If you looked for greatness in the ranks of British forces during World War I, your eyes would not have naturally landed on a man named Thomas Edward Lawrence.
This rather skinny and slovenly lieutenant didn’t have superior physical skills. He was actually a bit clumsy, truth be told. And he didn’t have outstanding ability communicating with others either. He was something of a misfit outcast in the eyes of his fellow officers.
Lawrence, however, was tenacious. He didn’t back down or give up. He would prove his determination by holding a lit match—his eyes glowing with intensity as he watched it burn—till the flame extinguished itself on his fingertips. “That hurts!” a fellow soldier once proclaimed after trying the same maneuver. “What’s the trick?” “The trick … is not minding that it hurts,” Lawrence responded.
As to Lawrence and greatness, it can be said that he had a great respect for knowledge and a great loathing of boredom. So, when a representative from the Arab Bureau suggested that he head off into the desert to assess the prospects of the Arab Prince Feisal in his revolt against the Turks, the change-seeking officer leapt at the chance.
Lawrence was simply supposed to observe, keep his mouth shut and report back to the bureau. After all, the Arab revolt was a weak and shoddy one at best. The various Arab tribes were too busy fighting with each other to be an effective army in the field.
All the Arab Bureau and the British army wanted to know, then, was if those undisciplined, nearly useless forces could help the war effort at all.
Lawrence saluted crisply and set off to the blazing heat of the vast sunbaked desert with a smile on his lips. For if there was one thing that Lawrence’s studies had shown him, it was that the Bedouin tribes were far from useless. Where British forces would labor, sweat and inch their way through the insufferable heat and windswept dunes, those camel-riding warriors were swift and impossible to pin down—much like the desert sand itself.
So, when the British army demands that Prince Feisal retreat after a military defeat against the more modernly armed Turks, Lawrence ignores his orders and voices an opinion to the Arab leader. Feisal is intrigued by Lawrence’s bold suggestion: an unexpected attack using the Arab strengths and the Turk’s weaknesses.
Feisal gives Lawrence charge over 50 men. With that, the undermanned and under armed lieutenant conceives and executes a surprise attack on a key port city that a force of thousands would have failed at.
But that’s not all.
During that outlandish stratagem, Lawrence not only meets new trusted friends among the Arab forces, but he also helps form a makeshift bond between tribesmen who would normally be at each other’s throats. It’s nothing short of a miracle.
It’s also the beginning of greatness.
From the very beginning of his assignment, Lawrence is set on helping the Arab people take control of their own nation, their own future. But that seems to be an impossible desire, since the many Arabic tribes are always fighting one another.
At one point, Lawrence yells at a man from an opposing tribe who shoots and kills his Arab guide: “So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people. Greedy, barbarous and cruel … as you are!”
Eventually he makes that point clear to many different tribesmen and helps them see the wisdom of standing together as brothers and, perhaps, fellow countrymen. The men he leads and befriends love him for his earnest efforts.
One of those friends, Sherif Ali, is devoted to Lawrence and his cause. And as Lawrence is physically and emotionally wounded (more on that below), Ali diligently strives to help his friend draw back from making harmful choices and taking destructive paths. He does all he can to help his friend heal.
Lawrence is not a spiritual man, but his story tends to be lightly adorned with spiritual concepts throughout. When looked at from a distance, one could easily see that Lawrence falls into his greatest failures in life when he rejects the things of God.
That said, Lawrence isn’t ignorant of spiritual things. When one Arab begins quoting the Quaran, for instance, Lawrence is able to finish the verse and make a point with it. In time, several Muslim believers state that Allah led them to find and join up with Lawrence in his Arab-uniting quest. And when Lawrence is kind to someone, a man tells him, “Allah favors the compassionate.”
We also see how Lawrence meets and befriends Sherif Ali, who appears to be a person of faith. He calls out to God when charging into battle. Ali declares that some aspects of man and nature are “written” and cannot be changed. Lawrence pushes back on that statement and proclaims that the things of his life aren’t written until he writes them. (However, Lawrence humanistic belief is later proven wrong in a painful way involving another man’s death.)
In time, Lawrence takes on an almost spiritual role for many of the men fighting for him. Some think of him as a prophet. And Lawrence even comes to see himself in a secularized version of that role. But in the end, he comes to realize that his “godlike” invincibility on the battlefield is completely false when he’s painfully reminded of his very human frailty.
Ali declares that a certain stretch of desert is the “worst place God ever created.”
We learn that Lawrence was born out of wedlock, and it’s implied that his mother had an affair with a married man. One of the men in Lawrence’s army is very effeminate, prompting an Arab leader to call the man a “tulip.”
A Turkish officer examines a group of men for particular “fair” features, implying that he’s looking at them sexually. He strips off Lawrence’s shirt and pinches the flesh on his chest. Later, that man stands at a distance with his coat open and watches with an almost lustful expression as Lawrence is tortured.
During a cavalry charge, the camera’s eye slides past an open tent and we briefly see a hanging picture of a woman with bare arms and midriff.
It should also be noted that there are no women with speaking roles in this film.
This is a war movie. And as such, we see massive battles and sweeping conflicts that involve everything from airplanes bombing horsemen in a field to huge explosions that derail speeding trains. Men are shot by pistols, rifles and machine guns; hacked at with swords; and run over by galloping horses and camels. (The bloodiest moments are kept out of sight.)
We’re also shown the aftermath of a brigade of Turkish soldiers who have ridden into a small village and killed its inhabitants. There are corpses littering the ground, and woman lay dead with torn clothing and their legs splayed open (implying rape). An angry army of Arabs sees this carnage and rides out to overtake the Turks, butchering and killing every one of them. (The scene then changes to the battle’s aftermath, with smoking fires, corpses and spattered gore.)
War, however, involves not just physical suffering but emotional pain as well. And we witness that ugly aspect of it, too.
For instance, Lawrence is a man who detests the death and bloodletting of war. But in one case, while doing everything necessary to maintain a fragile peace, he is forced to kill a man he knows in cold blood. This killing, and others, have a horrendous impact on him. In fact, he slowly becomes unrecognizable, fearing that he might even be coming to enjoy killing.
This growing corruption of his character is compounded when Lawrence is captured by a group of Turkish soldiers, stripped and tortured for the “pleasure” of their commanding officer. We don’t see the full torture, but we do see the beginning of that anguish as the realization of true pain enters Lawrence’s eyes and his tormentors grin in bitter pleasure. From there, the scene changes perspective and we watch as Lawrence’s friend listens on in horror from a distance.
Eventually, Lawrence becomes a bloodthirsty individual who loses control of himself at times, killing with wanton and blood-spattered glee.
We see a young man sucked beneath the surface of quicksand. Someone’s heavily bloodied back bleeds through his shirt. And someone’s side is ripped open by a blasting cap. (Again, the wound is kept just off screen.) Etc.
There are three uses of “d–n” and five of the British crudity “bloody.” God’s name is misused once.
British officers drink wine, beer and other forms of alcohol in a few different scenes.
For all of Lawrence’s earnest effort for the Arab cause, his British superiors are far less upright. Some officers openly lie. British and French forces sign agreements that state they’ll divide control of the Turkish domain—including all the lands of Arabia—at the end of the war.
British officers let many wounded people suffer and die in an effort to gain control of an important city. We eventually see that the politically minded individuals on the British, French and Arab sides are all equally heartless and manipulative.
Lawrence of Arabia is, without a doubt, one of the most majestic examples of epic visual storytelling ever made. And even if it’s not one of your favorite films, you’ll have to admit that director David Lean’s creation—with its heat-hazed desert panoramas, soaring musical underscore, excellent acting and well-defined characters—is illustrative of a rich approach to moviemaking that we rarely see these days.
The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Score, while also launching the long-running, star-studded careers of leads Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. And on top of that, it’s an immersive history lesson about a real-world British hero’s adventures in Arabia during World War I.
All of that is well worth experiencing. Even in a film with a three-and-a-half-hour run time.
If, on the other hand, you’re streaming this masterpiece with the family or taking the kids to the 2024 rerelease (courtesy of Fathom Events August 11-12) in theaters, there are a few things you should be aware of.
The first is the fact that this film’s PG rating doesn’t tell the whole story of what to expect when you hit your seat with a bucket of popcorn in hand. This is, for instance, a film about war. Many people die from explosions, riddling bullets and sword slashes. The most gruesome scenes of bloodiness are kept off the screen, but younger viewers can’t miss the perilous intensity of it all.
And while there’s little nasty language to contend with—a few uses of “d–n,” a misuse of God’s name and the British crudity “bloody”—there are other things that strike at your ears and sensibilities. Lawrence is whipped and tortured at one point; his tormented cries of pain reflected in the haunted eyes of a friend who listens from a distance. We then see how that traumatic event transforms Lawrence in soul-tearing ways.
In the final tally, there’s a brilliance and spectacle to this film, to be sure. But its dark emotional side lingers long after the credits roll, too.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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