Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Review: An Epic of Sand and Ego

Is Lawrence of Arabia worth watching?

Yes. Lawrence of Arabia is one of the defining achievements of large-scale filmmaking, an overwhelming desert spectacle that is also a surprisingly intimate portrait of a man consumed by his own legend. David Lean’s images remain breathtaking more than six decades on, and Peter O’Toole’s debut lead performance is extraordinary. The reservations are its length, close to four hours, and some casting choices of its era, with Western stars playing several Arab leaders, which now feel dated.

What is Lawrence of Arabia about?

During the First World War, T. E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) is a junior British intelligence officer in Cairo, clever, insubordinate and bored. He is sent into the Arabian desert to assess the prospects of Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness), whose tribes are in revolt against the Ottoman Turks. Rather than simply report back, Lawrence throws himself into the campaign, adopts Arab dress and forges alliances with leaders such as the proud Auda abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn) and the fierce Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif). As his fame grows, so does the gap between the idealist he wants to be and the uses the British Empire has in mind for him.

Lawrence of Arabia is directed by David Lean, a British production in English, from a screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. It runs 227 minutes, with an intermission, and won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and best director.

The desert as the main event

Few films have ever used landscape so expressively. Lean and cinematographer Freddie Young shot on 70mm film across real deserts, and the result gives sand, heat and distance an almost physical presence. The famous match cut, in which a flame blown out in a Cairo office gives way to a desert sunrise, announces the film’s ambition in a single edit.

Scale here is not just decoration. The crossing of the Nafud desert, a brutal crossing that everyone insists is impossible, is staged so patiently that the audience feels the exhaustion. Sherif Ali’s first appearance, a figure emerging slowly from a shimmering horizon, remains one of the most celebrated entrances in cinema. Maurice Jarre’s sweeping, Oscar-winning score provides the emotional current.

Peter O’Toole’s dazzling, troubling hero

O’Toole, then largely unknown, is astonishing. His Lawrence is charismatic and funny, vain and theatrical, and clearly unstable. He revels in the desert and in the adoration of the men who follow him, and O’Toole lets the audience enjoy that glamour while sensing that something darker lies underneath. The film refuses to settle on whether he is a visionary, a fraud or a man breaking apart, and that ambiguity is what keeps it modern.

Omar Sharif, in the role that made him an international star, gives the film its moral anchor, and Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn bring shrewdness and bluster to their leaders, even if their casting reflects the conventions of the time.

A darker, more diffuse second half

The second half, after the intermission, is darker and more fragmented than the first, and its politics, as British and Arab interests collide, can feel less focused than the adventure that preceded it. The film has almost no female characters, and its view of the Arab Revolt is filtered through a British perspective. None of this diminishes the craft, but it is worth watching with an awareness of what the film leaves out.

Who should watch Lawrence of Arabia?

It is essential for anyone who loves epic filmmaking, historical drama or adventure on the grandest scale. Watch it on the largest screen available and plan for a long evening, using the intermission as a break. There are battle scenes and moments of violence, though it is rarely graphic, and the themes of war and identity suit teenagers and adults.

If it leaves you wanting more spectacle:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey, another 1960s large-format masterpiece that treats vast spaces as a canvas for ideas.
• Gladiator, a modern historical epic that owes a clear debt to Lean’s sense of scale and heroism.

The verdict

Lawrence of Arabia remains a peak of cinematic ambition, a film of enormous beauty and complexity that makes its hero both magnetic and deeply unsettling. Its length and dated casting are real considerations, but its images, performances and ideas have lost none of their power.

Rating: 4.5/5