Lawrence of Arabia

New review from The Movie Snob

Lawrence of Arabia (B). A local theater has launched a new program of showing classic movies, and this was the first one in the series. David Lean's 1962 epic stars Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence an eccentric and flamboyant young British lieutenant stationed in Cairo during World War I. Arabia was apparently ruled by the Ottoman Turks at this time (please excuse my historical ignorance), and the Brits were interested in inciting the Arabs to rebel against their Turkish masters (ans secretly interested in claiming Arabia for themselves after the war). They sent Lawrence to contact and observe the various Arab tribal leaders, and to his superiors' surprise he went beyond his orders and persuaded them to unite long enough to revolt aganist the Turks. At 3 hours and 45 minutes long, this is not a movie for the faint of heart or the delicate of derriere, but it is pretty entertaining. O'Toole gives a great performance as the rather bizarre Lawrence, and there is plenty of spectacular desert scenery.