Lawrence of Arabia

I finally got around to watching Lawrence of Arabia, one of those films you’re expected to watch at some point in your life. It’s presented fairly preciously – it’s 216 minutes split over 2 DVDs, with an intermission, and there’s five minutes of blackness at the beginning of each half with an orchestral overture, because apparently that’s how the director intended it. Good thing he didn’t intend us to watch the film facing east with underpants on our heads; you know the cinephiles would insist on it.

Anyway, like many of the classics it’s a series of set pieces with quite a lot of air in between, like the bits of Hamlet when he’s arsing about with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It’s been edited down to three hours before, and frankly it could’ve lost more without many people noticing. Lawrence’s real life was obviously more complex, and some of the more important details are unsuitable for a film made in the early sixties… it takes a while before you realize there aren’t any women in the film! If it’s ever remade (and you just know someone in Hollywood is working on it) there’s room for a really, really gay version.

Peter O’Toole is astonishing, of course. It’s amazing he ever worked again, so strongly does he inhabit the character. In the end, the film is more a stunning technical and visual achievement than straightforward entertainment – a film for film fans, like Citizen Kane and Intolerance.