Lawrence of Arabia

So after several days of trying to get through this 3:30 + film from 1962, I finally finished Lawrence of Arabia, the film that introduced Peter O' Toole to the world as an actor, and told the story of a British officer, T.E. Lawrence, and his commanding of the Arab army against the Turks. It could have been because I have a short attention span so I could not watch the whole film in one or two or even three sittings, but I found an issue in the continuity of the film, and felt like either I missed something in the film, or the film was lacking an ingredient. This is probably blasphemy because I know that this is considered one of the greatest films of all time on many lists.

And it was very good, but as a 17 year old, I am not used to sitting through long epic 3+ hours film in which some of the scenes are 10 minutes straight of watching people trudge through a desert with very little dialogue and action. I just found myself bored, and I found Peter O'Toole to be overacting many times (and having creepy eyes) but I qualified this because I figured that it was the acting of the time, and he is a product of the era of the filmmaking because he has been a very good actor in several other films, even up until last year.

The movie had many action sequences and much of the film was an interesting commentary on the time and how the British viewed other groups like the Arabs or the Turks, what happens when one person has a dream and inspires his people, and also how war can corrupt a naive and idealistic person. It had some similar themes to All Quiet on the Western Front in terms of the corruption of innocence and how someone can never live without war and how war affects your life and your perceptions on the world and your pleasures.

I feel like this is a classic that everyone must watch because I have to say that it was beautifully filmed and the way that the director set up all of the scenes by making you feel like you were part of it, it was very well done. Unfortunately, when a director tries to portray everything and make you feel like a character in the film, when there is very little action going on, it can get very boring and can make the film difficult to watch. So, I will say that this film deserves a recommendation to watch because it is a classic film and it is beautifully done, but its length at certain points will make you squirm in your seat and wonder when it will end, but I am glad that I saw the movie.