Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia
Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sherif Ali, Lawrence rebels against the orders of his superior officer and strikes out on a daring camel journey across the harsh desert to attack a well-guarded Turkish port.
Mike reviewedOctober 11, 2024
Lawrence of Arabia took me on a mesmerizing journey through the desert
"I had to execute someone, and there is something about it I didn't like... I enjoyed it."
The strong character arc of T.E. Lawrence and the beautifully shot desert made me feel like I was right there, experiencing the rise and fall of T.E. Lawrence. A person that, in the end, didn’t belong to either the Arabs or the British.
The cinematography visualizes the characteristics of the desert in a beautiful and mesmerizing way. The use of stunning symmetrical, rule of thirds, pyramid and other compositions, combined with amazing blocking and framing really impressed me. Especially the rule of third composition, with the visual elements like the horizon aligned at the lower third of the image, beautifully visualized the huge openness of the desert in a minimalistic abstract way.
In one shot you see multiple women sitting on a rock in the foreground, looking at the huge group of men riding camels in the background. Staging the women close to the camera to look in the distance, places the focus on the group of men in the distant desert. This creates a huge amount of depth and shows the vast emptiness and distance the men have to travel.
In another shot you see T.E. Lawrence arriving at the camp where men horizontally lining up in the fore- and background, firing their rifles in the air while they cheer and look at T.E. lawrence. Staging these men to create a golden section composition and blocking them so they all look at T.E. Lawrence, places the focus on him. Staging the camera to follow T.E Lawrence inbetween the lined up men, shows how they praise him and how important he is.
The beautiful cinematography, combined with the mesmerizing score by Maurice Jarre, turned the desert into a visually beautiful, powerful and dangerous character.
The match cut in the beginning is one of the most impactful cuts i’ve seen in a film. The cut went from a close-up shot of something (T.E. lawrence and the match), to a wide-shot of nothing (the sun and endless open desert). This creates a composition contrast, but remains interlinked through the absence of a color contrast, because we went from the orange match to the orange desert.
In the first shot we see that T.E. Lawrence has power and control over the heat, because he blows out the match. In the next shot we see that the heat has the power and control, because we see a rising sun over an endless desert. This visualizes an emotional connection between T.E. Lawrence and his admiration for the desert.
Pre-intermission we see, in a dreamlike visualization, how T.E. Lawrence has a strong admiration for the desert and the Arabs. He got the respect from multiple tribes and wants to help them reach their freedom. During this process he lost people, causing him to lose control over himself.
Read full review at Letterboxd: Mike_v_E