of Gasim plays like a magnificent short film. Worldless with Jarre’s percussion and the white sand carrying us on a high of pure cinematic bliss. Lean is constantly bouncing the camera off the relentless sun.

the rescue of Gasim plays like a magnificent short film

  • I said it above but 100 shots of these tiny figures in the vastness.

It is a masterpiece made of the long shot. There are 50-100 of these shots

  • He dies a little when each of his two assistants pass. You can see if in O’Toole physically
  • The intermission comes about 139 minutes in (there’s another 80 minutes or so after). We have the music intermission and it’s wonderful- this is the music that music intermissions were made for.
  • The film just isn’t as strong after the intermission. This is more a compliment to just how damn good the first nearly 2 ½ hours are. But overall 8 or 9 of the best 10 scenes and sequences are in the first half
  • A Masterpiece