Lawrence of Arabia1962

88/100 Lawrence of Arabia is one of those movies which I consider a miracle both in its creation and in its execution of the central concept. An incredible biopic on a fascinating man. T.E. Lawrence himself is presented as a strange man here: one who longs for freedom from the society he knows, and finds it in the unforgiving desert among the Arabs. The movie also includes hints of the homosexuality speculated for the real Lawrence, which some might view as unnecessary, but I liked. The plot is one of the weaker aspects of the movie, but to its credit, I never got bored through the whole 222-minute runtime. This is mostly due to how enjoyable the writing is. I liked several of the side characters, particularly Prince Feisal and Auda Abu Tayi, the respective leaders of the tribal factions. However, my favourite was Lawrence's friend and ally Sherif Ali. The best thing about this movie is the spectacle it offers. It offers a visual feast to the level I've never seen before in any movie, with each frame looking beautiful and intentful. This is helped in turn by the themes, which, much like the visuals, are felt immensely in a way that seems impossible to articulate, especially with the sense of otherness. My critiques here are few in the extreme, but heavy enough that I feel the movie is far from perfect. One is that the attempts at action are pretty weak and uninteresting compared to the character-building the filmmakers are clearly at home with. Another is that near the end, I did start to somewhat feel the runtime. It wasn't enough to drag, but enough that I feel it's a valid critique. Overall, Lawrence of Arabia is a historic film for a reason, and a very important film to be made. I didn't like it as much as I hoped, but it's still a great movie I enjoyed very much overall.